AUDIO ONLY:

The Palin campaign issued a statement in response. Via Ben Smith:

“Gov. Palin received a phone call on Saturday from a French Canadian talk show host claiming to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy,” emailed spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. “Gov. Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters. C’est la vie.”

Bloggers Respond:

It’s Striking That She Thinks “France is a Good Example for the United States” given her previous statements.

Mainstream Media Coverage:

The Obama campaign gleefully sends over an announcement of a major endorsement…. for John McCain… by Dick Cheney.

“In three days we’ll choose a new steward for the presidency and begin a new chapter in our history,” the Vice President said Saturday morning. “It’s the biggest decision that we make together as Americans. A lot turns on the outcome. I believe the right leader for this moment in history is Senator John McCain.”

This isn’t, perhaps, the story that McCain headquarters wants in the news, though the press is undoubtedly going to play it up. Cheney is, after all, the Vice President.

If there was one GOP official less liked than George Bush it is Cheney. His popularity remains only among the rabidly conservative base who - a year ago - chanted “four more years” when he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington D.C.

UPDATE: Sure enough, Obama is set to jump all over the endorsement, having some fun with it in the process. According to prepared remarks for a rally in Pueblo, Colorado.

I’d like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement because he really earned it. That endorsement didn’t come easy. Senator McCain had to vote 90 percent of the time with George Bush and Dick Cheney to get it. He served as Washington’s biggest cheerleader for going to war in Iraq, and supports economic policies that are no different from the last eight years. So Senator McCain worked hard to get Dick Cheney’s support.But here’s my question for you, Colorado: do you think Dick Cheney is delighted to support John McCain because he thinks John McCain’s going to bring change? Do you think John McCain and Dick Cheney have been talking about how to shake things up, and get rid of the lobbyists and the old boys club in Washington?

At a rally in York, Pennsylvania yesterday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continued to declare that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and her would “balance the federal budget by the end of our first term.” “Now a promise like that, you can trust that John McCain and I will keep our promises,” added Palin.

But McCain’s top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, doesn’t believe Palin and McCain will be able to keep her balanced budget promise. In an interview with Neil Cavuto on Thursday, Holtz-Eakin admitted that McCain was “not going to be able to do it”:

CAVUTO: You’re not going to be able to do it.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: I couldn’t agree with you more.

CAVUTO: All right. Then how do you do it?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Let me finish. I did you know we put out a plan and this is how we’ll do it. Then the world exploded. No doubt about t. We’re now looking at a trillion dollars for the federal deficit.

Watch it:

POLK CITY, Florida (CNN) — At a boisterous Sarah Palin rally in Polk City, Florida on Saturday afternoon, one name was surprisingly absent from the campaign décor — John McCain’s.

Looking around the Fantasy of Flight aircraft hangar where the rally took place, there were all the usual reminders that it was a pro-McCain event. There were two large “Country First” banners hung on the walls along with four enormous American flags meant to conjure the campaign’s underlying patriotic theme. Many of the men and women in the audience wore McCain hats and t-shirts.

But on closer inspection, the GOP nominee’s name was literally nowhere to be found on any of the official campaign signage distributed to supporters at the event.

Members of the audience proudly waved “Country First” placards as Palin delivered her stump speech. Those signs were paid for by the Republican National Committee.

The other sign handed out to supporters read “Florida is Palin Country,” but those signs were neither paid for by the Republican National Committee nor the McCain campaign. In small print, the signs were stamped with the line “Paid for and authorized by Putnam for Congress” — as in, the re-election campaign of Florida congressman Adam Putnam, whose district skirts Polk City.

In fact, Putnam’s name was considerably more prominent than was McCain’s — his campaign had placed a number of large “Putnam for Congress” banners around the event site.

GROSSE POINTE FARMS, Mich. - A Grosse Pointe Farms woman has doled out political tricks by refusing Halloween treats to children whose parents support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Shirley Nagel passed out candy Friday — but only to those who shared her support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.

Fox 2 News says a sign posted outside Nagel’s house, about 12 miles west of Detroit, served notice to all trick-or-treaters. It read: “No handouts for Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters.”

Nagel tells WJBK-TV that “Obama’s scary.” When asked about children who’d been turned away empty-handed and crying, she said: “Oh well. Everybody has a choice.”

Fax and phone messages were left Saturday at numbers listed in Nagel’s name.

Newsweek reported late yesterday that senior Obama advisers are discussing a possible visit to Arizona by the candidate during his Western swing-state tour this weekend, heightening the excitement of Democrats here and stoking the momentum that has been building in the state in recent days. Obama spokesman David Plouffe announced this morning that the campaign will be buying air time for the first time in Arizona and will run the campaign’s closing ad. Five polls released over the last week declared the presidential race in Arizona a statistical dead heat.

Working to staunch the bleeding, John McCain has targeted his home state with robocalls and announced this morning that he will visit Prescott, Arizona, on Monday.

When CBS asked Obama campaign Senior Adviser Robert Gibbs whether or not Obama might make a personal appearance in Arizona, he downplayed the possibility but would not rule it out.