It's Friday, the last day Washington, D.C. can be considered a major metropolitan area until the new year. Everyone who doesn't need to be here is taking off as fast as possible. Here's what the stragglers are watching:

-- The House is out of session while the Senate will meet for a pro forma session to prevent President Bush from making recess appointments. President Bush is at Camp David, and Tony Fratto drew the short straw and has to stay at the White House to brief reporters.

-- Rudy Giuliani was finally released from the hospital yesterday, though about eight hours after he was initially supposed to be. Marc Ambinder reports doctors were only waiting for tests to come back. He flew back to New York City, though he's taking today off, NBC/NJ's Matt Berger reports. Matters of health haven't come up much in the presidential campaign, though three leading Republicans have had cancer and one has diabetes (one survivor, Fred Thompson, has been asked to release his medical records). Two weeks before votes are cast, will we hear renewed calls for medical records to be released? And now that Giuliani appears fine, we can make a little fun: Was he just suffering from vertigo from his free fall? Time's Michael Duffy thinks so.

-- It is in the final two weeks that the race breaks, and if there's a negative story out there floating around, yours will not be the campaign that benefits. John McCain, the victim of a George Bush-fueled bad break in 2000, does not want history to repeat itself, and is aggressively fighting what his campaign calls "gutter politics" -- allegations that he did favors for a lobbyist, a story the New York Times is reportedly ready to break. McCain has hired prominent Washington attorney Bob Bennett to handle the Old Gray Lady. The paper hasn't even published the story, though yesterday allegations landed on Drudge, in the Post and in Politico.

-- Two lessons from the story: First, Matt Drudge has built himself up to a position of so much power that one of the leading Republican presidential candidates feels the necessity of rebutting him in public within hours of a charge going up. No wonder Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton's camps are trying to get close to him. Keep Drudge off your back and your life gets a lot easier. Second: After watching what happened in 2000, to himself, and in 2004, to John Kerry, McCain hired Bennett to get control of the story quickly. That's how campaigns are going to react this year: Fast. Both nominees will be under intense pressure to respond, and to respond quickly. Still, the campaign wants to respond on their own terms, and today McCain hits the early voter-rich precincts in ... Louisiana? Maybe the camp just wanted him off the beaten path while they deal with the story.

-- But the lesson for McCain is not lost on other candidates. And recently it seems like everyone is playing defense. Meaning Hillary Clinton's new attack websites earned a quick reaction from Barack Obama. ABC News' Jake Tapper reported the sites -- Votingpresent.com and .org, references to Obama's 130-something decisions to skip votes during his time as a state senator -- have the same IP address as other, official Clinton sites. Both sites are down as of this morning, but this is something new. Clinton, in recent weeks, has gone into near panic mode as Obama's numbers have climbed. Domains are cheap, and it is not difficult to imagine more sites like this being snapped up in the coming days. Both campaigns have built sites detailing attacks from their opponents while lobbing plenty of bombs themselves.

-- By the way, later in the day Obama registered Desperatehillaryattacks.com. How meta is this: The campaigns don't even have to put up any content to be accused of attacking each other. Spend $10 a year at a domain registering service, get press for attacking your opponent. Does that say the media is just looking for an excuse to write the attack story?

-- In the Big Apple, Mike Bloomberg is giddy with anticipation of the partisan attacks. He wants to see Hillary Clinton take on Mike Huckabee, political scientist Tom Schaller writes. The two candidates would most polarize the electorate and offer Bloomberg the biggest window -- a Democrat many already can't stand alongside a Republican evangelical Christian with his own somewhat bizarre past (submissive women, dog hangings, gifts for the governor, etc.). So why not elect the competent manager in the middle? Why do we think Bloomberg is really falling for this idea? And why not pick war hero Chuck Hagel, the retiring Nebraska Senator, as his running mate? Apparently that deal is in the works as well, as Sam Stein of the HuffPo reports.

-- Juxtaposition Of The Day: Whether it's Elizabeth Edwards, Bill Clinton or Michelle Obama, rarely has their been an electoral contest in which the spouses played such an important role. If Barack Obama pulls out a victory this winter, some may find that the spouses were one of the big differences between the campaigns. Michelle Obama, on the trail in Iowa City yesterday, can't help but get good press, and her message discipline is impressive. Bill Clinton, in Concord yesterday to meet with the Monitor's editorial board, has a much higher profile, and a much bigger mouth. If Clinton's wife loses the nomination, might some blame Bill and credit Michelle?

-- Today On The Trail: Clinton is in New Hampshire, with stops scheduled in Concord, Portsmouth and Stratham. Obama just did a hit on MSNBC, then he's off to Davenport, Coralville and Washington, Iowa. John Edwards has an interview in Johnston, then gives a speech in Des Moines and meets undecided voters in Nevada (Ne-VAY-duh) and Tama, Iowa. Chris Dodd hits Cedar Rapids, Manchester and Iowa City, Bill Richardson has events in Cedar Rapids, Ankeny, Newton and Ames, and Joe Biden holds meetings with voters in Vinton, Anamosa, Bellevue and Clinton, Iowa.

-- On the GOP side, McCain is in Baton Rouge, while Mitt Romney is stumping through New Hampshire, with stops planned in Skillsoft and Rochester. Fred Thompson's bus tour takes him to Sioux City, Sioux Center, Sheldon, Spencer and Fort Dodge. Mike Huckabee is in Davenport, Muscatine, Coralville and Dubuque, Iowa.