JUDY WOODRUFF: Michelle Obama stepped in for her husband at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, today, while the Democratic presidential nominee was in Hawaii visiting his gravely ill grandmother.
Obama gave the crowd an update on the woman her husband refers to as "Toot," short for "tutu," the Hawaiian word for "grandparent."
MICHELLE OBAMA, Wife of Sen. Barack Obama: As many of you may know, Barack is off the campaign trail today. He flew to Hawaii last night to see his grandmother, who he calls "Toot." She's doing OK, and...
JUDY WOODRUFF: She then turned her attention to the campaign.
MICHELLE OBAMA: There are still people who are undecided, people figuring it out. And for me -- I know I'm biased...
... but I think that the choice is clear. And I am speaking not as the wife, but as the mother, as the daughter, as the worker, as the citizen. The choice is clear.
See, because there's only one candidate in this race who is talking at all about a plan that seems to get it, that understands that an economic policy has to be built around middle-class folks, creating tax cuts for 95 percent of families that are hurting out here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin began her day in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania, where she delivered her first major policy address detailing the McCain campaign's special needs agenda.
Palin said the issue was a personal one for her, because her 6-month-old son, Trig, was born with Down syndrome.
GOV. SARAH PALIN (R-Alaska): I want to put a new face on this issue. And I would ask, too, those advocates who have -- you've worked on this issue a lot longer than I have, more than the decade that I have worked on it. Your heart has been in this, also.
I want you to know: Families, caregivers, who have that gift of working with special needs students, children, adults, I want them to know -- and children all across this country -- that, yes, John McCain and I do have a message for you, for you advocates, for you families, that I realize that, for years, you've sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters.
And I pledge to you that, if we're elected, you will have a friend and an advocate in the White House.
Shields, Brooks Take on Afghan Plan, 'Populist Uprising' Over Economy
