Whats interesting about this is not what Brooks has to say about Sarah Palin, but compliments (albeit a little backhanded) towards Barack Obama.

Quoted: "He's phenomenally good at surrounding himself with a team," Brooks said. "I disagree with them on most issues, but I am given a lot of comfort by the fact that the people he's chosen are exactly the people I think most of us would want to choose if we were in his shoes. So again, I have doubts about him just because he was such a mediocre senator, but his capacity to pick staff is impressive."

So if you're doing the math, in order to carry Pennsylvania John McCain needs every single registered Republican to vote for him PLUS ALL 980,000 registered independents AND 200,000 registered Democrats to win the state.

Quoted: Democratic registration has surged by 13 percent and Republican ranks have shrunk by 1 percent as a record 8.6 million people registered to vote in battleground Pennsylvania in the 2008 presidential election. Statewide, there are now almost 1,170,000 more Democrats than Republicans registered in Pennsylvania. There are at least 4,387,027 Democrats and 3,217,464 Republicans.

The local everyman that was chosen to introduce Obama had a hell of a time settling his nerves this morning. His first miscue was talking about his wife *and* "his husband" (father actually), and he followed that up by saying he would like to "retire his wife" (or rather, have his wife be able to retire) someday.

16,000 in Grand Rapids on a Thursday morning, just three days after announcing the event. I'd have to say that things are looking good for Obama in Michigan. A lot of people brought their kids too. So many that one of the campaign volunteers asked if the area schools had the day off today.

Quoted: Speaking under cloudy skies before a Calder Plaza crowd estimated at 15,900, Obama called for passage of a $700 million financial bailout package that passed the Senate Wednesday.

There is a pretty cool slideshow alongside the article, if you are familiar with downtown GR and would like to see how the crowd filled the plaza.

My plan is to be downtown around 7am to watch the show (starts at 9:30am). It should be a good time.

Quoted: When Barack Obama takes the stage Thursday on Calder Plaza, he will deliver a message tailored to a critical constituency beyond the city borders. Once a stronghold for Republicans, suburbs are the new presidential battleground as Obama seeks to build on support in Grand Rapids to challenge GOP domination in suburban Kent and Ottawa counties.

FYI: John McCain will tell you when Sarah Palin means what Sarah Palin says.

Quoted: Sen. John McCain retracted Sarah Palin's stance on Pakistan Sunday morning, after the Alaska governor appeared to back Sen. Barack Obama's support for unilateral strikes inside Pakistan against terrorists. "She would not…she understands and has stated repeatedly that we're not going to do anything except in America's national security interest," McCain told ABC's George Stephanopoulos of Palin. "In all due respect, people going around and… sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and then all of a sudden that's—that's a person's position… This is a free country, but I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitve policy statement made by Governor Palin."

Well I guess this explains the news being made by the McCain campaign in the past few days.

Quoted: Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."

Interesting idea.

Quoted: Samir Bazzi replaced his Sunoco sign with an Obama campaign sign five days ago and lowered gas prices to $3.49 per gallon. 'Everything's down,' Bazzi said. 'We're trying to support people.' Bazzi is also selling Obama hats and T-shirts.

click to play

Airing tonight on your CBS National News program. Ouch.

Quoted: Katie Couric talks with Gov. Sarah Palin about her foreign policy experience and Alaska's proximity to Russia.

This should really be checkmate against the Republican ticket.

Quoted: The McCain campaign told ABC News on Wednesday that John McCain wants to postpone Friday's presidential debate until Thursday, Oct. 2. The Arizona senator would like the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, which is currently scheduled to take place on Thursday, Oct. 2 in St. Louis, Missouri, to be scheduled for a later unspecified date.