As the dust settles on another tumultuous presidential election season, Democrats and Republicans are taking stock of the changed political landscape and thinking about their next moves.

Let the postmortems begin! With President-elect Barack Obama's historic victory written into the record books, analysts have already begun the task of deconstructing how his campaign assembled its impressive victory, and of determining whether the Republican challenger, John McCain, could have done anything on the campaign trail to bring about a different outcome.

A new argument against an Obama presidency has emerged out on the campaign trail in recent days. It is one we haven't seen before in this election cycle, but it is as old as the system of checks and balances the Founders built into the Constitution.

Watching John McCain struggle to find a consistent message over the past several weeks has reminded me that I have spent the better part of 10 years trying to figure out who he really is as a politician.

With Joe Biden and Sarah Palin both visiting New Hampshire this past week, I was a little surprised to see Barack Obama also swing through the Granite State on Thursday.

With all of the attention currently focused on New Hampshire's high-profile role in the presidential election, not to mention our state's crucial U.S. Senate contest, let's not forget there is also a compelling race for the U.S. House of Representatives under way in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District.

This election season, it feels like I have reached my saturation point with negative campaign ads earlier than usual. Typically, I can last until the final week or two of the campaign before I have to hit the mute button or change the channel. Perhaps I am watching more television this year than during previous elections, but I don't think so.

As many reporters and political observers will testify, watching political campaigns closely is an exercise in repetition. I have found over the years that candidates and their surrogates quickly come to rely on a narrow set of generic political attacks on their opponents, along with ad hoc justifications for their own behavior.

Like most political observers, I am chomping at the bit to see John McCain and Barack Obama finally go head-to-head in the first presidential debate on Friday at the University of Mississippi. We have seen the two men together shaking hands and clasping arms in between solo appearances at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, and at the 9/11 national service forum at Columbia University.

With two raucous, but ultimately unifying party conventions behind us, polls show a very tight presidential race. Both John McCain and Barack Obama are scheduled to visit the Granite State this weekend, which has gotten me thinking about the most important tasks facing the two nominees, as each one tries to close the deal with New Hampshire voters.