THE NOTE: Meek and Weary

Jan. 25, 2008 -- A day before campaign strategies collide in high-stakes South Carolina, an uneasy cease-fire appeared to descend on the Democratic race: The attack ads are down, the rhetoric is suddenly restrained, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday made a plea for party unity.

"I think all of us need to just take a deep breath here, because obviously we know we'll have a united Democratic Party once this nomination is determined," Clinton, D-N.Y., told Robin Roberts on ABC's "Good Morning America.

As for whether her campaign is "two for the price of one," as her husband famously described his 1992 bid, she said: "I'm running. I'm running to be the president. I will have responsibility for the decisions."

Credit fatigue or (quite frayed) nerves -- but it almost looks like a truce is in place in the Democratic race, as Saturday's South Carolina primary approaches. The vicious radio ads are down, replaced by a new Clinton spot where Bill Clinton touts his wife's credentials to lead a "comeback."

And yet . . . that's not quite the whole story, not with the spouses still feuding, the hourly conference calls arranged to slam rival campaigns, and -- of course -- Bill Clinton still very present on the trail. The Clinton campaign's election-eve event will be a joint appearance at a rally in Charleston Friday at 9:30 pm ET.

"This is classic, classic good-cop, bad-cop," ABC's George Stephanopoulos said after Sen. Clinton's appearance on "GMA."

If you think this battle is over . . . you don't know Bill Clinton. "Advisers to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton say they have concluded that Bill Clinton's aggressive politicking against Senator Barack Obama is resonating with voters, and they intend to keep him on the campaign trail in a major role after the South Carolina primary," Patrick Healy writes in The New York Times.

"The benefits of having Mr. Clinton challenge Mr. Obama so forcefully, over Iraq and Mr. Obama's record and statements, they say, are worth the trade-offs of potentially overshadowing Mrs. Clinton at times, undermining his reputation as a statesman and raising the question among voters about whether they are putting him in the White House as much as her."

In other words, Bill is inside Barack's head. "Mr. Clinton is deliberately trying to play bad cop against Mr. Obama, campaign officials say, and is keenly aware that a flash of anger or annoyance will draw even more media and public attention to his arguments," Healy continues. James Carville (kind of maybe more than just a fan of this strategy): "Does the president risk going overboard? Sure. But Obama runs a risk of being wussified."

Here's another reason to keep Bill on the trail: "It was impossible not to notice that in her two appearances today, [Hillary] Clinton drew almost entirely white audiences, in a state where half of Democratic voters are African-American," Marcella Bomardieri reports in The Boston Globe. "Her husband, long popular with black voters, has drawn much more mixed crowds."

Can anyone recall a single thing that Hillary Clinton -- you know, the one who's running -- has said in the last 48 hours? And where has Bill Clinton gone that he HASN'T made news? That's one reason that Bill Clinton is ABC's Buzz Maker of the Week.

"It's become an emerging theme in his campaign events: Bill Clinton starts out talking about Hillary Clinton, and what she can do in the White House, then slowly slips in a 'we,' and then an 'I,' talking about his accomplishments as both president and foundation leader," ABC's Julia Hoppock writes.

On the trail Thursday, Clinton defended his wife's service on Wal-Mart's board of directors, suggesting that she prodded the company toward a friendlier environmental stance, and to develop its "Buy America" program, ABC's Kate Snow, Sarah Amos, and Jennifer Parker report. Wal-Mart Watch's David Nassar disagrees: "While we don't have any insight into what Sen. Clinton advocated for while on the board of Wal-Mart, we do know that Wal-Mart has made no meaningful progress regarding the company's poor business practices, including gender discrimination, low wages, inadequate health care, overseas sourcing or environmental degradation."

Obama is starting to enlist his spouse in pushing back. She signed a fundraising appeal Thursday decrying "the win-at-all-costs tactics" of the Clinton machine.

And she's popping up more on the trail. "Obama needs Michelle more than ever," Time's Jay Newton-Small reports. "As she tours South Carolina, speaking on behalf of her husband, she has become the real-life example of Obama's soaring rhetoric. . . . From her shy, awkward first months in a role that she talks frankly about not wanting, Michelle Obama is finding her voice. And her husband will need it."

If there's a touch of fatigue on the Democratic side, maybe it's infectious.

Maybe it just took a while for that Southern air to work its way through everyone's system. Maybe Fred Thompson was the secret source of energy. Maybe John McCain got everyone turned around on the bridge to nowhere, or Mike Huckabee sent the field off on his Easter egg hunt for WMD, or perhaps they were all supremely confident now that Dennis Kucinich has cleared himself out of the field.

Or maybe everyone's as nervous as they are tired.

How else to explain the non-event that was Thursday night's Republican debate in Boca Raton, Fla., where the only energy was in the oppo research shuttling into reporters' inboxes (and the sharpest words came courtesy of McCain's 95-year-old mother)?

It was only good cops on stage in Boca on Thursday. The candidates were subdued, respectful, and downright polite -- doing nothing to shake up the uncertain dynamics going into the last burst before the Florida primary.

It means we're left where we started: A Florida battle between John McCain and Mitt Romney, with Rudolph Giuliani struggling to hang on and Mike Huckabee struggling to be heard.

The long road has had no shortage of detours -- Fred Thompson's comic short, "The Amble for a Red November"; a Huckaboom, Chuck Norris, and a Huckabust; the Ron Paul money machine; a spectacular (and ongoing) public implosion by America's mayor.

But the GOP race looks like the two-way race the smart guys and gals thought it would be a year ago: McCain vs. Romney.

"It was less a Republican debate than it was a Rotary Club discussion -- and a soporific one at that," ABC's Jake Tapper writes. "There were no attacks made, few contrasts drawn, little indication that the candidates are just five days away from a crucial primary contest. In fact, the candidate who has the most to lose here --