Palin Meets the 'Pre-Ticketed'

September 16, 2008— -- Sarah Palin is set to meet the "pre-ticketed" at 7:00 pm ET on Wednesday when she and John McCain hold their first joint town-hall meeting.

The event is taking place in Grand Rapids , Mich., a state whose history of racial tensions is giving Barack Obama "fits" according to the Associated Press.

Although Obama is expected to run up big numbers in Detroit where 80 percent of the residents are African-American, the scandal-plagued administration of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has created a cynicism among white suburban voters that could put the state's 17 Electoral Votes at risk for Obama.

"'I've got a lot of friends ... (who) are like, 'Oh, no'' when it comes to voting for a black presidential candidate, John Martin, a 42-year-old Democrat from Macomb County's Harrison Township who backs Obama, told the AP. 'They're all working people, all in unions, plumbers and stuff like that. ... A few of them have said they're not even going to vote.'"

In an effort to sully Obama, the conservative Freedom's Defense Fund is spending $25,000 on a television ad airing on cable news channels in Macomb County that shows Obama praising Kilpatrick last year before his legal troubles began.

"I'm looking forward to a lengthy collaboration," Obama says of Kilpatrick in the old video used in the ad.

Watch the ad: Here

Before her inaugural town-hall meeting, Palin is slated to sit down in the morning with Sean Hannity of the Fox News Channel in Youngston, Ohio.

The interview will air in two parts on Wednesday and Thursday.

"Good Morning America's" "50 States in 50 Days" tour continues on Wednesday.

John McCain will be interviewed by Robin Roberts in Gustavus, Ohio, at 7:30 am ET. A separate interview with Cindy McCain will follow later in the program.

A McCain aide was forced to distance the Arizona senator on Tuesday from a claim made by his top economic adviser.

During a morning briefing with reporters, McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin held up his BlackBerry when asked about what work McCain did as the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee which helped him understand the economy.

"He did this," said Holtz-Eakin, pointing to his wireless device. "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

McCain aide Matt McDonald said Tuesday that the Arizona senator laughed when told of Holtz-Eakin's Blackberry claim, calling it a "boneheaded joke by a staffer."

While McCain's staff was contending with questions about the Blackberry remark, Obama delivered a Tuesday speech in Golden, Colo., in which he accused McCain of doing "nothing" to head off the financial crisis and hammered his GOP rival for telling the Wall Street Journal he is "fundamentally a deregulator."

"This is what happens," said Obama, "when you confuse the free market with a free license to let special interests take whatever they can get."

Per the New York Times write-up, Obama renewed his call for "increasing government oversight and supervision on all regulated financial institutions and strengthening capital requirements -- particularly for mortgage securities and other derivatives -- at the center of the financial crisis. He also proposed streamlining regulatory agencies as well as cracking down on trading activity that manipulates markets."

Late Tuesday, the McCain campaign released a new ad, called "Enough Is Enough," in which McCain, who has been under attack for saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong, vows to tackle the financial crisis head on.

Watch McCain's ad: Here

The McCain campaign has not released details on the size or location of the buy.

On the campaign front. . .

BARACK OBAMA

-- 12:30 pm ET (Doors) – Holds Rally in Elko, NV.

-- 8:00 pm ET - Holds Rally in Las Vegas, NV.

JOE BIDEN

-- 9:30 am ET (Doors) – Holds Rally in Maumee, OH.

-- 4:00 pm ET - Holds Rally in Wooster, OH.

Michelle Obama

-- 4:50 pm ET - Holds voter registration rally in Charlottesville, VA

JOHN McCAIN

-- 7 pm ET – Holds Town Hall Grand Rapids, MI

SARAH PALIN

-- 7 pm ET – Holds Town Hall Grand Rapids, MI

At the White House. . .

PRESIDENT BUSH

-- No public events.

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ABC News' Hillary Clinton: Hillary Clinton: Sarah Palin Exciting but Not Vote Worthy LINK

ABC News' Rick Klein: Above the Niagara River LINK

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