The poll position

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Chuck Todd is making his way from Washington to New York so he can personally debut our new poll numbers on the set with us tonight. They are the latest and most official measurement of where this race stands. We'll check in on both campaigns, we'll fact-check some of the Palin claims, and importantly tonight we'll cover the suffering of tens of thousands of folks in Louisiana who are without power -- and have been told it will be a long time before the power comes back on. I felt awful, candidly, leaving Louisiana after Gustav (after we saw that New Orleans was going to avoid heavy water, the decision was made to move on with the GOP Convention and our coverage) and this is one way to keep the story in front of our viewers. We are thinking of the folks across that region -- especially those in Terrebonne Parish, where they got a substantial swatting from Gustav.

In other news, random thoughts in no particular order: Reading that Lance Armstrong is mulling getting into the '09 Tour de France takes a lot of pressure off of a lot of us. I spent much of the morning on the web selecting a new company cellphone. Mine is now several years old. It has a hand crank, is powered by steam, and all of my calls are routed through a nice woman operator (I believe it's Thelma Lou) who connects me. There were no fewer than 150 options on the company web site, and I selected a model that allows me to turn the lights on and off in my home. And the homes of all my friends. So this ought to be fun.

On the broadcast last night I mistakenly put Wilmington, North Carolina on the "Outer Banks". I knew better -- I've been to Wilmington more than once and got engaged on the Outer Banks. Mistakes happen, but apologies to the folks in Wilmington -- we're up here in New York hoping you have the quietest Atlantic storm season on record.

I hope you can join us for the broadcast tonight.