Good Friday morning. Chicago is panicking today, but that has nothing to do with the Obama campaign. Instead, it's all about their Cubbies going down 2-0 in the best of five series with the Dodgers. We know one NBC News political director who's happy about that. Here's what Washington is watching today:

-- The Senate is finished with their legislative work until after the election while the House still has one important task to take care of. If House leaders are confident they've reached 218 votes, the economic stabilization plan will come to the floor today and end what has been a volatile week on Wall Street on a high note. But whether they actually have those votes is another question altogether. Meanwhile, President Bush is headed to St. Louis today to fundraise for Missouri Rep. Kenny Hulshof, the Republican candidate for governor.

-- Back to the stabilization plan for a moment. House leaders have been picking up support for the bill from the left and right, the AP's Julie Hirschfeld Davis writes, but leadership remains unsure they have the votes to reach the 218 they would need to get it through. Barack Obama helped nudge members of the Congressional Black Caucus on board with phone calls of encouragement, including Rep. John Lewis (Reps. Elijah Cummings and Bobby Rush both said they were on the verge of joining Lewis in switching). Meanwhile, key Republicans like Rep. John Shadegg and Zach Wamp have decided to hold their nose and vote in favor of the measure. John McCain and President Bush were also whipping GOP votes, the AP reported.

-- That takes the number of supporters of the bill critically close to a majority, but all is not finished just yet. The Senate version of the bill, which tacks on about $150 billion in pork projects, could pull in members from the left and right while threatening supporters' hold on centrist, fiscally conservative Democrats, Time's Jay Newton-Small writes. All but three of the 47 Blue Dog Democrats voted for the bill last time, but Blue Dog leaders voiced disgust with the amount of added spending in the bill. Usually key to any major legislative compromise, Blue Dogs may be bypassed this time; keep an eye on them, though, as their influence has seriously grown in recent years.

-- Meanwhile, House and Senate members paused last night to keep an eye on Joe Biden and Sarah Palin's first and only vice presidential debate, a contest that likely drew far more viewers than the matchup between both tickets' presidential contenders. Both Biden, the locquatiously gaffe-prone Democrat, and Palin, the stumbling Republican, faced intense pressure to perform, and in both cases, they seemed to pass very different tests.

-- Palin's test was more critical, and virtually every observer concluded she achieved her goals. Hemorrhaging support after a series of interviews that made her look unprepared to be vice president, much less president, Palin had to deliver a performance that reassured Republicans of her ability while giving a good first impression to the millions of undecided voters who tuned in. With a solid performance, a command of almost all the facts (Don't hold one slip on a general's name against her) and good attack lines hitting Barack Obama, Palin held her own, making news by making no news.

-- It should say something that Palin was able to do so against the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, a job that requires one to be an expert talker. And that she did so on a night in which Biden was more on top of his game than at any time during his own presidential run (Save, perhaps, the notion that Rudy Giuliani's sentence structure is "a noun and a verb and 9/11"). Biden's legendary mouth has gotten him in serious trouble before, but he avoided pitfalls last night and delivered his lines as he was supposed to. Biden's a happy guy, and his constant smiles may have looked awkward at times, but he stayed respectful, never talked down to Palin and demonstrated a clear command of the facts. In all, that's a good night.

-- Worried Democrats were waiting for Babbling Biden, while fretting Republicans watched for what would have amounted to a Dan Quayle-esque moment. Both breathed big sighs of relief when the bell rang. In fact, instead of an elder statesman and an underqualified rookie, like the Lloyd Bentsen-Quayle debate in 1988, Biden and Palin came across as equals who made no news and kept most of the focus on the presidential contenders. That, in the end, is good news for both parties.

-- Observations Of The Day: Palin has a compelling personal story, but Biden's raising his sons by himself is something most voters don't know about. That was a big part of Biden's campaign strategy, and it could return. Both candidates had zingers, with Biden pointing to the "ultimate bridge to nowhere" and Palin accusing Democrats of raising the "white flag" in Iraq, but no one landed a Bentsen-esque punch. Moderator Gwen Ifill helped out Democrats by giving Biden a second chance to link Palin, who said she favors an expanded role for the vice presidency, to Dick Cheney; Biden missed the only opportunity for what could have been a serious blow to Palin the first time around, and by the second time, it was less effective. Finally, when was the last time news actually happened in a presidential debate? Does one have to go back to Al Gore sighing in 2000? For the presidential debate next week in Nashville, Tennessee, let's boycott expectations so we're all truly surprised by what happens.

-- Today On The Trail: Obama is in Abington, Pennsylvania for a rally with supporters, while McCain holds a town hall meeting at Colorado State University in Pueblo. Biden will address his son's military unit today, which is shipping off to Iraq, while Palin fundraises in Dallas and San Antonio.