Either way, it's the only certain, bullet-proof way of preventing a Republican White House for the third term in a row. The tit for tat sniping that's been taking place since the beginning of the year, suddenly stopped on debate night.
Have the two camps realised that only one of them will win on Super Tuesday and that a united front has greater odds of winning than a splitting down party lines.
Tell The Truthiness ; There's no chance of that happening with McCain and Romney.
It quickly went from "we don't really know", to "we know who it won't be".
Obama, Clinton, Romney, McCain.
While Democrat leaning voters tie themselves in knots, deciding between a black man and a white woman (we're still hoping Michelle Obama will throw her hat into the ring and solve that dilemma), the GOP leaners have to pick either a used-car salesman, or Cold-War-Era-McCain.
In five days the results will be in and, hopefully, unless everything hangs on margins, we'll have a candidate for each party and democracy can be defrosted again. It was last seen being blast frozen by Dick Cheney late in 2001 and hung in a meat locker.
Tell The Truthiness ; Of course, the whole thing could be turned on it's head and on Tuesday everyone might vote for Ron Paul, wouldn't that be something.
With speculation over what tonight's results will show, another set of numbers are worrying the Clinton campaign. It's being reported that Hillary Clinton's campaign has $15 million to $20 million left out of an initial budget of $100. Campaigners are now weighing up the pros and cons of skipping the Nevada caucus and the South Carolina primary.
The loss cutting, if it was followed through, would allow the Clinton campaign to plough everything into the Super Tuesday push on the 5th February.
Tell The Truthiness ; No doubt the numbers from tonight's result will be just as big an influence on the Clinton campaign as the financial numbers in making a decision.
For Mitt Romney, the Concord Monitor has staked it's claim against the GOP hopeful, Christmas could come as a welcome relief. They made it pretty clear, "Romney should not be the next President."
For Rudy 'we love him because we don't know what he will do next' Giuliani reality struck, not once, but twice. Firstly, his campaign plane had to return to the airport when he complained of severe headaches. Secondly, having been released from hospital, he's now be struck a second blow. A review of the records concerning his expenses has partially exonerated the former mayor, but not many media outlets have been as loud about this as about condoning him.
Mike 'the family favourite fire and brimstone' Huckabee is trying to subliminally become more religious through his famed campaign video with the white cross shelving behind him by Southern Baptists and Ikea.
The same people who analyze terrorist video tapes are trying to discover if there's a one second frame of Huckabee dressed like Roddy McDowell in Fright Night sprinkling holy water over Hillary Clinton in it...
Plus Barack Obama will be pleased this Christmas with a new poll that puts him two percent over Hillary Clinton's twenty-eight percent in New Hampshire.
Hillary Clinton's fortunes are mixed with the Des Moines Register endorsing her (plus John McCain) because of her "readiness", but some in her camp are worried it's only a matter of time before the Republicans make use of Mr and Mrs Clinton's Secret Service records. As part of the service detail, records are kept of where they go and who they meet with. Though these are secret, the Clintons have received tip-offs that those details are regularly given to senior Republicans.
Tell The Truthiness : And the one wish all the candidates have for Christmas? That's easy, they all wish they had Ron Paul's money and his military 'money bombs' as his supporters call them.
PS If only Bush had dropped money bombs in Iraq in 2003, how different the World could be.
With the 2008 US General Election looking several Worlds away from that of the ballot of 2000, some things just don't seem to have changed.
Despite the running of Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, which people said just wouldn't and couldn't happen a few years ago, the actions of the GOP in this election run-up could harm relations between ethnic groups more than anyone realises.
The offer for the main Republican hopefuls to speak at a PBS sponsored GOP forum at Morgan State University Maryland, has been shoved aside.
Fred Thompson, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have snubbed the debate. The city of Baltimore, where Morgan State is located is a mostly black city.
Tell The Truthiness ; Old, white men don't like to mix with black folk? Doesn't this sound like a bad modern remake of 'In The Heat Of The Night'? GOP, grow up and wake up.
