How big was Obama’s big night on TV? According to early numbers from the candidate’s senior aides, around 30 million people watched his prime-time infomercial. Not as much as the TV debates or the acceptance speech in Denver. But still a significant chunk of the population.

But even more than the numbers, Team Obama was pleased with their feat of pulling off another high-wire act – the third high-risk, high-profile event they have staged, following the summer’s international trip and stadium night at the convention.

The candidate himself only recorded his contribution to the infomercial late last week in Indiana, viewing a final cut just a day before broadcast. Despite that late contribution, the end result was widely praised for its high production values.

At the top of the list of those earning credit for the production was Jim Margolis, the admaker who is Obama’s senior advertising strategist. The 30-minute ad was produced in his shop, in a team effort with fellow adman Mark Putnam and the movie director Davis Guggenheim.

The primetime ad wasn’t the only part of an unreal night of TV for Obama on Wednesday. He also taped an interview with The Daily Show on Comedy Central, where he seemed to be talking from an encyclopedia-filled library. In fact he was sitting in the Crowne Plaza hotel near Fort Lauderdale. Obama also held his first joint campaign rally with Bill Clinton, where the former president managed to upstage Obama even when he was sitting on a stool listening to the candidate.

How could you tell that Clinton was hamming it up? Obama flubbed one of the standard lines of his stump speech as follows: “John McCain’s campaign said a while back that we can’t talk about the election, because if we talk about the election, we’re going to lose,” he said,substituting the word ‘election’ for ‘economy.’ (They both begin with the letter E,after all.) “Now I have to point out, I’m not a genius – a political genius like Bill Clinton,” he continued, “but when I heard them say that, I said I guess we better keep on talking about the economy. Because that’s what the American people care about.”

At which point, Clinton himself slapped both his thighs, tipped his head back and roared with laughter. With that kind of performance,you could just about believe he wanted Obama to be his party's nominee. 

If a reporter wanted to craft a dire lede about the final days of John McCain’s campaign, the signs are coming in droves—although it’s something more akin to a satirical movie like “Airplane!” or “Hot Shots.” It all started on Monday, when McCain’s motorcade had to pull over almost immediately upon arrival in Fayetteville, N.C. The problem: McCain’s armored SUV had a flat tire. Uh oh! Bad metaphor alert! But that was nothing. Yesterday morning in Miami, reporters looked up to see a large swarm of giant birds circling in the sky above a coffee shop where McCain was meeting with local supporters. An hour later, it happened again, as McCain took the stage at a small rally near Little Havana. This reporter initially thought they were buzzards—though, admittedly, my expertise on that species is largely limited to repeated childhood viewings of Looney Tunes. Indeed, you can only imagine the jokes when, later that afternoon, reporters were sitting at another event in West Palm Beach and looked up in the sky to see a pack of hundreds of giant birds circling the perimeter above. (See photo above.) Alfred Hitchcock could not have crafted a better scene, though, in truth, it was a moment more likened to something you’d see on a show like “Arrested Development.”

Concerned that a pack of black cats might be next—or, heaven forbid, the Grim Reaper—I brought up the birds to Mark Salter, McCain’s longtime aide and speechwriter, last night on the flight from Florida to Ohio, where McCain is scheduled to spend the next two days. “They were hawks!” Salter declared. “Hawks!” I asked him how he knew. “Did you have your binoculars out?” I said. “I’ve seen them before,” Salter, a native Iowan, told me, with a trace of faux exasperation. “Hawks!”

For a campaign that has a lot of ground to cover between now and Tuesday, the atmosphere on the plane over the past few days has been pretty upbeat, even jovial at times. Senior aides insist that McCain’s chances are better than the polls suggest. But that’s not the only reason for the smiles. The end of what has seemed like the longest campaign in history is finally in sight. Steve Duprey, the plane’s resident funny man, has been handing out his stock of unofficial McCain swag, including “Country First” coffee cups and McCain chocolate bars. “No milk chocolate left folks,” he said yesterday. Coming back to talk to reporters, Salter, at times, has had the air of a high school senior on the verge of graduation. He’s been handing reporters his BlackBerry to show off a picture of his house in Maine, where he plans to retreat after this, even if McCain wins. “Five days,” he said last night. “Five days.”