As I write this column there is one week left in the presidential campaign. Over the past two years of primaries, conventions and the actual campaign itself I have written several columns about the campaigns and the candidates. In this column, my last before the election, I want to express some additional thoughts on a few issues that have been raised over the preceding months and years.

First, I have been struck by the battle among candidates over language and stereotypes. It would seem that both parties have become the party of “change,” but other than the fact that President Bush and Vice President Cheney will leave office, I’m not at all sure what “change” means to each party. I have some sense about differences on specific issues like tax policy or Iraq, but, in the broader sense, what does change signify for the candidates?

None of them are newcomers to politics. Sens. McCain, Obama and Biden are all time-tested professional politicians who have succeeded in Washington. Gov. Palin, although she is not a “Beltway insider,” is certainly not a political novice. Her remarkable rise in Alaska politics is evidence of someone who knows how to run a campaign successfully and navigate the most difficult political waters.

So, my question is, how exactly will politics change when we get a new president and vice president? Will we really see something new and unconventional in Washington, D.C.? I confess that I rather doubt it.

I’ve also been struck by the adoption by both parties of “Joe the Plumber.” First of all, I feel rather sorry for the real Joe because his simple and, I presume, honest comment has now made him a national figure with a great deal of unpleasant media coverage. But, more important, just who does “Joe the Plumber” represent? Is he a small business owner? Is he a member of the middle-class? Does he trade stocks and bonds on the side and is, thus, a victim, of the financial crisis? Is he someone struggling with a subprime mortgage? Is he even a Democrat or a Republican? Or is “Joe the Plumber” nothing more than another form of campaign “spin” used by both sides to represent whatever the candidates want him to symbolize?

The one thing I’m fairly certain about is that neither candidate really cares much about the real Joe the Plumber. Indeed, I wonder if Joe will even receive Christmas cards this year from the candidates who’ve talked about him so much? Again, I doubt it.

Finally, I want to say a word about pettiness. In a past column I wrote about how much I dislike negative campaigning, a dislike now shared by a large number of Americans. But it seems to me that as the campaign is coming to an end, it is becoming nastier and nastier. I wrote recently about my concern about unwarranted and untrue attacks on candidates and the dangers they pose to the political process and the nation.

But I also feel it necessary to condemn what I consider to be the pettiness of the recent attacks on Sarah Palin’s wardrobe. Let’s face it, being a vice-presidential candidate requires a fairly expensive and extensive wardrobe. The other three candidates have all been senators and Washington insiders for long enough to have a few good suits and ties. Palin, on the other hand, lives in Alaska where, I am told, designer clothes aren’t necessary, even for the governor.

There’s also the fact that men’s clothes are generally a whole lot less expensive than women’s clothes. If the Republican National Committee wants to spend $150,000 of their donors’ money to make Palin look better, that’s their right. The only folks with a right to complain are the donors. If they don’t mind, then that should end the discussion. I don’t see why it should be a political issue at all, quite honestly. And, further, why not let Palin keep the clothes after the election is over? I think she’s earned them. To me, the attacks on Palin’s wardrobe are petty and, again, deflect from the real issues.

I don’t know who is going to win the election next week. I know that whoever it is will leave half the nation happy and half unhappy. All of us, however, once the campaign is over need to work together and abandon campaign spin and, instead, focus on the very real and crucial issues, both here and abroad, that confront us. The one thing I am sure of is that the next president and vice president won’t have easy jobs in the next four years. They’ll need our help.