"My friends, we've got 'em right where we want 'em"

Well, give Sen. John McCain this much: he's still got a sense of humor.

The ramshackle, erratic, lurching campaign of the Republican nominee took what might be a final twist today when it scrapped the major economic proposals that its surrogates were talking about yesterday and decided to go the Happy Warrior route.

McCain today is casting himself (again) as the underdog, a fighter. He hasn't yet called himself the Comeback Kid, but just wait a couple ... no, on second thought, he's not going to use that one. The Comeback Curmudgeon? That might work.

What seems to be happening is that the McCain camp, after flirting last week with a scorched earth, go-to-any-depths attempt to inflame hatred and distrust of Obama approach, has realized that it's just not going to work. It's pretty bad for your message when the networks are talking about how your supporters are bringing torches and pitchforks to the rallies.

I think here in Minnesota we might have seen the turning point, in more ways than one. In the presidential campaign, McCain seemed to dial back some of the raw emotions that have been seen at his rallies. At a town hall meeting in Lakeville, McCain had to rebuke one supporter who called Obama an "Arab," by saying, "No, he's a decent family man."

The crowd booed.

McCain also told a supporter that he did not have to fear for the future of his child if Obama was elected. This statement was also booed.

But I think this might've been a turning point. McCain finally seemed to realize things were getting out of hand, and it was good to see him speak out against some of the fear-mongering that lately his camp had seemed to encourage.

Another interesting event took place on Friday here in Minnesota. Sen Norm Coleman, after participating in one of the most remarkable political mudfests in memory, with both he and Al Franken just going after each other hammer and tongs, suddenly declared he was going to stop running negative ads.

How interesting. Wonder why? Also, why didn't he attend the McCain event? You'd think he'd be there.

There are a lot of folks out there saying, three weeks is a lifetime in a campaign. Anything can happen. That's true. There could be a major change in this narrative. Or it could be that the questions raised by this election have pretty much been answered.