The Trail

"It's going to be about 11:50 and [Sean] Hannity looks at [Bill] O'Reilly and says, 'You do it,' and O'Reilly says, 'No you do it,' " Brown said, referring to two of the network's famous commentators while warming up the crowd for an appearance by Joe Biden.

"So O'Reilly looks at the camera at 11:53," Brown continued, "O'Reilly looks into the camera and says, 'Well, folks, Ohio went for Barack Obama. He's the next president of the United States.' "

As Brown travels through Ohio on a bus tour with Gov. Ted Strickland and the Democratic vice presidential nominee, that wasn't the only sign of confidence from the team pushing for Barack Obama's election. For the second day in a row, Biden referred to "January 20" or "when we're inaugurated" -- although he quickly added, "God willing."

"When we're inaugurated, God willing, on January 20 of 2009, there are two things we're going to focus our entire administration on," Biden told the crowd of more than 1,000 at the Athens fairgrounds. "Number one, rebuilding the middle class . . . everything we do domestically will focus on that. And the second objective will be to restore our leadership and respect around the world."

Promoting some of the proposals both Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership have suggested should be passed during the post-election session of Congress, such as freezing foreclosures on mortgages for 90 days, Biden said, "We can't wait until January 20th to get things done."

The vice presidential candidate has a packed schedule of six events in two days in small towns in eastern and central Ohio. He will spend the rest of the week making stops in New Mexico and Nevada, attending fundraisers in California and taping appearances on both "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and the "Ellen DeGeneres Show."

-- Perry Bacon Jr.