Gambler John McCain

After another crazy week in the presidential campaign, we now know for sure that John McCain's passion for gambling extends well beyond occasional trips to casinos.

Whether it's at the craps table he's known to frequent or on the campaign trail, McCain is a gut player who relishes high-stakes risk-taking. If not for his solid debate performance Friday night, the Arizona senator might have derailed his entire campaign last week with his roll-of-the-dice announcement that he was suspending his campaign and seeking to delay the first presidential debate so he could help negotiate a financial bailout package in the works on Capitol Hill.

More here. On Thursday we should see the next installment of the Sarah Palin gamble. "Mostly vice presidential debates don't matter, but the Palin-Biden debate will be as important a debate as we had Friday,'' said Republican strategist George LeMieux of Fort Lauderdale. "I don't think Joe Biden is going to factor much into the debate. It's going to be Sarah Palin vs. (moderator) Gwen Ifill."

Meet the winner of loser of the week

Winner of the week: State Rep. Janet Long, D-Seminole, the winner, had a target on her back after narrowly defeating Dottie Reeder in 2006 for the House District 51 seat. But Republicans made a mess of trying to unseat her, pushing aside Bruce Cotton in favor of Terry Sanchez, who dropped from the race last week unexpectedly. GOP leaders tapped lifeguard Christopher Peters, 26, to step in, though his name won't even be on the ballot. Votes for Sanchez will go to Peters.

Loser of the week: Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, was embroiled in scandal five years ago after crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff flew him to Scotland on a golf junket. He's worried it will hurt his prospects. In his newest campaign ad, he apologizes for "rookie mistakes." Feeney, as a former Florida House speaker, was not exactly a political rookie when he took that trip.

Bob Graham, Bill Nelson hit I-10 for Obama

Former Gov. Bob Graham and Sen. Bill Nelson will embark on a North Florida tour tomorrow and Monday, talking to voters about health care, water rights and the economy.

Also joining the pro-Obama tour are a couple of former Democratic governors: Jim Hodges of South Carolina and Ray Mabus of Mississippi. (details below)

Plouffe: FL a dog fight til the end

Ouch. Methinks Barack Obama national campaign manager David Plouffe just took a little shot at me for this story a couple weeks back suggesting Florida could be slipping away from Obama.

"I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the the story of a couple weeks ago that suggested a lot of Republicans down there...were feeling more comfortable about Florida,'' Plouffe said on a conference call. "We're seeing today that Florida could not be more competitive. We think we've really strengthened in Florida, we have a strong base in Florida. And so what McCain was hoping would be a state that may not be a central battleground is a cenral battleground. we feel very optimistic about our prospects in Florida."

Michelle Obama rocks Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE -- Thousands of fired-up Barack Obama supporters, many of them college students, filled the quadrangle on the campus of Florida A&M University Saturday for a voter registration rally co-starring Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

Ticking off problems like a "broken" health care system, failing schools, high fuel and food costs and the cost of the war in Iraq, she asked the crowd: "Isn't it time that we have new solutions, that we put the old ways aside? Shouldn't we have leaders who get it?"

"Yes!" the crowd roared back.

Under a cloudless midday sky, young people wearing Obama caps, T-shirts or campaign stickers aimed their cell phones skyward in hopes of catching a picture of the candidates' wives on a stage nearly 100 yards away. (AP photo View more photos)

Floridians helped build this house of cards

Who's to blame for the meltdown? A lot of people, including some here in the Sunshine State. Writes Times reporter and housing market expert James Thorner:

As we contemplate bankrolling the federal government's $1-trillion bailout of bad mortgages, feel free to take a crack at the financial idiot savants who fumbled this disaster into our hands.

But when we've gotten that out of our system, time to rain a few blows on ourselves. Wall Street may have been pushing these toxic loans, but Floridians were among the biggest abusers of these house-of-cards real estate deals.

I remember visiting a new home sales center north of Tampa in 2005 and staring aghast as a middle-class family tried to order 10 homes. Equally memorable were the secretary with five investment houses, the real estate agents with seven and the retirees who gambled their savings on a $300,000 house that was sure to double to $600,000. (column here)

Scoring the first debate

Have at it ...