Atta Boy, Obama; Atta Boy, McCain

I haven't done a post yet about this year's presidential race; there's so much to process in this inevitably historic year. But in the midst of all the "politics as usual", there are some moments of true graciousness and statesmanship -- on both sides -- that bear highlighting and commendation. Here are two.

**********************************************************
Example #1: When Obama's acceptance of the Democratic nomination fell on the 45th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, McCain aired a TV ad congratulating Obama on this historic moment. Watch it here.

**********************************************************
Example #2: When Gov. Palin announced that her 17 yr old daughter is expecting, Obama adamantly denounced the media's involving families in the campaign tactics, and wasn't afraid to name the similarities between the Palins' situation and his own childhood.

"We don't go after people's families. We don't get them involved in the politics. It's not appropriate and it's not relevant. Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be. And if I ever thought there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they'd be fired," Obama said.

Obama also said: "This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories."

"You know, my mother had me when she was 18. And how families deal with issues and teenage children - that shouldn't be the topic of our politics," Obama said.

Good on ya', both of you.