[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/30/art.joe.gi.jpg caption="Joe The Plumber is hitting the trail with John McCain."](CNN) - Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, is set to team up with John McCain on the campaign trail Thursday.
He will appear at the Arizona senator's first event in Defiance, Ohio. Wurzelbacher also campaigned with Sarah Palin Wednesday.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/16/art.mccainad.cnn.jpg caption=" The RNC has increased ad spending in Montana."]
QUAKERTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) - In a sign of last-minute concern about a traditionally red state, the independent arm of the Republican National Committee is launching television ads in Montana.
Democrats have only won Montana twice in the last half century, but Barack Obama has been using his vast resources for an aggressive push there - an Obama spokesman says they have 19 offices and 14,000 volunteers. John McCain has no Montana campaign offices.
"It's a cheap insurance policy" said a Republican official involved with the ad buy told CNN. "We don't expect a crash there, but we may as well buy insurance in case we do."
Recent polling has suggested McCain’s edge over Obama in the state may be in single-digit territory.
By law, the so-called Independent Expenditure arm of the Republican National Committee can produce TV ads and buy air time, as long as it does not coordinate with the party.
The Republican official said they spending $300,000 dollars in the relatively inexpensive media Montana media markets.
Montana now has two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor. Obama’s campaign already has an organization in the state thanks to the Democratic primary in June, which he won.
A senior McCain aide told CNN they are relying on a "very good state party" that has a few offices around the state.
(CNN) - McCain aides expressed relief Wednesday night that the Arizona senator “finally” used a line that took on one of Obama’s central campaign themes.
Watch: I'm not Bush, McCain says
“Sen. Obama, I am not President Bush,” he said. “If you wanted to run against President Bush you should have run four years ago. I will take this country in a new direction."
McCain advisors – who said they had been pushing him to stress that distinction more explicitly than he had in the past - immediately uploaded the quote to YouTube, and circulated it to reporters.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/13/mccain3.jpg caption=" "]
(CNN) - Sen. John McCain said Monday that Rep. John Lewis' controversial remarks were "so disturbing" that they "stopped me in my tracks."
Watch: McCain responds to Lewis
Lewis, a Georgia representative and civil rights icon, on Saturday compared the feeling at recent Republican rallies to those of segregationist George Wallace.
"That's not from some quote party official, that's from one of the most respected people in America. It's unfair. It's unfair and it's outrageous," he said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Dana Bash.
"I never believed that Lewis, who is an American hero whom I admire, would ever make a comment of that nature. He even referred to the bombing of a church in Birmingham. That's unacceptable," he said.
Lewis on Saturday said in a statement that McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin "are sowing the seeds of hatred and division."
"During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama," wrote the Democrat.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/28/art.palin.928.jpg caption="Gov. Sarah Palin will prepare for Thursday's debate from Arizona."]
(CNN)– Gov. Sarah Palin will now spend two and a half days near Sedona, Arizona, to prepare for Thursday's debate, instead of prepping in St Louis, as originally planned.
Sarah Palin will be at John McCain's rustic creek side home outside Sedona for what a top aide calls "debate camp."
The aide, who's part of the team prepping Palin, tells CNN they decided to take her to debate camp there because it is an "invigorating and enjoyable place to prepare for Thursday."
"SP [Sarah Palin] loves it and has her kids and Todd coming," wrote the aide in an email.
The aide said "John McCain himself came up with the idea after thinking it would be great before his next debate.
Pailin has already been hunkered down for four days in a Philadelphia hotel for debate prep with advisers.
She will take a short break Monday to attend a rally with McCain in Ohio, before heading to Arizona.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/25/art.debate2.gi.jpg caption="Biden and Palin are set to debate October 2."](CNN) - McCain supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham tells CNN the McCain campaign is proposing to the Presidential Debate Commission and the Obama camp that if there's no bailout deal by Friday, the first presidential debate should take the place of the VP debate, currently scheduled for next Thursday, October 2 in St. Louis.
In this scenario, the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin would be rescheduled for a date yet to be determined, and take place in Oxford, Mississippi, currently slated to be the site of the first presidential faceoff this Friday.
Watch: Obama camp pushes for debate
Graham says the McCain camp is well aware of the position of the Obama campaign and the debate commission that the debate should go on as planned - but both he and another senior McCain adviser insist the Republican nominee will not go to the debate Friday if there's no deal on the bailout.
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