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.

We are en route back to Richmond from the McCain/Palin event in Fairfax. Campaign Officials say 23,000 people were there. We have two angles for our reports tonight at 5:30 and 6.

At 5:30pm we’ll explore the sudden massive interest in McCain rallies, which is due, by no surprise, to Sarah Palin. We weren’t surprised to find that Palin was one of the main reasons that people came to event, but she wasn’t necessarily the biggest star.

Then at 6pm, we will take a look at the McCain Campaign strategy in the wake of some pretty hefty criticism from the Obama camp. Despite attacks on some specific things such as: Palin and the Bridge to Nowhere, Drill Baby Drill and The E-Bay plane. All of these topics were trumpeted and done so proudly by the McCain team today. In fact it even opened the door for them to go after Obama. I’ll show you how it happened at 6.

We also we have a complete look at the Obama trip to Norfolk. My collegue Curt Autry will have a report on that in our 5:30pm news. I must confess, I have been a bit removed from everything else beyond this event and have not heard much about what went on the coast.

I leave you with this picture from my vantage point at the rally and I will see you tonight at 5:30 and 6.

**Two other notes**

1- My apologies to those who followed the liveblog. The venue was down in a natural amphitheater and it caused all kinds of havoc with my internet connection. I know I hit a couple of posts more than once. I hope you can forgive me for that.

2-I want to make special mention of Matt Neese , our photographer for today’s event. He did not flinch when I told him we would have to leave Richmond at 3am in order to be in place for the security sweep. He also took some incredible pictures of the event.