I'm not talking about the Lions' possible black out. I'm not talking about the new fall season.

I'm talking about the announcement, reported on Politico and then by The Associated Press, that John McCain was pulling out of Michigan, focusing instead on other major battleground states, such as Pennsylvania and Florida.

Pulling out means no more visits, which is too bad because those make for decent news events and give us a chance to see the candidate mingling with the media and some selected party leaders. Oh, and some voters get into the frame as well.

What I'm most pleased is the other part of pulling out, yanking the TV ads. Now this will not be good news for local television stations and their news departments, but for those of us who get sick of all the ads during the news, sporting events and prime time network TV, this is great news.

Fabulous news, I believe, for both Democrats and Republicans. Now Barack Obama will keep some kind of presence in the state, most likely on TV, to avoid losing a state he should now win; however, he will undoubtedly move money out of this state and into those closer battleground states.

But, for me, I get a relief from the ads, which I had expected to increase until November. Of course, network prime time will still be filled with them, but that's what DVR is for. (That, and I've learned 30-minute baseball games, something my wife can tolerate.)

Now, if we could just get them to advertise in newspapers...