A day after the Republicans tussled in California, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had their first debate where only the two of them were in the spotlight.

If you were looking for big time fireworks, you were most likely disappointed, but that didn't surprise me.

I remember a final debate before the 1992 New York Primary between Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown. The two men had been battling in a series of tough debates, but when everyone expected a donnybrook, it was instead a civil sit down.

Obama and Hillary Clinton did disagree on a variety of issues and there were some jabs, but the testy exchanges from a debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina weren't there, even as the two disagreed on a variety of items.

Hillary might have gotten off the best line of the night when asked why the Bush-Clinton control of the White House should continue with her election.

"It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush," Hillary said.

It was the final Democratic debate before Super Tuesday.

Obama The Presidential Money Machine

Shattering another fund raising record, the Obama camp says it raised $32 million just in the month of January. Not in a three month period, but in one month.

That amazing amount of cash will allow Obama to advertise in almost every Super Tuesday state and start new ads in for contests that come after February 5th.

Obama has ads up in 20 of the 22 states that Democrats will contest on Super Tuesday. By contrast, Hillary Clinton is on the air in only a dozen.

New Obama ads will begin today in Washington State, Nebraska, Louisiana, Maine, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. All of those have primaries of caucuses by February 12th.

As for fundraising numbers from the Clinton camp, the New York Senator reported having almost $38 million in the bank, with $26.8 million in contributions in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Think about that - she raised almost $27 million in the last three months of 2007. Obama raised five million more than that in the month of January 2008.

Money can definitely make a difference. Maybe we are watching Obama take charge of this race over the airwaves? We shall see.

Racing Across America Towards Super Tuesday

One thing I've talked about all week is not only where do you decide to advertise before Super Tuesday, but where do you send your candidate?

The Democrats have 22 states to pick from, while the Republicans have 21 states with contests on Super Tuesday, stretching from California to Massachusetts and down to Georgia.

Here is a basic sketch of where the candidates will be going over the next few days:

Clinton - California, Arizona, New Mexico, Missouri, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Obama - New Mexico, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

McCain - California, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Arkansas and Arizona.

As I write this, the schedules for Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee were still in flux for the weekend. Romney will be in Colorado today, while Huckabee will be in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.

If you could pick one place to be this weekend, it might well be in New England, where fans of the Patriots will be cheering their team on against the New York Football Giants.

If you could pick one place to be in coming days for politics, it might well be New England, as candidate schedules seem to indicate that Obama, Clinton, McCain and Romney will all be in Massachusetts on Monday and Tuesday.