[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/28/art.ap.obama.biden.detroit.jpg caption="Sens. Obama and Biden head to a Detroit rally Sunday."]
DETROIT (CNN) – Following a rally in Detroit with Barack Obama Sunday afternoon, Joe Biden will return home to Wilmington, Delaware to prepare for his Thursday night debate with Sarah Palin.
The Delaware senator’s schedule is blank until he flies to St. Louis for the debate, though he will head to Washington to vote on the bailout package when the vote is scheduled in the Senate.
Spokesman David Wade says the only preparation Biden has done up to this point is reading and talking to a wide range of colleagues, among them senators Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm will fly to Wilmington this week to play the role of Palin in sparring sessions with Biden. In a recent interview on NBC’s Today Show she said, “I want to beat him up a little bit, so he does well.”
Biden never talks directly about Palin on the stump, only in the context of the Republican ticket as a whole. He regularly tells audiences he doesn't know anything about her.
"I’m not being a wise guy," Biden told a laughing crowd Friday in Wisconsin, "I don’t know. I’m assuming she agrees with [McCain's] position. I’m being deadly earnest. I don’t know. I don’t know."
Biden will fly back to Delaware after the debate for his son Beau's deployment to Iraq on Friday as part of a Delaware National Guard unit. Beau Biden is Delaware’s attorney general. Palin's eldest son, Track, is also serving in Iraq.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/27/art.ap.palin.philly.jpg caption=" Sarah Palin and her daughter Willow ordered cheesestakes in South Philadelphia Saturday."]
PHILADELPHIA (CNN) - Sarah Palin partook in an established political ritual on Saturday night when she headed to Tony Luke's in south Philadelphia to order a pair of cheesesteaks with whiz and onions.
But as the kitchen sizzled and orders were barked out, Palin found herself talking politics, calling McCain's debate performance "awesome" and taking questions from a voter about the hunt for terrorists in Pakistan.
While waiting in line with her daughter Willow to place her order, a reporter asked Palin if she watched Friday's debate, and what her impressions were.
Watch: Palin takes questions on cheesesteak run
"I did, I did," she said. "McCain did awesome. He was great. He was absolutely on his game."
Palin added that she is ready to debate Joe Biden next Thursday in St. Louis.
"I am," she said. "Look forward to it. Look forward to getting to speak to Americans through that debate, absolutely."
The governor got a more serious interrogation moments later when Temple graduate student Michael Rovito approached her to inquire about Pakistan.
"How about the Pakistan situation?," asked Rovito, who said he was not a Palin supporter. "What's your thoughts about that?"
"In Pakistan?," she asked, looking surprised.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/POLITICS/09/28/bailout.deal/art.bailoutannounce.ap.jpg caption=" Nancy Pelosi said 'great progress' has been made on bailout negotiations."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Congressional negotiators "made great progress" toward reaching a deal on the White House's proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Pelosi, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other congressional leaders, made the announcement around 12:30 a.m. Sunday after a long evening of talks on Capitol Hill.
Their goal has been to craft and announce a final deal on legislation by Sunday, in time for the start of financial markets around the world.
"We have to get it committed to paper so we can formally agree," Pelosi said.
Reid said congressional staffers would be up all night putting the details so a deal could be announced sometime Sunday.
Under the tentative deal being finalized, the rescue program would be overseen by a board including the treasury secretary, secretary of commerce, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and chairman of the Federal Reserve, said Sen. Kent Conrad, R-North Dakota, who heads the Senate Budget Committee.
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