CBS had Obama up 88-39. CNN and Fox News had Obama, 77-34.

When did we become so tolerant of intolerance? Is it a backlash against political correctness, or something far more deeply rooted - and troubling?

Voices from the left were no less divisive, ignoring Sarah Palin's own march toward history and allowing flagrant sexism to become part of mainstream discussion.

Some would argue it doesn't matter - that the political process drives what comes out of Washington far more than any one individual.

And yet, you wonder how history would have changed had Richard Nixon defeated John F. Kennedy in 1960. A mere 112,000 votes - one tenth of one percent of those who voted - separated the two. What would have happened with the space race, Cuba, civil rights and Vietnam?

What if Ford had beaten Carter, or Gore defeated Bush?

What if, what if, what if?

In a little over 24 hours, we'll know what "is." Make the most of it.

And if you need help finding a polling place, here's a link.

We'll start with Tim Prince, whose organization sent out a press release last night revealing and confirming through "multiple sources" that Jerry Lewis - his opponent - is illegally registered to vote because, gasp, he doesn't use his formal name, Charles Jeremy Lewis. "The revelation comes during a year when the Congressman exceeded the million dollar mark in legal fees defending against subpoenas related to an ongoing Justice Department and federal grand jury investigation into his use of earmarks to benefit contributors, lobbyists and defense contractors," the Prince campaign writes.

Hand out the pooper scoopers, too, to the Republican-dominated Fontana City Council, which used this week's meeting to slam Democrats, including Congressman Joe Baca. I can't even count how many rules of protocol and governance this violates, but how about the most obvious one - that councilman John Roberts is opposing Baca in Tuesday's election.

We got taken at our sister paper in Ontario by a bogus letter-writing campaign aimed at the incumbent mayor of Upland; someone else in Upland this week sent us a copy of an apparent anti-Obama mailer with racial overtones; and just today, one of our editors received a hit piece on David Dreier too silly to even go into.

At least my dog knows when he's been bad. Then, too, he does try to eat his own poop, for whatever that's worth.

The Best:
Anderson Cooper, CNN
Ketih Olberman, MSNBC
Roland Martin, CNN
David Gergen, CNN
Chris Matthews, MSNBC

The Worst
Lou Dobbs, CNN
Sean Hannity, Fox
Steve Doocy, Fox
Glenn Beck, CNN
Chris Matthews, MSNBC (yes, on both lists)

No surprise that the "best" sway left, the "worst" lean right, given the magazine's liberal editorial philosophy. What is a shock is the omission of Rush Limbaugh.

We've heard it all.
"Queers!" (Prop 8 opponents). "Kill him!" (Obama). "Nut case!" (McCain).
The passion may be understandable given the times. What's not is the mean spiritedness of the words themselves, belying what we are as a nation and capable of destroying us quicker than any financial crisis.
Make no mistake, our heaviest burden won't come Nov. 4, Election Day, but Nov. 5, when we begin the process of rebuilding ourselves politically, socially and economically.

At a time when we're hoping - hoping - that voter participation could reach 60 percent nationwide, New Hampshire considers it a bad year if fewer than 80 percent of registered voters turn out. They take their politics seriously in the live-free-or-die state, which is why Barack Obama and John McCain continue to pay their respects in the waning days of this election despite New Hampshire's four otherwise-insignificant electoral votes.

I'd been hired on as editor of the Lawrence, Mass., Eagle-Tribune the year before, and with our strong New Hampshire edition, we'd become an important stopping point for candidates from both parties seeking an endorsement.

That year, they all came by to visit our pre-primary endorsement board, which was made up of some members of the newspaper's regular editorial board and a number of our New Hampshire readers. We wound up endorsing the eventual winners - Al Gore, who narrowly defeated fellow Democrat Bill Bradley; and John McCain, who trounced George W. Bush.

Interestingly, McCain also wound up with more than 3,000 write in votes on the Democratic side. That's New Hampshire, a state where independence is No. 1, and expressing it on Election Day a close second.

The people of New Hampshire believe in the process. They're also fiercely loyal newspaper readers, and won't hesitate to pick up the phone and tell you what they think. They won't cancel a subscription if you write an editorial they don't like or endorse a candidate they don't approve of. They'll just make your life miserable for daring to do so.

It's civic engagement at its best - and the funnest place in America to cover politics.

Easy ... timing. Not to mention that the facts the magazine cited weren't altogether true.

This newspaper's editorial pages have taken the Rialto Democrat to task on any number of things. We've also endorsed him. We've likewise taken Redlands Republican Jerry Lewis to task, and as recently as this past week endorsed him. We do try to look at things from all sides.

What we're not going to do is publish "hit" pieces on any candidate in the days leading up to an election. You may recall the furor over the L.A. Times' ill-timed piece on Arnold Schwarzenegger within a week of his first election.

Our thinking applies to letters to the editor as well. Like most newspapers, we have a blackout period for campaign-related endorsement letters, the last of which will appear in the paper on Nov. 2 (Sunday). Letters that take aim at another candidate (as opposed to endorsement letters) will not appear after Oct. 30.

Some have longer blackout periods. One newspaper I'm aware of posts no campaign-related letters within three weeks of an election. That's excessive, in my mind, especially at a time when we should be encouraging more community discussion and increased voter participation.

As for the Baca ranking, look for a mention in one of George Watson's upcoming political notebooks.

This is in response to some of the complaints we'd received from readers about flimsy sections on Mondays and Tuesdays, when advertising and page counts tend to be lighter than the rest of the week. The current economic downturn has exacerbated that situation. Some newspapers, in fact, are suspending publication (or considering doing so) on Mondays altogether.

"Collapsing" sections isn't a perfect solution for couples or families who share parts of the newspaper. For others, though, we believe it's a handier format. To those who have asked, we've eliminated nothing from the paper; we've simply combined the sections.