Decision Virginia

Senator Joe Biden’s visit to Virginia and Richmond in particular has been called off because of an illness in his family. Here is the release from the Obama campaign:

**UPDATE**

The campaign just announced the Sen. Evan Bayh will take Biden’s place and the events will go on as schedule.

**UPDATE ENDS**

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct. 4, 2008

Joe Biden Roanoke and Henrico County Events Cancelled Due to Family Illness

RICHMOND, Va. – Because of an illness in U.S. Sen. Joe Biden’s family, his Sunday events in Roanoke and Henrico County have been cancelled.

Biden’s spokesman, David Wade, issued the following statement:

“The campaign has cancelled Senator Biden’s schedule today and tomorrow because of a serious illness in Jill Biden’s family. Hospice has advised the Bidens to remain close by, and we appreciate everyone’s respect for the family’s privacy,” Wade said.

Ryan Nobles – bio | email

Departing from a traditional stump speech for his visit in Newport News, Barack Obama chose to spend his day in the Commonwealth, touting his health care plan and hammering John McCain’s.

Obama called McCain’s plan “out of touch” and “radical”. He specifically attacked McCain’s plan to provide a $5,000 tax credit to families to help them pay for health insurance.  Obama called that aspect of the plan “Washington bait and switch” and accused McCain of attempting to place a tax on health benefits.

McCain’s camp quickly responded, calling Obama’s charges false and adding that the only group that would face a tax burden that would be larger than their credit would be only the “very wealthy.” They also say that their plan allows for more choices in health care, while the Obama plan is the road to government run health care and ultimately socialism.

It seems, that Obama is making much greater headway with voters, by sticking to talking points, keyed in on specific issues. He seems to be having a much greater impact by throwing out quotes like this today in Newport News:

“So when you read the fine print, it’s clear John McCain is pulling an old Washington bait and switch. It’s a shell game. He gives you a tax credit with one hand, but he raises your taxes with the other.”

The McCain camp responded with conference calls and lengthy memos highlighting the areas where they feel Obama’s claims are false. I’m not sure the average voter will take in both sides of the argument the same way.

That was the lasting impression from tonight’s third and final U.S. Senate Debate from Roanoke, which was the only debate televised live statewide and on NBC12. Former Governor Jim Gilmore found a way to work every single question in the debate back to his opposition to the plan passed today by Congress and Former Governor Mark Warner’s opposition to it.

Gilmore was clearly looking for a way to stake his claim in front of the people of Virginia, in his one and only shot to be seen across the state face to face against the man he is trailing.

Warner for his part stuck to his main talking points and attempted to avoid making too much news. He batted back Gilmore’s barbs on the bailout plan and attempted to explain his support of  the plan which he called “far from perfect.” You can see how our viewers reacted on our liveblog at decisionvirginia.com

The question after all of these debates is: will it have an impact? My guess is little if any and certainly not enough to dramatically change the direction of this race that Mark Warner has dominated.

I’ve included the spin from both campaigns post-debate after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »