November 2007

Hillary Clinton appeared on national television tonight to express her relief for the peaceful resolution of a hostage situation at her campaign office in Rochester, N.H.

Clinton, who was not there at the time of the incident but flew to Portsmouth later in the day, said she met with the hostages and their families. She praised them for being "calm and collected under extraordinary pressure."

"I am immensely relieved that this has ended peacefully," Clinton said, surrounded by top local law enforcement officials and New Hampshire Attorney Gen. Kelly Ayotte.

Clinton said the hostage taker, Leeland Eisenberg, was seeking comfort for his "pain and suffering," but did not offer specifics about Eisenberg's requests because the incident is under investigation.

"He was someone who was not known to my campaign until he walked in the door today," she said. "... It appears that he was someone in need of help and sought attention in absolutely the wrong way."

Campaign workers are usually young and hopeful for the country's future, Clinton said, and they come to places like New Hampshire to be a part of the process, to make a difference. As a mother, she said she was especially concerned for their safety.

"It was a just a horrible sense of bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger," she said. "I mean everything at the same time."

Clinton said she was kept apprised throughout the day by New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch and the police of the status of the situation. She also said that these incidents happen and that her campaign would move forward as planned in New Hampshire and beyond.

"I don't see any changes in my schedule, in my campaign," she said. "I am going to continue doing what I'm doing. I love being in New Hampshire."

Clinton resumes her regular campaign schedule tomorrow in Iowa.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

... to hold 10:15 p.m. presser at the Sheraton Harborside Portsmouth Hotel.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

MSNBC shows footage of the hostage-taker leaving HRC's Rochester office. He is shown taking off whatever it was he had strapped to his chest. Wearing a white shirt and red tie, he is cuffed and escorted into police custody ...

No one was hurt.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS STATEMENT ON THE SITUATION AT THE HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN OFFICE IN ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

(Manchester, NH) – Senator John Edwards released the following statement this evening:

"Elizabeth and I send our thoughts and prayers to everyone involved in the ordeal in Rochester, New Hampshire today. Everyday Americans who stand up and get involved on behalf of the candidates they believe in represent the very best of our democracy, and we are praying for a swift and safe resolution to the situation in the Clinton campaign office. We send our deepest admiration to the law enforcement officials working to keep everyone safe today and our warmest thoughts to Senator Clinton and her entire staff during this difficult situation."

WASHINGTON, DC-- New Mexico Governor and Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Richardson today released the following statement on the hostage situation at Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's Rochester, New Hampshire office:

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the hostages, their families, Senator Clinton, and her campaign staff. This incident is an unfortunate reminder of the reality that we always must remain aware of our surroundings and safety. My wife, Barbara, and I sincerely hope that today's incident will be resolved quickly and that no one will be harmed."

Per Reid Cherlin, Barack Obama's NH press secretary:

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Clinton team as we await a safe resolution to this situation."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Per the Concord Monitor:

Hostages released at Clinton campaign office
From staff and wire reports

Two hostages have been released from the Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, the police said, but it was unclear if there were any more inside. An armed man took hostages at the office on 28 North Main St. today at about 1p.m.

Officials with the campaign said that there were two workers taken hostage in the office, but the police have not confirmed that those were the only two hostages in the building.

The two hostages were released at about 3 p.m.

The man had what appeared to be a bomb strapped to himself, said Bill Shaheen, a top state campaign official. He took two hostages, both volunteers, and released others, Shaheen said.

ABC News reported that the hostage-taker was an older male who was well-known locally and has a history of mental illness who told his son today to "watch the news."

He reportedly demanded to speak to Clinton. She was not in New Hampshire today and had been scheduled to address a Democratic National Committee meeting in Vienna, Va.

Witness Lettie Tzizik told television station WMUR that she spoke to a woman shortly after she was released from the office by the suspect. The woman was carrying an infant, and crying.

“She said, ‘You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,” Tzizik said.

Authorities sent a tactical bomb unit to assist local police, and the area was evacuated, said Maj. Michael Hambrook of the state police. A nearby school also was in lockdown.

The Clinton office is in the downtown area in a strip of several storefronts.

WMUR -- Nearby campaign offices for Barack Obama (four doors away from hostage situation) and John Edwards were also evacuated ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

In a televised press conference, NH State police said a five square block perimeter around the HRC building in Rochester has been secured. Bomb squad has been notified. No reported injuries. Following active leads. Won't offer detailes about alleged hostage taker. Won't confirm number of hostages.

"This is still a fluid investigation. We are investigating a hostage situation."

Meanwhile, MSNBC is reporting that the suspect is a white male in his 40s with a history of mental illness.

WMUR -- 20 to 30 business evacuated in Rochester.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

"There is an ongoing situation in our Rochester, NH office. We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction. We will release additional details as appropriate."

Hodes Statement on the Hostage Situation in Rochester

Washington, DC – Congressman Paul Hodes issued the following statement today on the hostage situation in Rochester:

“I join all Granite Staters in hoping for a swift and safe resolution to the situation at Senator Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester. The volunteers, their families, and our first responders are in all of our thoughts and prayers.”

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Because of hostage situation in Rochester, MSNBC reports ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 18 minutes ago

ROCHESTER, N.H. - A man has taken people hostage at a New Hampshire campaign office for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, police said Friday.

The man claimed to have bomb strapped to him when he walked into the office in Rochester, WHDH-TV reported.

WMUR-TV quoted a woman, Lettie Tzizik, who said she spoke to someone with a child who said she had just been released by the man.

"A young woman with a 6-month or 8-mont-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,'" Tzikik said recalling the moment.

Police have surrounded the building, evacuated the immediate area and placed other buildings, including a nearby school, in lockdown.

Clinton, who was scheduled to campaign in Virginia on Friday, was not present at the office on Rochester's Main Street.

The number of hostages was not immediately known.

This report will be updated as information becomes available.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

From today's Hotline:

"I think the surge is working."

-- Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/30.

If anyone doubted that Mike Huckabee raised his profile after a fine performance in the CNN/You Tube debate Wednesday night, doubt no more.

This first-personer from NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli, who is in Concord today covering the former Arkansas governor:

"I've covered Huckabee up here at lets say at least a dozen events since September. Many of those events, I was the only camera there, and a few times I was the only reporter, period.

"Today, as he's about to begin speaking in Concord, there are, that I know for sure, at least two network crews (NBC and CBS), the Boston CBS affil, a CNN crew and Anderson Cooper, the CNN embed, and myself. Some national print folks, and plenty of local press, including John DiStaso, who doesn't come out to candidate events that often.

"Also, Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, is introducing Huck.

"Just a sign of how far he's come so fast."

Lynch said that he and Huckabee became friends through the National Governors Association, Memoli reports.

Per NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann:

Interstate 80, which crosses the state of Iowa from east to west, isn't just a thoroughfare for campaign movement. It's also heavily traversed by truck drivers and other lone travelers who would perhaps be tempted to stop at the Baxter exit at the prominent clapboard building simply labeled "Adult Super Store."

Well, some forward-thinking religious activists have bought advertising space to subtly guilt travelers into reconsidering that sinful stop in Baxter. About five miles before the exit, a plainly worded billboard on the left side of 80 reads: "JESUS: Adult Super Savior."

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Barack Obama and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg met for breakfast this morning, an encounter that was publicly announced around 3 a.m.

Reporters watched the pols through a window of "The Luncheonette" on 50th Street between 3rd Ave. and Lexington. Though the mob assembled couldn't hear anything through the plexiglass, Bloomberg and Obama spoke for at least forty minutes over coffee, tea, eggs and bacon, reports NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan.

From the press's vantage point, it appeared that the mayor likes to put a 'liberal' amount of salt on his eggs. Sen. Obama appears to enjoy tea over a cup of joe in the morning.

The men shared a couple of laughs towards the end of the breakfast. Obama picked up the check of about $11 dollars and left a $10 tip on the table. The manager of The Luncheonette said the place was no stranger to politicians. Rudy Giuliani frequently stops in, and President Carter has also visited.

The mayor's office stressed that he has met with almost all of the candidates running for office, but could not confirm if he had such a a public "private" meeting with anyone else running for president. The last time the mayor met with Senator Hillary Clinton was on September 11th, according to aides.

The meeting between the two has fueled speculation about whether Bloomberg, who has said that he will not run for president, will endorse a presidential candidate. His press aides would not entertain the question today.

Washington Post's Howard Kurtz writes today that reporters covering Hillary Clinton are struggling mightly for access -- and just to keep up with the candidate ...

"National correspondents are increasingly frustrated by a lack of access to Clinton. They spend much of their time in rental cars chasing her from one event to the next, because the campaign usually provides no press bus or van. Life on the bus means journalists don't have to worry about luggage or directions or getting left behind, since they are part of the official motorcade. News organizations foot the bill for such transportation, but campaigns have to staff and coordinate the buses -- and deal with the constant presence of their chroniclers."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Jennifer Skalka (Email this author)
© National Journal Group, Inc.

COLEBROOK, N.H. -- When Ron Paul walked into the living room of this large house with an American flag out front and the crackle of a warm fire inside, Gloria Burchett leaped from the couch and extended her hand. The West Stuartstown resident, a traveling nurse and the mother of four, explained that she had driven almost five hours from her latest job to tell the Republican presidential candidate that he has her support.

"It's just such an honor to meet you," said Burchett, an undeclared voter in this first-in-the-nation-primary state.

Over wine and cheese, Burchett's husband explained why they are eyeing Paul. "It's his principles," said Timothy Burchett, an undeclared voter with Democratic leanings. "He does not sway in the wind."

The Texas congressman is depending on folks like the Burchetts to help him upend the GOP contest in New Hampshire. This primary cycle, a record 45 percent of registered New Hampshire voters are undeclared, according to Secretary of State Bill Gardner. There are more undeclared voters this year than there are registered Democrats or Republicans, and they can vote in either party's primary.

Paul is the indisputable no-name candidate on the crowded Republican side, but his anti-war, pro-gun, anti-abortion message has helped him to gain traction in the Granite State, where voters have historically gravitated to the renegade, the long shot.

Think Pat Buchanan in 1996. Or John McCain in 2000.

Read the rest of my National Journal my piece ... After the jump.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Mike Huckabee made the TV rounds last night:

Huckabee, asked why WH '08 GOPers are "submitting to religious vetting about" their "belief in the literal nature of the Bible": "When guys like you quit asking it, we'll quit answering it. But the fact is, we get asked these questions in the debates, and if we evade them, if we act like we're not going to answer them, then we're going to get hammered for being unwilling to address the questions that are put to us. So that's why I keep answering them."

NEW YORK, NY -- At the Apollo in Harlem on Thursday, some of the most memorable lines of the evening were not delivered by the historic theater's headliner Barack Obama, who was here for a campaign fundraiser.

Instead, it was comedian and actor, Chris Rock, who had the crowd cheering and roaring with laughter with his introduction of Obama.

In urging the audience to support Obama, Rock teased the crowd, "Progressive people want to be on the right side of history because you'd be real embarrassed if he won and you weren't down with him ... I can't call him now I was with that white lady what was I thinking?"

Rock went on to belittle President Bush and compared the way the federal government handled its response to the wild fires in California to the emergency response in Katrina.

"This is how [Bush] dealt with catastrophe. The fires in LA he was there the next day," Rock said. "White people burning he was there. Black people drowning he don't care… He was putting out the fires with Katrina water!"

The crowd went crazy, and when Obama took the stage he joked that it wasn't always a good thing to follow the likes of not only Chris Rock but also academic Cornell West who had previously spoken. The only other well known VIP to attend the event was rapper Q-Tip, who never took the stage, reports NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan.

Speaking for about half an hour, Obama stuck to a speech that he has delivered before in South Carolina on why he's running for office with a new kind of politics. He didn't attack his fellow Democrats.

However, he did get a lot of laughs, when he told the crowd that he wasn't running because of some "long-held ambition" or because he felt "it was owed to him."

The crowd at the fundraiser held at the Apollo was racially diverse and unusually attentive. The normally raucous theater had near pin drop silence at times as Obama spoke, a stark contrast to the loud cheering that can often drown at his voice at large gatherings.

The event at the Apollo and Obama's earlier photo op with Al Sharpton appeared to project the candidate as one who is at home with Black America.

More after the jump, however, from a Harlem truck driver who said HRC has his vote.

Barack Obama spoke to a packed crowd at the Apollo Thursday night. But the real story happened a few hours before, when he sat down to have dinner with the Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia's Restaurant, a Harlem institution.

Obama had showed up at Sharpton's office just a few blocks away earlier in the day to ask the reverend to have dinner with him at Sylvia's so they could talk about the importance of hate crime legislation. The Obama campaign made sure to invite the New York and national press along to photograph the event.

Sharpton said repeatedly that his meeting with Obama was not an endorsement of the senator, though he did praise him for paying attention to the issue of hate crimes, reports NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan.

"And we are trying to get hate crime legislation, and I think it showed something for him to call us and bring me to dinner and say I want to come out strong on it," Sharpton said.

Asked if the meeting had moved the reverend closer to endorsing, "Well, we'll wait and see. I didn't go to the Apollo because I'm not endorsing," Sharpton added.

Sharpton bashes Dem candidates after the jump ...

MEMORANDUM

TO: McCain Leadership

FROM: Rick Davis

DATE: November 29, 2007

SUBJECT: One President on Stage

At last night’s CNN/YouTube Debate in Tampa, Florida, John McCain was the only candidate who sounded like a president - clear in his vision for a safe and strong America - and the only candidate on stage with the experience and knowledge to be commander in chief on his first day in office. I have to think the Clinton campaign is having a great day after watching the various school yard fights that broke out between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Do we really believe that by ripping our party apart on immigration we will be better able to win a general election against Hillary Clinton and the Democrats?

We need John McCain to be our party’s nominee to restore integrity to Washington and dignity to the chaotic selection process. All current national polls show that today John McCain is best able to defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election. Americans know he is ready to lead, but it is also becoming clear that John McCain’s ability to contrast with Hillary Clinton on substance, rather than just name-calling, will be a difference maker in the general election.

In his post debate analysis, Bill Kristol said, "McCain seemed by far the most plausible commander in chief." David Gergen agreed, saying that John McCain was the most presidential.

While other candidates spent their time delivering canned one-liners, debating lawn care and taking credit for stopping snow storms, John McCain took on the toughest issues with bold honesty and moral certainty. Instead of bickering and playing “gotcha politics,” he cut through the petty back and forth with a vision for America’s future in the war against Islamic extremism, fighting wasteful spending, reforming Washington, finding a real solution to border security and upholding American values. He did not equivocate and he did not rely on the advice of his lawyers and advisors; he spoke with a voice of reason and experience. As Jonah Goldberg with National Review said about his discussion of the immigration issue, he was “grown-up and serious.”

By being “grown-up and serious,” John McCain reminded us that the Presidency of the United States is more than just an office won in a partisan contest; it is the embodiment of the values and ideals of our nation. A president does not hide behind lawyers and advisors when discussing national security or the pros and cons of torture, as Mitt Romney did last night. A president stands up for the principles that make our country great and condemns such practice as antithetical to American values. John McCain was the only candidate on the stage last night not only willing to do so, but with the experience to speak with gravitas. As David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register said, “McCain had his strongest debate of the campaign. He was forceful and blunt throughout.”

The St. Petersburg Times summed up John McCain’s performance in an editorial this morning, “McCain's once-foundering campaign has experienced a recent resurgence, and the debate should give him another boost with Republicans interested more in tested leadership than pure ideology.” By acting like a leader, John McCain also showed why he’s the only candidate in this race who will defeat Hillary Clinton. No Republican is going to beat Hillary Clinton by debating lawn care; she is too politically savvy to take the bait and get into such petty debate.

John McCain will take on the tough issues, offer a vision and contrast it directly with Hillary Clinton’s liberal alternatives – not only offering a vision more acceptable to the American people, but restoring to politics the kind of leadership and discourse Americans long for in a president. One man on stage last night was presidential; one man on stage showed the moral fortitude we need in a leader; one man demonstrated that he is prepared to be commander in chief – John McCain.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Sam Brownback stumping for John McCain today in Des Moines, revealed, perhaps, his very most secret desire ... To be Barbra Streisand.

Er?

"I wish that he had glitzier people up here to represent him," the former candidate told an audience of Iowa county officials this morning. "I'm not Barbara Streisand. I'm not Oprah."

"I wish I were," he added.

The often straight-laced conservative senator cocked his head and reconsidered the remark as the crowd chuckled. "Okay," he conceded with a smile, "But I wish I could sing like that."

Brownback, who dropped out of the presidential race in October, is now stumping full-force for colleague John McCain here in Iowa. The McCain campaign hopes to harvest support from former Brownback supporters, many of them Christian pro-life conservatives, reports NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann.

And no one can say that the man from Kansas doesn't have a sense of humor about it.

"Many candidates enter and few leave Iowa," he told members of the Iowa State Association of Counties. "I should know. I'm one of them."

Brownback told NBC/NJ after his remarks that there's a "certain wistfulness" to campaigning on a former rival's behalf, but he hopes that his endorsement of McCain will give him "some cache with another segment of the electorate." He conceded that many of his former supporters will likely be won over by Baptist charmer Gov. Mike Huckabee – "yeah, we'll lose some," he said -- but added that Huckabee suffers from weakness on foreign and economic policy experience.

All he wants, he said, is to makes sure that McCain isn't overlooked as Iowans consider their choices for January. "I just hope people give him a second look."

Brownback says that he came out of his failed bid for the presidency "a better man." But for now, he seems to be enjoying going to bat for his longtime Senate colleague.

And being a U.S. Senator ain't half bad either. "It's a great gig," he told the crowd today. "You should try it sometime."

This email went out to NH Dems this week from Bill Richardson's campaign manager, Dave Contarino ... Money running out???

Dear XYZ,

Dave

That 'help is on the way' line, Very Kerry/Edwards 2004 ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

From today's Hotline:

"I had nothing to do with the handling of their records."

-- Rudy Giuliani, on reports that his NYC security costs were shifted to obscure city offices, CNN, 11/28.

Former Illinois Rep. Hyde Dies

By JIM ABRAMS –

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Rep. Henry Hyde, the Illinois Republican who steered the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton and was a hero of the anti-abortion movement, died Thursday. He was 83.

The death of the Illinois Republican was announced by House Minority Leader John Boehner's office on Capitol Hill.

Mary Ann Schultz, a spokeswoman for Rush University Medical Center, said Hyde died Thursday at 3 a.m. CST at that hospital. There was no immediate word on the cause of his death, although Hyde underwent open-heart surgery in July.

Hyde retired from Congress at the end of the last session. Earlier this month, President Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The White House praised Hyde, a leading foe of abortion, as a "powerful defender of life" and an advocate for a strong national defense.

"He was a gallant champion of the weak and forgotten, and a fearless defender of life in all its seasons," Bush said of Hyde that day.

Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement: "In his respect for the institutional integrity of the House of Representatives, Henry took second place to no one."

Said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who heads the conservative Republican Study Committee: "Chairman Hyde was a pioneer in the effort to protect human life, and because of his tireless efforts, there are thousands of people living around the world today who remember his service to mankind."

"Henry Hyde was a credit to public service and to the House of Representatives," said Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. "He practiced the old school values like civility, which help make the legislative process work. And he knew how to defuse a difficult situation with humor."

The white-maned, physically imposing Hyde was a throwback to a different era, a man who was genuinely liked by his opponents for his wit, charm and fairness. But he could also infuriate them with his positions on some of the more controversial issues of the day.

He made a name for himself in 1976, just two years after his first election from the district that includes O'Hare Airport, by attaching an amendment to a spending bill banning the use of federal funds to carry out abortions.

What came to be known as the "Hyde Amendment" has since become a fixture in the annual debate over federal spending, and has served as an important marker for abortion foes seeking to discourage women from terminating pregnancies.

Hyde was also a leader in passing the ban on so-called partial birth abortions, the first federal restriction on a specific abortion procedure. "The people we pretend to defend, the powerless, those who cannot escape, who cannot rise up in the streets, these are the ones that ought to be protected by the law," he said during the 2003 debate. "The law exists to protect the weak from the strong."

Abortion was an issue that the Irish-Catholic Hyde pursued as a matter of conscience. Clinton's impeachment, by contrast, was a matter thrust upon him.

As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in 1998 he led House efforts to impeach Clinton for allegedly lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and then in 1999 was the chief House manager in the unsuccessful bid to win a Senate conviction.

A reluctant warrior, Hyde saw his own reputation tarnished during the process when an online magazine revealed that he'd had his own affair with a married woman some 30 years before. Hyde, in his early 40s at the time of the affair, brushed it off as a "youthful indiscretion."

More from the AP after the jump ...

Fred Thompson's "Revolution" video, aired in shorter form during the GOP debate last night, is being touted as the first true GOP attack ad of the campaign (that doesn't mention Hillary Clinton). It's available on the web only but could have an impact, in On Call's modest estimation, if it ran in condensed form in early states.

In it, Thompson's team shows clips of Mitt Romney asserting that abortion "should be safe and legal in this country" and that "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard ... " It includes as well clips of Mike Huckabee saying that a surcharge on the income tax is "fine" with him and that he'd back a sales tax as well. Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, is shown endorsing Democrat Mario Cuomo for governor. "Mario Cuomo will simply be a better governor than George Pataki," he says. In another statement included in the video, Giuliani slams the NRA, saying it "goes way overboard, almost what the extremists on the other side do."

The punchline ... "During the Republican Revolution Fred Thompson was leading as a proud conservative. What were others doing? ... We will win next November by sticking to our conservative principles."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Well, that would be a stretch, for sure. But John Edwards' campaign posted this You Tube video from CNN's post-debate chat with undecided Republican voters ... At least one gal walked away from the GOP debate less than satisfied with the choices ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Mitt Romney had a lousy night, failing to effectively explain his positions on abortion (he's for a ban now, but was indeed once upon a time pro-choice) and waterboarding (he can't say what interrogation methods he'd sanction as president, but would consult with military experts). And though his back and forth with Rudy Giuliani on immigration was awkward for both, Romney leaves one questionning how he could blatantly mislead viewers by saying he did not employ illegal workers on his property. Romney said he used a company that employed them but that he didn't know anything about the workers' individual status. Oh, ok ...

So this morning, with most post debate analysis scoring the event for minister/rocker/former governor Mike Huckabee, the Romney campaign, stuggling to pitch their guy as the contest's true conservative, trotted out an endorsement from David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a Republican strategist.

In a statement issued today by the campaign, Keene said that "while I certainly can't pretend to speak for all or even most conservatives, the road that led me here today is one that many conservatives find themselves on and it is my hope that they will end up where I am today – convinced that Mitt Romney represents our best hope for 2008.

"As this race began, I intended to remain neutral both because there was no conservative consensus candidate and because I know and admire several of those running for the Republican nomination who I believe could win next fall.

"In recent months, however, Governor Romney has emerged as the single candidate most worthy of conservative support. That's why I'm endorsing him and intend to spend as much time as possible in the weeks ahead convincing my fellow conservatives that if we are serious about electing a conservative president in 2008, it's time to unite behind his candidacy."

Romney's response: "I am proud that David Keene has decided to join our campaign for conservative change that strengthens our military, economy and families. As Chairman of the American Conservative Union, he has greatly advanced the conservative movement. I look forward to working with him as our campaign moves forward."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Rudy Giuliani has a new television ad up in New Hampshire, telling voters there that he believes "reducing taxes produces more revenues." Instead of going after rival Mitt Romney's record on taxes, a point his campaign hammered yesterday before the Florida debate, he says that Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards will raise taxes "even more than they promise." Critical message in tax-averse NH. Question is ... Will Granite State voters buy it?

MAYOR GIULIANI: “When I became Mayor of New York City things were out of control. I lowered taxes. I reduced the growth of government. Made government more accountable. And New York City boomed. I would do these things for America because I know they work. I know that reducing taxes produces more revenues. Democrats don’t know that. They don’t believe it. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, here’s a promise I assure you they’ll keep. They are making the promise to raise taxes. The only thing I can tell you in addition to that is they’ll raise taxes even more than they promise. I’m Rudy Giuliani and I approve this message.”

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

It was an emotional moment in an otherwise quick moving, friction-packed GOP debate when U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr asked a question about gays in the military. Kerr, who said he served his country for 42 years and is gay, was in the audience to hear the candidates' answers. But buzz circulated promptly in the blogosphere about Kerr's ties to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Kerr had indeed endorsed HRC. CNN apologized ... Below for those who missed it ...

November 29, 2007
General from GOP debate linked to Democratic campaign

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (CNN) — During Wednesday night's CNN-YouTube debate retired brigadier general Keith Kerr, posed a powerful question about gays in the military. The general had been invited to attend the debate and was given an opportunity to address whether his question was answered.

Following the debate, CNN learned that Kerr was listed as a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Americans For Hillary Clinton Steering Committee.

CNN Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the debate, David Bohrman, says, "We regret this, and apologize to the Republican candidates. We never would have used the General's question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate."

Prior to the debate, CNN had verified his military background and that he had not contributed any money to any presidential candidate.

Following the debate, Kerr told CNN that he's done no work for the Clinton campaign. He says he is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans and was representing no one other than himself.

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Here is some reaction to last night's WH'08 GOP CNN/YouTube debate in FL:

Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "On style, I think that the most presidential tonight were John McCain, who has found his voice again. ... And I thought Rudy Giuliani. But the candidate I think that the spotlight was shining on tonight and who really emerged as the most authentic and human was Mike Huckabee. Huckabee continually responded to questions with a compassionate, sort of human quality that I think will appeal to a lot of people in their homes" ("AC 360," CNN, 11/28).

1. Huckabee
2. Giuliani
3. Romney
4. McCain
4. Paul
5. Thompson ...

Huck gave clear, thoughtful answers to questions about the death penalty, the Bible and immigration. He also had the funniest line of the night, per the WWJD? death penalty inquiry. "Jesus Was Too Smart to Ever Run for Public Office, Anderson." Huckabee also looked more statesmanlike than his frontrunner counterparts, who sniped about sanctuary cities, illegal workers and more.

Giuliani got off easy when asked to respond to Politico's report of his security detail's use of public dollars to facilitate affair with Judith Nathan. But he did stick it to Romney on the opening immigration q, pointing out that Romney did indeed employ illegal workers at his "mansion." Romney denied it, saying a person can't ask every individual who works on his property for their citizenship papers, but Rudy's campaign quickly blitzed reporters the Boston Globe article revealing that Romney hired a company that used illegal workers to tend his 2 1/2 acre grounds. Expect to see this denial and the Globe story in an ad ...

Romney, meanwhile, appeared on defense most of the night, on that opening immigration q, and on his shifting positions on abortion and gays in the military. He gave hazy answers to the latter two questions that smacked of HRC's initial debate answer to the driver's license q. He seemed to lose his skirmish with McCain over the waterboarding issue as well, declining to say if he'd back the controversial method of interrogation. Romney's most (only?) authentic moment came during the question of what the Confederate flag means to him. "That's not a flag that I recognize or that I would not hold up in my room. ... This country can go beyond that kind of stuff," he said.

More tomorrow ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Rudy: "Since I've left being mayor of NYC the Yankees have won none."

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Q to Ron Paul ...

Are you going to let America down by not running as an Independent?

No dice, he said. The revolution ends with the GOP nomination ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Romney: "That's not a flag that I recognize or that I would not hold up in my room. ... This country can go beyond that kind of stuff."

Thompson: "I know that everybody who hangs a flag up in their room like that is not racist. I also know for a great many Americans it's a symbol of racism. ... As far as a public place is concernedIi'm glad the people have made the decision not to display it."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Huckabee wants to expand space program. More money for science and technology. Not sure about whether we should send humans to Mars, but said he has a few suggestions about folks who should go if a trip materializes. "Maybe Hillary could be on the first rocket to Mars."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Romney: Reagan meantioned in answer #4. ... But no clear response on the policy q.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Hunter:" I believe in what Colin Powell said when he said that having openly homosexual people serving in the ranks would be bad for unit cohesion."

Huckabee: Uniform code of military justice is probably the best rule. Conduct could put at risk morale. "I think that's what our policy is what it is."

Romney: (FLIPS and FLOPS when Anderson quotes him saying previously that he looks forward to a time when gays and lesbians can serve openly.) Times have changed, Romney said. "I didn't think don't ask don't tell would work. When i heard about it I laughed. ... "

The questionner, in the audience tonight, rose to express his dissatisfaction with the candidates' answers. "I did not get an answer from the candidates. American men and women in the military are professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians. ... Don't ask, don't tell is destructive to our military policy. ..." He served for 42 years and didn't reveal he was gay until he retired.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

To air in NH and Iowa ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Thompson: "I think that a vice president ought to have substantial authority." Expertise in domestic and national security areas critical. Be able to take place of president.

Too much authority to Cheney? Anderson asks...

McCain promises straight talk in answering the question. When Bush took office, he said, "he did not have as much national security experience as I do, so he had to rely on the vice president of the United States."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Q about whether Rudy is using 9/11 to win the White House.

Giuliani asks that people look at his whole record. Veers into discussion of prosecutions of criminals and talk of his management of NYC, says he reduced taxes, spending, welfare, abortions (?), increased adoptions. All before 9/11.

"I've been tested," he said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Romney: "I oppose torture." But wouldn't say which measures he would and would not use. Would not answer the question.

McCain: "Well, governor, I'm astonished that you would think such a torture would be inflicted on anyone who we have held captive. ... it's in violation of the Geneva convention ... And, governor, if we're going to get the high ground in this world ... we're not going to torture people."

Smackdown.

Romney response: "I appreciate your strong response, and you have the credentials upon which to make that response." He still says, though, that he would not specify what means of interrogation he would sanction. (This is going to come back to bite Romney. This seemed a very Clintonesque driver's license answer..)

"Life is not 24 and Jack Bauer," McCain responded. Methods should be humane, but effective.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Rudy: Remain on offense against Islamic terrorism. Reminds that post 9/11 he said Americans shouldn't engage in "group blame."

During Dem debate, Rudy said: "Not a single one of those Democratic candidates used the word Islamic terrorism. I don't know who they think they are offending."

McCain: Continue this troop surge in Iraq, which is succeeding. "We are winning the war in Iraq. That's the first thing I would do." Reconstruct Iraq. Fight back Dems efforts to set a date for withdrawal, "which is a date for surrender."

Hunter: Americans help in instances of disease and tsunami and more." I will never apologize for the United States of America."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

So far the funniest, with Thompson's a smart second ....

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Rudy:" I think it's the greatest book ever written. I read it frequently." But doesn't believe everything in it. Some things are allegorical, he said.

Romney: "I believe the Bible is the word of God. ... I try to live by it."

MH: "It's the word of revelation from God himself." No finite person is ever going to fully understand it ... If they do, their God is too small."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Huck, appearing teary-eyed, says he's only person on stage who has had to make that decision -- and that it weighed heavily on him. "I believe there is a place for the death penalty, some crimes are so heinous, so horrible ... "

What Would Jesus Do?, Anderson repeats the question to Huck.

"Jesus Was Too Smart to Ever Run for Public Office, Anderson." The audience cheered. Even Rudy applauded.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Sign abortion ban if Roe v. Wade was overturned?

Rudy: No, I would leave it to the states to make that decision. Doesn't think it should be criminalized, unless late term or partial birth abortion.

Romney: I agree with Sen. Thompson. We should overturn Roe v. Wade. And return these issues in the states. "I'd be delighted to sign that bill, but that's not where we are."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/01/illegal_immigrants_toiled_for_governor/

Illegal immigrants toiled for governor

December 1, 2006

This story was reported by Jonathan Saltzman and Maria Cramer of the Globe staff and by Globe correspondent Connie Paige and was written by Saltzman.

SUCHITEPEQUEZ, Guatemala -- Outside his aqua-colored concrete house here, Rene Alvarez Rosales paused under an almond tree to answer questions about a subject with which he has surprising familiarity: Governor Mitt Romney's Belmont lawn.

For about eight years, Rosales said, he worked on and off landscaping the grounds at Romney's home, occasionally getting a "buenos dias" from Romney or a drink of water from his wife, Ann.

"She is very nice," said Rosales, 49.

About 6 miles away in Copado, a 37-year-old man who recently returned to Guatemala from the United States told a similar story, describing long days tending Romney's 2 1/2-acre grounds.

"They wanted that house to look really nice," said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous. "It took a long time."

As Governor Mitt Romney explores a presidential bid, he has grown outspoken in his criticism of illegal immigration. But, for a decade, the governor has used a landscaping company that relies heavily on workers like these, illegal Guatemalan immigrants, to maintain the grounds surrounding his pink Colonial house on Marsh Street in Belmont.

The Globe recently interviewed four current and former employees of Community Lawn Service with a Heart, the tiny Chelsea-based company that provides upkeep of Romney's property. All but one said they were in the United States illegally.

The employees told the Globe that company owner Ricardo Saenz never asked them to provide documents showing their immigration status and knew they were illegal immigrants.

"He never asked for papers," said Rosales, who said he had paid smugglers about $5,000 to take him across the US-Mexican border and settled in Chelsea.

The workers said they were paid in cash at $9 to $10 an hour and sometimes worked 11-hour days.

Romney never inquired about their status, they said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Thompson: "I own a couple of guns, but I'm not going to tell you what they are or where they are."

McCain: "I know how to use guns, I don't own one."

Mayor Giuliani said he doesn't own a gun. Romney said he has two guns in his home, both owned by son, Josh.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Hunter will strongly enforce the Second Amendment. Shocking.

Q about past quote from Rudy that anyone wanting to own a gun should pass a written exam.

"i believe we have to be very aggressive about enforcing the gun laws that exist," Rudy said in response.

NYC, as a result, went from being the most dangerous cities to one of the safest, he added.

Rudy is booed for saying that government should be allowed to impose reasonable regulations. Criminal backgrounds, mental health issues should prohibit gun ownership.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

This is like a debate within a debate ...

Thompson's dishy vid shows footage, however, of Romney making a pro-choice promise.

"I was wrong," Romney said of his earlier position.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Rudy answers Politico story q ... Says it's not true. That he had 24-hour security because "there were threats" ... "They followed me everywhere," he said of his detail.

"I had nothing to do with the handling of their records, and they were handled as far as I know appropriately," he said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

No to raising taxes? ... Norquist asks for the candidates' pledges ...

Tom Tancredo: Yes to Grover
Huck: Yes
MR: Yes, and signed pledge first, he notes.
Rudy: Yes
Fred Thompson: Never met a tax i like. "I don't do pledges to anybody but the American people."
McCain: "My pledge, and my record is up to the American people."
Paul: Never voted for a tax increase, never will. You can easily pledge to lower taxes, but you have to cut spending.
Duncan Hunter: Wrong to say absolutely, could have a national emergency.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

McCain to Paul about his pledge to bring the troops home from Iraq:
"That kind of isolationism, sir, is what cause WWII. We allowed Hitler to come to power with that kind of attitude of isolationism ... "

The message from the troops, McCain said, to their elected officials is: Llet us win."

Paul: The real question you have to ask, he said, is why do I get the most money from active duty officers and military personnel. "He doesn't even understand the difference between non intervention and isolationism," Paul said, as McCain stewed next to him.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Ron Paul: "Washington did not change me, and I would like to change Washington."

Paul would cut the Depts of Energy and Homeland Security. (Reagan mention No. 3, by the by, in this answer.)

Huck: Get rid of the IRS. Big applause. Enact fair tax. More big applause. And "I agree, we need to revamp Homeland Security."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

This Q from a Penn State student ...

McCain: We've provided over the greatest expansion of govt," he said. The latest example being SCHIP, the children's health insurance plan that will be paid for by a cigarette tax increase.

"I'd veto every single pork barrel bill that comes across my desk," McCain said, promising to use a veto pen that Ronald Reagan once gave him. First Ronald Reagan mention alert.

Giuliani: We need across the board spending cuts, "the way Ronald Reagan did." (Gipper mention No. 2)

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Q3: Do you back a law to give military families the same tuition breaks as illegal immigrants?

Mike Huckabee: "We're not going to punish a child because a parent committed a crime." Bill alluded to in the question, which didn't pass, but would've brought people from illegal to legal status, Huck said.

Romney: "He basically just said that he fought for giving scholarships to illegal aliens. ... Mike, that's not your money, that's the taxpayers money. ... The right thing is to help legal aliens." if you are here illegally, Romney said, you ought to be able "to return home."

They didn't get something better they had to earn the scholarships, Huckabee countered, asserting that without his education he wouldn't be standing on the stage.

Huck scored with this ... "We're a better country than to punish children for what their parents did."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

John McCain: "This whole debate saddens me a bit," McCain said. Saying that he tried to propose a plan to secure the borders but that the American people weren't interested. They didn't buy the plan, McCain said, because they've lost faith in government, post Iraq, post Katrina and as deficits soar.

"We tried, and we failed," McCain said, reiterating that the border needs to be secured, but that the issue of illegal immigrants deserves a more thoughtful approach.

"These are God's children as well, and they need some protection under the law," he said. "And they need some of our love and compassion."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Dick Armey, the ghost of Richard Nixon, aliens, Abe Lincoln, animals (stuffed and unstuffed) all submitted questions, according to Anderson Cooper.

And Chuck Norris is in the audience ...

Question one from Ernie of Brooklyn, NYC to Rudy Giuliani: When he was mayor NYC was a sanctuary city ... Will you continue to aid and abet flood of illegals into this country?

RG: NYC was not a sanctuary city, Giuliani said. He said his administration allowed children of illegal immigrants to go to school, to keep them off the streets during a crime wave. He would support the creation of a fence or virtual fence, tamper proof id card, among other measures.

Mitt Romney -- "Absolutely" NYC was a sanctuary city.

"This just happens to be a differencef between Mayor Giuliani and myself ... if you're here illegal we're not going to give you benefits."

RG: "Mitt generally criticizes people in a situation in which he's had the worst record." Romney, in fact, had not just a sanctuary city in his state, RG said, but he owned a "sanctuary mansion ... Iin his own home illegal immigrants were being employed."

"i would say he had sanctuary mansion not just sanctuary city."

MR: "Mayor, you know better than that."

RG: "You did have illegal imigrants working at your mansion. Did you not?"

MR: "No, I didn't."

Friction anyone?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A televised debate set for next month among the Democratic presidential candidates will be canceled to avoid a potential conflict with striking Hollywood screenwriters, a source close to organizers said on Wednesday.

The decision by the Democratic National Committee came after several candidates said they would refuse to cross picket lines of the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike against major film and television studios since November 5.

A debate among eight Democrats running for the White House had been scheduled for December 10 at the CBS Television City studio in Los Angeles, where striking writers have been routinely picketing.

Rudy Giuliani will likely have to answer questions tonight about a Politico report alleging that as NYC mayor he used public funds to rendezvous with his then mistress, now wife Judith Nathan, in the Hamptons.

Check out this excerpt from Politico reporter Ben Smith's story:

As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.

But the practice of transferring the travel expenses of Giuliani's security detail to the accounts of obscure mayoral offices has never been brought to light, despite behind-the-scenes criticism from the city comptroller weeks after Giuliani left office.

Not the news Rudy probably wanted to break before a critical debate and just more than a month before primary season commences.

The NYT, ABC News, The Huffington Post and others have already picked up the Smith story. How will Giuliani dismiss these charges? Can he ... ? Will Nathan show for the CNN/YouTube debate?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

UPDATE -- EDWARDS camp says no error here, Web video is set to preview a canvass that begins this weekend in New Hampshire. The event is 37 days before the primary ...

"37 million Americans live in poverty, 37 days until the New Hampshire primary, 37 reasons why poverty affects us all ..."

This is the intro to a new John Edwards campaign video circulating on You Tube. It's an effective piece, with 37 Edwards supporters saying how hard it is to make ends meet, that they're strapped to repay college loans or for their health insurance and more. "Because I was the first in my family to graduate from college," Edwards says to camera.

But there's one bitty thematic problem -- it's actually 41 days until the Jan. 8 NH primary ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Likely, though given the shift in dynamics in Iowa maybe not as likely as it was when the GOPers last debated. But Hillary Clinton spokesman Phil Singer forwarded to reporters today the latest reason, in his eyes, for any renewed GOP criticism of HRC -- a new CNN poll that shows her defeating Rudy Giuliani in Florida -- even though he holds a firm double-digit lead among Republicans.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

So On Call was going to preview the Florida GOP debate, hosted tonight at 8 p.m. by CNN and You Tube, but the candidates are, it seems, doing this for us.

Mitt Romney might have been playing a virtually Kennedy-esque game of flag football with his clan earlier today, but the good fun was tainted by a Rudy Giuliani campaign release accusing the former Massachusetts governor of raising taxes. (Which could be perceived as the sin of all sins, by the way, by NH voters.)

The Rudy release quotes former Mass Gov. Paul Cellucci, saying, "Not only was Mitt Romney unsuccessful in cutting taxes, he raised them. Fees went up, government spending went up, and we still dont know just how much his universal health care plan will cost Massachusetts for generations to come. By any measure, Mitt Romney was unable to bring about the fiscal discipline in Massachusetts that Mayor Giuliani brought to New York City."

The document cites a slew of headlines highlighting those increases: $500 million in fees, $400 million in business taxes, an income tax hike on non-profits. The piece even quotes Hillary Clinton's Leg Director Laurie Rubiner telling Politico's Ben Smith that Romney's health care plan in Mass was essentially a big government plan. Romney's plan, others say, amounted to a huge strain, a tax, on businesses.

Romney wasn't having any of it. "I cut taxes 19 times," he told reporters, per NBC/NJ's Erin McPike. His campaign circulated a document to reporters, listing those 19 tax cuts. Among them, McPike reports, the Fire Sprinkler Accelerated Depreciation and the Senior Circuit Breaker Expansion. Some of the 19 were not filed by the governor but enacted by the legislature.

So, taxes. Expect, good readers of On Call, to hear just a wee bit more on taxes this evening.

More ...

Crime. Same two guys. Nuf said.

Watch for any combination of the first and second-tier candidates to go after Mike Huckabee, who has surged since the last Republican debate more than a month ago. Huckabee's gotten a pass so far, but as Romney scraps to hold on to a single-digit lead over Huck in Iowa, expect some fireworks. And look for Fred Thompson to have at Huck in some form or fashion as well. (Wayne DuMond?)

Thompson Communications Dir. Karen Hanretty did try to lower the bar on her boss's performance. "Thirty-second answers," she said, are not Thompson's best forum, per NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy. "How many primary voters and early state caucus goers will be watching these debates?" she said. "Quite frankly, the viewing audience hasn't been that high." She said debates don't really drive campaigns and elections.

Immigration, English-only education in the public schools, in-state tuition for immigrants. Nuf said. (Oh but one humble suggestion for Anderson Cooper, maybe as the candidates muse about the drain the nation's illegal immigrants place on the school system or how they're taking jobs that good Americans deserve, maybe Anderson could ask each man to cite the year of arrival of their first ancestors to this country. Maybe, too, he could inquire about their means of transport, where they lived and their first jobs in the United States. Just a thought.)

Look for John McCain to make the experience argument. If he's steady tonight and Romney and Rudy have at each other, McCain could look like the grown-up while they squabble.

And one final thing to watch for, the Fla. state GOP chairman forecast that the candidates would try to draw distinctions tonight between themselves and President Bush. About time.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

From today's Hotline:

"You are going to see an aggressive approach to distinguish themselves from not only each other, but from the current president."

-- FL GOP Chair Jim Greer, on WH GOPers in tonight's debate, CNN, 11/28.

Chris Dodd is going to pass on the Democratic National Committee's fall meeting that starts tomorrow in Vienna to campaign instead in, you know it, Iowa.

"With barely more than a month left to caucus night, Senator Dodd will be taking his case directly to the people of Iowa instead of attending the DNC Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C.," Dodd communications director Hari Sevugan told On Call.

The move is moderately risky. The Dems (all other candidates are confirmed) will pretend to link arms and show a unified front while also turning on their individual charms (debatable) for party members and the top brass. But Dodd could show a measure of devotion, apprently not yet communicated by his family's move, by campaigning in Iowa instead of schmoozing with party muckety-mucks. In other words, Dodd can try to play the outsider. We'll see if he gets kudos for it ... Interesting gamble.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Barack Obama's campaign announced this morning that Linda Nelson, president of Iowa's largest teachers' association and a fourth-grade teacher at Carter Lake Elementary School in Council Bluffs, is backing his bid.

Nelson's endorsement is personal and does not reflect the sentiment of the entire organization. ISEA, Obama's campaign is careful to note, will not back a presidential candidate. Nelson and Obama, meanwhile, will hold a conference call together at 12:45 p.m.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Wash Post Style section profile of Michelle Obama:

"The selfish part of me says, 'Run away! Just say no!' because my life would be better," she says in a quiet moment after another campaign event. "But that's the problem we face as a society, we have to stop making the me decision and we have to make the we and us decision."

In the Concord Monitor, "Obama Outlines Diplomatic Path" ... Highlights of his foreign policy summit in Portsmouth ...

"We know what we're going to get from the Republican nominee - more Bush-Cheney foreign policy," Obama said. "More support for open-ended war in Iraq. More saber-rattling toward Iran. More refusing to talk to countries we don't like. More exceptions for torture."

In contrast, Obama said, "My opponent won't be able to say that I ever supported the war in Iraq, or that I support using our troops in Iraq to counter Iran, or that I support the Bush-Cheney diplomacy of not talking to leaders that we don't like."

Adam Nagourney in the NYT writes about the almost match between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani for New York's open Senate seat in 2000:

"It was a year in which both Mr. Giuliani and Mrs. Clinton gained many of the political skills the nation is seeing now as they campaign for president. It was a time in which they took a measure of one another as opponents. And it was a shared chapter in their lives that offers a window into what a 2008 White House contest between these New Yorkers might be like, should they each win their party’s nomination."

And ... Just what the mayor ordered ...

The Boston Globe, "Job-growth study: Mass. next to last"

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Last night's TV primarily focused on the Annapolis Summit and the death of NFL's Sean Taylor, but a few WH '08ers made appearances:

Joe Biden was on "NewsHour" as part of their WH '08 series:

Biden, on his full-page ad in the Des Moines Register: "It's kind of a tongue-in-cheek ad. ... But I'm basing it on my experience. The fact of the matter is that, although Senator Clinton talks about having the most experience -- and she has great experience -- while she was working for the Children's Defense Fund, I was writing laws protecting children in the United States Senate. She did good work. I was in the Senate. While Barack Obama talks about change, I was able to convince the Democratic Party to change their position on the criminal justice system, on crime issues, on the Violence Against Women Act. I've been able to convince President Clinton to use force in Bosnia to end the genocide. But it's really not about change or experience. I think it's about action."

Bill Clinton -- in a much ballyhooed return to Iowa yesterday to stump for his wife -- made one strange assertion about his position on the Iraq war and also sized up the GOP field.

First the fun stuff ...

Clinton, in DeWitt, said that he's had "a lot of dealings" with Rudy Giuliani and that an HRC/Giuliani match-up would "certainly be an interesting pair," reports NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann.

The former president said that he knows Fred Thompson well and added, "I used to send him cigars."

Clinton praised Mitt Romney for his support of Americorps but said he's "asking for forgiveness for everything he did as governor." He joked about Romney's efforts to distance himself from some of the policies he advocated as governor of Massachusetts, "If you were the governor of Hades, you'd act like the devil, too."

John McCain, Clinton said, "was mauled in a merciless, revolting way" by his Republican opponent (GWB, of course) in 2000.

He added a conciliatory note (false???) ... "I've reached an age when I'm not mad with anybody anymomre. I just wanna get things done."

But this story today in the NYT shows that he is continuing to make getting things done (on the campaign trail anyway) a bit difficult for his candidate wife.

"During a campaign swing for his wife, former President Bill Clinton said flatly yesterday that he opposed the war in Iraq 'from the beginning' — a statement that is more absolute than his comments before the invasion in March 2003.

"Before the invasion, Mr. Clinton did not precisely declare that he opposed the war. A week before military action began, however, he did say that he preferred to give weapons inspections more time and that an invasion was not necessary to topple Saddam Hussein.

"At the same time, he also spoke supportively about the 2002 Senate resolution that authorized military action against Iraq.

"Advisers to Mr. Clinton said yesterday that he did oppose the war, but that it would have been inappropriate at the time for him, a former president, to oppose — in a direct, full-throated manner — the sitting president’s military decision.

"Mr. Clinton has said several times since the war began that he would not have attacked Iraq in the manner that President Bush had done. As early as June 2004, he said, “I would not have done it until after Hans Blix finished the job,” referring to the weapons inspections there before the war.

"At the time of those remarks, though, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York was not a presidential candidate, and Mr. Clinton was not campaigning on her behalf. Nor was she running for the nomination against a Democrat who opposed the invasion from the start — Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

"Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton are in a tight race to win the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, and Mr. Clinton made his remark in Iowa. One rival Democratic campaign circulated Mr. Clinton’s remark to reporters and, without speaking for attribution, accused him of fuzzing the historical record to make the Clintons appear more antiwar than they actually were at the time."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is back in Iowa today for a health care stop in Ankeny. This is a one-stop visit for HRC, and it was added to her sched late Monday evening, Dann reports. The importance of Iowa, and this issue for HRC in Iowa, cannot be overstated. She can't afford any bigfooting from Bill ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

CNN and You Tube will host the Republican candidates debate tomorrow night in St. Petersburg, Fla. We'll be live blogging the action at On Call, so don't forget to check in for the latest news and analysis.

A quick preview of the event, courtesy of NBC/NJ's Erin McPike:

The debate line-up, left to right: Tancredo, Huckabee, Romney, Giuliani, Thompson, McCain, Paul, Hunter.

The first row of the auditorium is reserved for the Romney family; Giuliani's beloveds are designated to sit in the second row. The third row of seats will be shared by the Huckabee and McCain families. The Thompson crew, however, has been assigned to the fifth row - behind Paul's nearest and dearest, who will sit in the fourth row.

CNN Washington Bureau Chief David Bohrman said that about 5,000 questions were submitted, and that they have "a different feel" than those submitted for the Democratic debate. He also said that despite the big production made about Gov. Charlie Crist's question submission, Bohrman explained that high-profile figures get plenty of access as it is, and his question will not be included. A committee including Anderson Cooper will finalize the question line-up tonight. They intend to get through about 40 but will have 70 ready to go.

Although Hillary Clinton was a big focus of the FOX debate last month, Bohrman said, "I would expect that she'll come up far less than the last one. This debate is for the Republicans. They have to debate each other first before they can get to her."

Crafty late-day praise (albeit backhanded) from Barack Obama for President Bush's push for the Annapolis summit. And a bit of name dropping as well ... In other words, I spoke with Prime Minister Olmert today, Hillary, did you?

"Annapolis is a hopeful development because Israelis and Palestinians are engaged in serious discussions again and the countries of the region are involved, and I commend Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas for making the effort. I spoke with Prime Minister Olmert today, and assured him of my strong support for this effort and my unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security as a core principle as negotiations move forward. The Administration deserves credit for finally trying to use presidential diplomacy to bring the parties together. It's a big change from the last six and a half years, when President Bush badly neglected this conflict. Recognizing the complexity of the issues under discussion and the importance of the conflict, it is my hope that this conference is just the start of a sustained push by the United States, the Israelis and the Palestinians to achieve the goal of two states living side-by-side in peace and security."

The HRC and Obama campaigns had more back and forth today about their respective foreign policy credentials. Obama held a summit of advisers in Portsmouth. The group included:

· Richard Danzig – Former Secretary of the Navy under President Clinton

· Ryan Gray (USMC Ret.) – Goffstown, NH resident; served two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps

· Adm. John Hutson (USN Ret.) – Bow, NH resident; Dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center; former U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General and nationally-known expert on detention and interrogation policy

· Tony Lake – National Security Advisor to President Clinton

· Samantha Power – Pulitzer Prize-winning author and renowned professor of human rights and foreign policy

· Susan Rice – Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

· Sarah Sewall –Human rights and military affairs expert

· Gen. Jim Smith (USAF Ret.) – Salem, NH resident; retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General

But the Clinton folks, not surprisingly, wouldn't cede this news cycle to Obama. After the Obama event, Clinton deputy communications director Phil Singer released a statement saying that Obama, if elected, "would have less (foreign policy) experience than any president since World War II."

"With the critical foreign policy challenges America faces in the world today, voters will decide whether Senator Obama, who served in the Illinois State Senate just three years ago and would have less experience than any President since World War II, has the strength and experience to be the next president. Senator Clinton, who has travelled to 82 countries as a representative of the United States and serves on the Armed Services Committee, is ready to lead starting on Day One."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

By the by, Barbra Streisand settled on Hillary Clinton after donating the maximum $2,300 to her, Barack Obama and John Edwards. Does she think HRC has the best shot at victory? Did the woman factor win her over? Maybe Bill sealed the deal?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

So, that Fred Thompson ad that On Call posted earlier actually accomplishes two things. Yes, it raises, though not directly, the question of Mitt Romney's appointment of Judge Kathe Tuttman and her decision to free Daniel Tavares Jr., who served time for killing his mother and upon release murdered a young couple. But it also, again indirectly, alludes to a matter that could dog Mike Huckabee -- when (and if) he gets the once over from the MSM. As Arkansas governor, Huckabee recommended the parole of rapist Wayne DuMond.

DuMond, now dead, was released only to rape and murder a woman in Missouri.

Just wanted to make that clear ... Thompson appears not only to be gunning for the Iowa frontrunner in his latest ad, but also at the guy nipping at Romney's heels.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Barbra Streisand Endorses Hillary Clinton ... Per the Clinton campaign:

Legendary filmmaker, artist, and Democratic activist, Barbra Streisand, today endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Streisand cited Clinton’s ability to bring about change and the historic nature of her campaign as reasons why she is supporting Hillary’s candidacy.

"Madame President of the United States...it’s an extraordinary thought. We truly are in a momentous time, where a woman’s potential has no limitations," said Streisand. "Hillary Clinton has already proven to a generation of women that there are no limits for success. She is driven by her passion for public service and her belief in the enormous potential of our country. Smart, capable and strong in her convictions, Hillary has transcended the dictates of what is thought to be possible for our time.

"Hillary is a powerful voice for change as we find our country at an important crossroads. Under her leadership, our country will regain its respect within the global community. She will prioritize issues of global climate change, universal health care and rebuilding a strong economy. After 8 long years, the public will once again have faith in their government.

"Another former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, ‘In government, in business, and in the professions there may be a day when women will be looked upon as persons. We are, however, far from that day as yet.’ More than 50 years later 'that day' is now upon us…and Hillary Clinton is ready to shatter through that glass ceiling for all women."

Streisand has been working on behalf of Democratic candidates for over forty years, performing at fundraisers and participating in campaign events. In addition, the Streisand Foundation has raised millions for causes including the environment, women’s equality as well as human and civil rights and liberties.

"I’m honored to have Barbra’s support," said Clinton. "Barbra has used her immense talent to be an advocate for truth, justice, and fairness and I deeply appreciate her confidence in my candidacy as we work together to change the direction of our nation."

Barbra Streisand is a singer, theatre and film actress, composer, film producer and director. She has won Oscars for Best Actress and Best Original Song as well as multiple Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Golden Globe Awards. She is considered one of the most commercially and critically successful female entertainers in modern history.

AND this ... MEMORIES of the first Clinton inaugural ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

From today's Hotline:

"Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there."

-- Barack Obama, on Barack Obama, ABC's "Nightline," 11/26.

Jesse Jackson did indeed endorse Barack Obama's presidential bid in March, but for the second time this month, he's making nice with John Edwards.

In a Chicago Sun-Times column today -- titled 'Most Democratic Candidates Are Ignoring African Americans" -- Jackson doesn't even mention Obama.

He offers this praise, though, for Edwards:

"Can Democrats get the votes they need simply because they're not Republicans? You might think so in this presidential campaign. African-American and urban votes are critical to any Democratic victory. Bill Clinton won two terms without winning the most white votes. His margin was the overwhelming support of black voters. George Bush learned that lesson; that's why his campaigns spent so much effort suppressing the black vote in key states like Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. His victory margin was the tally of votes suppressed or uncounted.

"Yet the Democratic candidates -- with the exception of John Edwards, who opened his campaign in New Orleans' Ninth Ward and has made addressing poverty central to his campaign -- have virtually ignored the plight of African Americans in this country. The catastrophic crisis that engulfs the African-American community goes without mention. No urban agenda is given priority. When thousands of African Americans marched in protest in Jena, La., not one candidate showed up.

"Democratic candidates are talking about health care and raising the minimum wage, but they aren't talking about the separate and stark realities facing African Americans."

On Nov. 13, also in a Sun-Times column, Jackson had this to say about JRE in a piece about foreclosures:

"But for homeowners, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury call for case-by-case solutions, for strapped homeowners to get individual counseling, even when they know this can't meet the crisis. In Congress, Rep. Barney Frank has pushed for action. But Republicans are opposed, and Senate Democrats seem increasingly to cater to the fortunes of Wall Street rather than Main Street. With the exception of John Edwards, the presidential candidates and their economic advisers address the issue as if it were someone else's problem."

Again no mention of Obama. Coincidence?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Two new Fred Thompson ads up today in Iowa. One -- "Service" -- stresses his conservative credentials. It even features a quick shot of Thompson with SUPCO Chief Justice John Roberts.

The other -- "Marie" -- is narrated by Marie Ragghianti, a former chair of the Tennessee Board of Pardons and Paroles. In it, Ragghianti says she discovered 30 years ago that her governor was selling early release to violent criminals. She was fired for speaking up, but said Thompson defended her. The governor ultimately went to prison. Though the ad ends with a salute by Ragghianti to Thompson's integrity, it seems a direct attempt at stoking the controversy surrounding Mitt Romney's appointment of a judge (Kathe Tuttman) who released a man who killed again ...

Service (30 seconds)
Fred Thompson:
I'm Fred Thompson and I approved this message.
Announcer:
Called to public service in challenging times.
A young federal prosecutor, tough on crime.
Fred Thompson.
A courageous reformer - fighting corruption in both parties.
Helping to expose the truth during Watergate and sending a crooked Democratic Governor to prison.
Fred Thompson.
A consistent conservative in the U.S. Senate, a 100% pro-life record, voting for three major tax cuts and fighting for conservative judges.
Fred Thompson - True conservative for President.

Marie (30 seconds)
Fred Thompson:
I'm Fred Thompson and I approved this message.
Marie Ragghianti:
30 years ago, I discovered my state's Governor was selling early release to violent criminals.
When I spoke up, I was threatened and fired.
That's when I turned to Fred Thompson.
I was convinced he had the courage to take on my fight.
And I was right.
The Governor went to prison and I got my life back.
Fred is a man of genuine integrity.
Announcer:
Fred Thompson, President

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

WH '08ers made the TV rounds last night. In "Nightline"'s latest installment of "The Contenders," ABC's Moran spent a day with Barack Obama on the campaign trail in IA:

Obama: "Senator Clinton is claiming basically the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency as her own, except for the stuff that didn't work out, in which case she says she had nothing to do with."

Nothing touchy-feely, American Family about this new Mitt Romney ad. The 30-second spot is all business with it's catch phrase -- Take charge, demand results, no excuses. Romney also hits those immigration buzz words that apparently strike fear and loathing in the GOP base: driver's licenses for illegals, bilingual education and in-state tuition.

ANNOUNCER: "Illegal immigration – we need smart, tough solutions, not just talk.

"What will it take to fix it? Technology, new ideas, guts, values – Mitt Romney.

"He said no to driver's licenses for illegals; no to in-state tuition; fought for English in the classroom.

"The only candidate with a proven record of fixing the big problems.

"From day one: Mitt Romney will do what he does best – take charge, demand results, no excuses."

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: "I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

UPDATE

Though his wife threw her support behind Hillary Clinton today, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, who was re-elected last November with a 74 percent of the vote, will remain neutral in the primary race, per NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli.

"He respects her decision to endorse, but the governor will remain neutral," said Colin Manning, the governor's press secretary. "He is focused on being a good host for the primary."

Susan Lynch, a physician, endorsed HRC earlier today in Concord. She is a mother of three and a popular figure in the state. She is also the latest big name Granite State endorsement to go to Hillary ... In fact, with Susan Lynch's support and the governor's pledge to stay uncommitted, HRC arguably has the most prominent Dems in the state on board (Billy Shaheen, Senate Prez. Sylvia Larsen, House Speaker Terie Norelli, former Dem Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan and more). Save one ... Jeanne Shaheen.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Sources say Scott McGilvray, president of the Manchester Education Association, is endorsing John Edwards for president today. ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Susan Lynch, wife of popular Dem governor John Lynch, is backing Hillary Clinton and will serve as her national campaign co-chair. This is a big deal endorsement for HRC in the Granite State ... Can Jeanne Shaheen be far behind?

The campaign's release ...

CONCORD, NH – Dr. Susan Lynch, Pediatrician and First Lady of New Hampshire, today announced she has endorsed Hillary for President. Dr. Lynch will serve as a national campaign Co-chair.

“I know Hillary Clinton and I believe she has the judgment, experience, passion and bipartisan record to get things done for the people of this country,” Dr. Lynch said. “As a mother and as a pediatrician, I share Hillary Clinton’s commitment to fighting for children and families. We face big challenges, and I believe Hillary Clinton is the best candidate to deliver the changes we need.”

Dr. Lynch is a pediatrician who works as a pediatric lipid specialist at the Cholesterol Treatment Center at Concord Hospital. Dr. Lynch has devoted her time to drawing more attention to childhood obesity, and promoting ways to encourage healthy eating habits and exercise for New Hampshire’s children. In 2004, Dr. Lynch joined nearly 300 other “Doctors for Dean” from across New Hampshire to support Howard Dean’s campaign for president. She and her husband, Governor John Lynch, live in Hopkinton, NH with their three children, Jacqueline, Julia, and Hayden.

“I am honored to have earned the support of Dr. Susan Lynch,” said Senator Clinton. “I have a deep respect for the work she has done as both a doctor and as First Lady. I look forward to continuing our work together and campaigning with her across the Granite State.”

In her remarks today, Dr. Lynch cited Senator Clinton’s bold, detailed plan to provide affordable and truly universal healthcare for every American. She also highlighted Senator Clinton’s strong bipartisan record including her championing the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance(SCHIP) program; her efforts to expand TriCare benefits for members of the Guard and Reserve and their families; championing legislation for the critical testing of prescription drugs for children, and fighting for a sweeping overhaul of foster care and adoption out of foster care.

From today's Hotline:

"All the signs were there. This was the time."

-- Senate Min. Whip Trent Lott, on his decision to retire, mult., 11/26.

Barack Obama told reporters after an event this morning in Littleton, N.H., that he doesn't expect voters to back him based on his friendship with Oprah Winfrey. But she is an undeniable draw, he said, and will bring some fun and excitement to the trail ... Meanwhile, if Bill Clinton wants to shift loyalties, Obama's interested ...

"Well, you know Oprah's a great friend, obviously she's beloved all across the country," Obama said after an event at Littleton High School. "Ultimately, I think people are going to make a decision based on me, not based on who's endorsing. But people will certainly come to an event to see Oprah, and that means that I've got access to more people, and hopefully can tell them the kind of change that I want to bring about so that people have health care, and we bring our troops home from Iraq. So it helps to create the event, ultimately though, I'm going to have to make the sale to the people to support me," per NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli.

[Q: WHY SHOULD ANYONE MAKE UP THEIR MINDS BASED ON WHAT A CELEBRITY THINKS?]

"Well that's why I said I don't think they should," Obama added.

[Q: THEN WHY BOTHER CAMPAIGNING WITH HER?]

"Well, you know. I think. ... It's fun. Campaigns are not just about issues and policy, but it's also about bringing people together. And this creates excitement and an event. Hopefully we can attract some people who might not otherwise be interested in politics, who aren't regular viewers of C-SPAN. But on the other hand, once they're there, I'm able to talk to them about critical issues like health care, home foreclosures, and things that affect their lives on a day-to-day basis. So I'm very grateful that she's taking the time to do this, and I think it will be a lot of fun."

[Q: HOW IS OPRAH BETTER SURROGATE THAN BILL CLINTON?]

"Bill Clinton's a great surrogate for Hillary as well. And so, if he wanted to endorse me I'd take it. I don't think he will."

John Edwards goes up today with two new ads, one each in South Carolina and Iowa. (Whither your NH love, JRE?) But the bigger question -- Why the regression to the mill worker bio-esque ad? Don't SC voters know by now that Edwards was born there? Not a good sign that the Edwards camp feels they have to drive home both points to South Carolina voters ...

Then again maybe, as one Hotliner said, bashing the 'Son of a Mill Worker' theme is as tired as the line itself ...

“BORN” ... to air in SC
My dad worked in the mills.
When I was born, he had to borrow fifty dollars to bring me home here.
When the mills closed, I saw first hand how devastating bad government and corporate greed can be.
I'm running for president to do what I've always done - fight for people like the ones I grew up with against the powerful forces that have corrupted Washington.
Don't tell me it can't be done.
I'm John Edwards. And I approve this message because growing up here, you never stop fighting. And you never forget where you came from.

“MESS” ... to air in Iowa
What we want to make certain is true is that our children have a better life than we've had. Twenty generations of Americans before us have ensured that that was true.
And if we want to do that, we're going to have to be willing to take on this corrupt system and change it. And if we're not going to do it, we're going to have to be willing to look our children in the eye and say we're going to leave this mess for you.
This is the great moral test of our generation, and we will meet that test.
I'm John Edwards and I approve this message.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

OPRAH WINFREY TO TOUR EARLY STATES WITH BARACK OBAMA

CHICAGO, IL – The Obama for America campaign today announced that Oprah Winfrey will join Barack Obama for a tour through three early voting states on December 8th and 9th. Winfrey and Obama will hold two events in Iowa, one in South Carolina, and one in New Hampshire. All events will be free and open to the public.

TOUR SCHEDULE:

SATURDAY DECEMBER 8TH
DES MOINES, IA
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9TH
COLUMBIA, SC
MANCHESTER, NH

Locations and times for the events will be announced in the coming days. Those interested in attending can sign up online today to ensure that they receive the event details when they are announced.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

WH '08ers stopped by the Sunday shows this weekend:

Fred Thompson was on "Fox News Sunday":

Thompson, unveiling his new tax plan: "It's maintaining the tax cuts that we had in 2001, 2003. It's eliminating the death penalty. It's reducing the corporate tax rate. We have the second-highest corporate tax rate among our competing partners. It's hurting us competitively. We're probably losing revenue from it. We have several other provisions in it, but another major one is an adoption, basically, of the approach that the House Republican study group has that would give taxpayers an option of continuing to file the way they do now or filing under a flatter plan where you only have two rates, but no exemptions past the personal exemption and no deductions. So give that a try. And it would be a major move toward tax reform, which I think is greatly needed."

Just as he was gaining some traction in the MSM as a legit and moneyed potential GOP spoiler, Ron Paul gets the endorsement of, well, the proprietor of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"It should be no surprise that the presidential candidate with the purest libertarian bona fides picked up some X-rated support while campaigning in Reno last week. To be more explicit, Nevada brothel owner Dennis Hof declared his support for Republican contender Ron Paul during Paul's campaign swing through the state."

And this ...

"Hof's prostitutes, Air Force Amy and Brooke Taylor, said they liked Paul's message, but wanted to learn more about the other candidates before making a decision."

The secondary question in all this ... What is Tucker Carlson doing traipsing around with two Bunny Ranch honeys ... ?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

John McCain looking to spark those 2000 flames again in NH ...

Script for "Love America Enough" (:60-TV)

JOHN MCCAIN: "Since I've been in Washington, I've made a lot of people angry.

"I made defense contractors angry when I blew the whistle on a $30 billion dollar boondoggle and the culprits were sent to jail.

"I upset the special interests and Washington lobbyists when I passed campaign finance reform.

"I made the Pentagon angry when I criticized Rumsfeld's Iraq strategy, and I upset the media when I supported the strategy that's now succeeding.

"I angered the big spenders in Congress when I called for earmark and spending reform. No more $233 million dollar bridges to nowhere or $74 million for peanut storage in a defense spending bill.

"I didn't go to Washington to win the Mr. Congeniality award.

"I went to Washington to serve my country.

"I might not like the business as usual crowd in Washington. But I love America. I love her enough to make some people angry.

"I'm John McCain and I approve this message."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

"Faith doesn't just influence me, it really defines me ... " -- Mike Huckabee

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Senate Min. Whip Trent Lott is stepping down.

JANUARY 8

Go forth, make your reservations at Richard's Bistro. ...

Bill Gardner's prepared, pre presser statement:

"On the eve of Thanksgiving, a uniquely American tradition, I am pleased to announce that another unique and important American tradition will endure," Gardner said. "New Hampshire has held the first presidential primary in the nation since 1920. The tradition has served our nation well as decades of candidates and presidents have said."

"Under the authority given to me by New Hampshire law, today I am setting ___ as the date of the New Hampshire primary." Per NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli in Concord ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Announcement of primary date imminent? Stay tuned ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Chris Dodd's campaign announced today that Tim Shriver, brother of Maria, and, more importantly, nephew of TEDDY, has endorsed the senator's bid.

"While Chris Dodd has touched the lives of families in countless ways, he is known as "The Children's Senator" for a reason. From his leadership strengthening Head Start to countless other early childhood development efforts he authored, no one has done more to ensure every child has the opportunity to learn and grow in a safe and healthy environment," Shriver said in a statement released by the campaign. " Indeed, his leadership in the area of education alone would make him a worthy candidate for President in any election. But at a moment in our history filled with so much division, conflict and tension, it is his experience and unique talent for bringing people together to tackle big challenges that sets Chris apart in this race. Chris Dodd doesn't just champion causes - he transforms them."

Shriver is the son of Sargent Shriver, the first Director of the Peace Corps, and Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics. Tim Shriver joins his brother, Bobby, and their cousins, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, Jr. in endorsing Sen. Dodd's candidacy.

"With the stakes so high for our country, at home and abroad, it is deeply gratifying to have the support of someone like Tim, who has dedicated his life to giving back to his country," Dodd said. "He has been an ambassador for our most treasured American values abroad, building bridges of trust in war-torn countries and for those in need. And his commitment as an educator is inspiring, from his work preventing substance abuse and violence to his efforts giving policymakers a deeper understanding of the social and emotional factors that contribute to a child's development."

But THE big question is, Will Teddy Kennedy follow? And, if he does, might it be too late to matter? Dodd barely registered in the CNN/WMUR NH poll released yesterday. And though Dodd is living in Iowa, the three-way contest there between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards has dominated the race.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

A new CNN/WMUR poll of likely Democratic primary voters in NH indicates that Hillary Clinton is still holding on to a solid, but slightly smaller, lead over rival Barack Obama. Good news for Bill Richardson, who has seen some improvement, possibly at John Edwards's expense; JRE's polling ticked up earlier this month in a poll conducted by UNH for the Boston Globe, but has dropped two percentage points.

HRC 36 percent
Obama 22 percent
Edwards 13 percent
Richardson 12 percent
Dennis Kucinich 3 percent
Joe Biden 2 percent
Chris Dodd 1 percent

In September, HRC led Obama, 43 percent to 20 percent, and Edwards was at 12 percent.

The survey indicates, however, that the race is still fluid -- 47 percent of those polled remain undecided.

Also this nugget, from Andy Smith, UNH Survey Center director: Democrats are also quite enthusiastic about the upcoming election with 68% saying they are more enthusiastic about this election than usual, 14% are less enthusiastic, and 16% say they are about the same. By comparison, only 46% of likely Republican primary voters say they are very enthusiastic.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Obama has aired several bio radio ads in S.C., but this is his first TV spot.

The script for the 30-second ad, which goes up tomorrow, per NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan:

I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message. You know, hope and change haven't just been campaign slogans for me...they've been the causes of my life. From the time that I moved to Chicago to be a community organizer. Working as a civil rights attorney to make sure that everybody's vote counted. In each instance, there were naysayers who said it couldn't be done, but when millions of voices join together and insist on change, change happens, and that's what we have to do in this election.

More proof, if anyone needed it, that the GOP is gunning for HRC.

In an ABC News interview with Charlie Gibson airing Tuesday, President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush say that Clinton's experience as FLOTUS has prepared her to handle the "pressure" of a presidential race and the White House. Bush posits that Clinton will win the nomination but lose the general.

"I think she's a very formidable candidate, and one of the interesting things that she brings is that she has been under pressure. She understands the klieg lights," the president said, in a phrase he repeated twice in the interview.

And this from Barack Obama spokesman Bill Burton, who forwarded news of the president's remarks to reporters:

“I can't tell if he's endorsing her, hoping she's the nominee, or thanking her for her votes on Iraq and Iran."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Smart, if also overlooked, play of the day from Chris Dodd's campaign. Here's how it happened ...

Hillary Clinton, in Shenandoah, Iowa, today, said that she has the muscle to manage the foreign policy scene and the strength and experience to combat her Republican foes on U.S. soil.

"I offer my credentials, my experience, and qualifications, which I think uniquely equip me to be prepared to hit the ground running on Day One," she said. "And I offer the experience of being battle tested in the political wars here at home. For 15 years, I have been the object of the Republican attack machine, and I’m still here.”

She's still here, heretofore an effective line in the HRC arsenal. But Dodd communications director, Hari Sevugan, released this statement in response:

“It's an interesting admission from Senator Clinton - that if she's elected we're headed for 4 more years of the partisan warfare, Washington dysfunction, bitter divisiveness and gridlock that have marked the last 15 years, at a time when all Americans are desperate for real solutions to real problems."

Barack Obama has made this 'back to the 1990s' point again and again, but it doesn't seem to stick -- and we at On Call wonder why his colleagues aren't hammering the same point at every general store along the Connecticut River. Though Clinton has managed to effectively counter with her strength and experience pitch, we think the Dems could effectively pile on -- on this specific point. The politics of personal destruction ... Do voters, in a post 9/11 world, really want to go back to that place?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

After the Commission on Presidential Debates released the dates and locations of the three prez face-offs and one meeting of the veep candidates, John Edwards's campaign released a statement chiding the group for not including New Orleans in the bunch.

12:26 p.m. today from Edwards's campaign:

“It saddens me to hear that the Commission on Presidential Debates rejected New Orleans’ bid to host a debate in 2008 citing evidence that the city has not recovered enough to host the event. I strongly believe this decision was a mistake and I urge the Commission on Presidential Debates to rethink their decision.

“As a nation, all of us have a responsibility to do everything we can to help rebuild this great city, and holding national events in this city, like a presidential debate, will help New Orleans move forward. I have made rebuilding this city a central part of my presidential campaign because I believe we cannot stand on the sidelines as President Bush continues to fail the people of New Orleans.

“The truth is America is not the country of the Superdome in New Orleans after Katrina. We can prove it by fulfilling our moral responsibility to get New Orleans back on its feet. At a minimum, when I am the Democratic nominee, I will push to make sure we hold a presidential debate in New Orleans. And, as president, I will make sure that our government does everything in its power to help restore the city.”

And then, 4:25 p.m. today from Hillary Clinton's team:

“While the locations it selected are worthy ones, I believe the Commission on Presidential Debates missed a golden opportunity to show New Orleans that the entire country is committed to its recovery, by passing it up as a site for a debate. Hosting a debate in New Orleans would spotlight the city to the rest of world and push to ensure that its rebuilding is not ignored.

“Getting New Orleans back on its feet must be a national priority, as rebuilding New York after 9/11 was. We must get to work on a plan to cut through the red tape, deliver the federal assistance the city was promised, and get services running and infrastructure built in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast.

“Choosing New Orleans as the site of one of our nation’s great democratic events would have been a chance to reaffirm this priority, and I’m sorry the commission decided differently.”

Can Obama's release be far behind?

Here's the commission's sched:

First presidential debate:
Friday, September 26
University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

Vice presidential debate:
Thursday, October 2
Washington University in St. Louis, MO

Second presidential debate:
Tuesday, October 7
Belmont University, Nashville, TN

Third presidential debate:
Wednesday, October 15
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

The two backup sites are Centre College in Danville, KY and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.

All debates will be 90 minutes in length and start at 9:00 p.m. ET.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

From today's Hotline:

"May they live the rest of their lives in blissful gobbling."

-- Pres. Bush, on pardoned turkeys, mult., 11/20.

Responding to a question asking for details about his more "human side," Barack Obama told a Manchester Central High School audience today that he was a slacker teenager...

"I will confess to you that I was kind of a goof off in high school, as my mom reminded me. I went to high school in Hawaii, so there’s a lot of opportunity to goof off because the weather is really good all the time. I did well in school, but I didn’t really apply myself. I did what I needed to, to get into college, and it came fairly easily to me, but I never worked as hard as I should have. I was big on basketball, I was a basketball player. We were state champs. I thought I was better than I was. But I just loved the game, and I played basketball a lot. I thought about girls a lot. “

"You know, I made some bad decisions … got into drinking and experimenting with drugs. There was a whole stretch of time where I didn’t apply myself. It wasn’t until I got out of college, er, got out of high school, and went to college, that I started realizing, man, I wasted a lot of time," per NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan.

New JRE TV ad titled, you guessed it, "Thanksgiving":

Script:

For two parents who worked so hard to give us a better life.

For thirty years with one amazing woman.

And for four wonderful children.

For 231 years of America.

For the hopes and determination of a nation filled with the most optimistic people on Earth.

And for all of you, who have welcomed us into your homes and hearts.

Thank you.

I’m John Edwards, and I approved this message.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

There was a lot of TV talk last night about Barack Obama and the state of his campaign, particularly his response to Bob Novak's column this past week:

NBC's Gregory: "Obama has appeared more forceful on the campaign trail" ("Nightly News," 11/19).

MSNBC's Shuster: "Obama's also ratcheting up the intensity of his campaign, and Obama has repeatedly said he's not going to repeat the general election mistakes John Kerry made three years ago when Kerry considered Swift Boat attack ads so ridiculous that he didn't challenge them for weeks" ("Hardball," 11/19).

FNC's Garrett: "Clinton has never spoken directly to Novak's charge or Obama's angry reaction. But in an economic speech today in Knoxville, she amplified her campaign's central charge against Obama, and this flap is specifically and in the campaign generally that Obama overreacted and that proves he is not experienced enough for the White House" ("Special Report," 11/19).

Politico's Simon, on Obama's response to Novak's column: "It's also designed to change the conversation away from a pretty poor debate performance in Las Vegas, get reporters off that story line, get reporters not writing about immigration and driver's licenses, but get them writing about Hillary Clinton being a mud thrower and a hypocrite" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 11/19).

The John McCain endorsement that probably smarts the most for Mr. A Noun, A Verb and 9/11. And it comes as McCain overtakes Rudy Giuliani for second place in New Hampshire, according to a CNN/WMUR poll released yesterday.

Associated Press: Sept. 11 Panel Co-Chair Backs McCain

By Glen Johnson

BOSTON (AP) - The co-chairman of the panel that examined the nation's security before Sept. 11, 2001 and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks announced Monday he was endorsing John McCain—and not former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani—for president.

Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, a Republican like Giuliani and McCain, said the Arizona senator's blend of congressional, military and foreign affairs experience left him the best equipped of the GOP candidates to serve in the White House.

Both on the campaign trail and in his new TV ads, Giuliani—who was mayor during the 9/11 attacks—has said his executive and crisis management skills make him the most qualified.

"In the history of our nation, a mere handful of senators have exerted a greater influence over free men and free women than even some presidents of the United States. John McCain has been one of those senators, and he has tremendous respect throughout the world," Kean said at Logan International Airport, where the two jetliners that felled the World Trade Center were hijacked.

Kean, who was co-chairman with Democrat Lee Hamilton, also credited McCain with unmitigated support for the 9/11 panel's 41 safety recommendations, as well as a post-attack overhaul of the nation's intelligence services.

"To the extent that we've been less vulnerable to attacks that we suffered on 9/11, it's in a large part due to the extraordinary leadership of John McCain," the former governor said.

McCain reveled in the endorsement, noting Kean joins a group of supporters that also includes former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and four former secretaries of state.

The timing also was politically potent. In a new ad that started airing Monday, Giuliani says: "I've been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me. They're not going to find perfection, but they're going to find somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis and has had results."

The former mayor's campaign staff noted Giuliani has been endorsed by Kean's son, New Jersey state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., who tried unsuccessfully last year in a bid for U.S. Senate.

Giuliani told reporters in Mission, Texas, that the elder Kean "has a right to endorse anybody he wants." Giuliani added: "There are a lot of Republicans, I'm not going to get all the votes or all the endorsements."

Kean twice refused to say whether he felt Giuliani was justified in citing his 9/11 experience to cast himself as the most qualified GOP presidential contender.

"I didn't come here and wouldn't criticize Mayor Giuliani," Kean said. "I think the Republican Party this year is fortunate to have a number of good candidates. I just happen to feel that with this world we live in, with the dangers abroad, all around us, and the dangers here at home, that we need the very best. And the very best, I believe, is John McCain."

Giuliani was widely criticized for locating the city's emergency center in 7 World Trade Center, a building that contained thousands of gallons of diesel fuel when it collapsed after the terrorist attack.

Giuliani's record as mayor drew close scrutiny and some criticism from the Sept. 11 Commission. Questions were raised about the failure of the Giuliani administration to provide the World Trade Center's first responders with adequate radios, a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center.

More after the jump...

The Nashua Telegraph gets the scoop today, revealing that Hillary Clinton has launched her first negative ad, a 30-second spot running in the NH and Boston markets. The ad criticizes the "Republican attack machine" and features images of Mitt Romney and John McCain.

"Here they go again – the same old Republican attack machine is back. Why?" the announcer says.

"Maybe it's because they know that there's one candidate with the strength and experience to get us out of Iraq, one candidate who will end tax giveaways for the big corporations, one candidate committed to cutting the huge Republican deficit and one candidate who will put government back to work for the middle class. The strength to fight, the experience to lead."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

This could be the best news the House GOP has gotten since Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY) decided to retire. According to Hank Shaw's blog at the Stockton Record, it "appears" that Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) "is about to" announce his retirement and will "ultimately endorse" state Sen. Rico Oller (R) to be his successor.

That would be very welcome news to a party that has struggled in their new minority. The GOP has had difficulty convincing incumbents in marginal CDs to run again, and decisions by Reps. Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and Jerry Weller (R-IL) have put solidly GOP seats into play. And today's news that Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) will step down in '08 put another open seat on the map.

But Cubin's retirement, along with that of Rep. Rick Renzi's (R-AZ), was perhaps welcome news to the GOP. Those seats, and Doolittle's as well, would be easier to keep with decent GOP recruits heading the ticket.

Oller ran against Dan Lungren (R-CA 03) in that CD's open seat primary in '04, but lost by fewer than 3K votes. According to Shaw, he owns property in the CD.

If Doolittle does retire and Oller runs, he'll face '06 candidate Mike Holmes (R), Iraq war vet Eric Egland (R) and possibly Assemb. Ted Gaines (R) in the primary. The GOPer that emerges from that primary would be heavily favored against '06 nominee Charlie Brown (D), who came extremely close to knocking off the scandal-tarred Doolittle in '06. [TIM SAHD]

New Wash Post/ABC News poll shows Barack Obama overtaking Hillary Clinton in Iowa.

Very good news for Obama on the heels of the Las Vegas debate that the CW gave to Clinton.

Obama is backed by 30 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, compared to 26 percent for Clinton, 22 percent for former senator John Edwards and 11 percent for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, according to the Wash Post.

"The results are only marginally changed from a Post-ABC poll in late July, but in a state likely to set the course for the rest of the nominating process, there are significant signs of progress for Obama -- and harbingers of concern for Clinton," write Kornblut and Cohen.

Possibly more disturbing for Clinton is that Obama is running even with HRC among women in Iowa, "despite the fact that the Clinton campaign has built its effort around attracting female voters."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Released today, Rudy Giuliani ad, titled "Leadership" ... Will run in Boston and New Hampshire media markets. Just in time to counter slippage in latest CNN/WMUR poll. No comment yet from Rudy press shop about poll results.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Romney 33 percent
McCain 18 percent
Giuliani 16 percent
Paul 8 percent
Huckabee 5 percent
Thompson 4 percent

Conducted 11/14-18 of 793 likely primary voters ...

React per Romney spokesman Kevin Madden:

"Rudy's panic button: In light of these numbers, the Giuliani campaign's abrupt decision to hit the airwaves in New Hampshire has to be seen as a push on the panic button. ... Gov. Romney's message has remained optimistic and a very specific appeal to voters based on his experience and his vision for leading the country has resonated with Republicans in New Hampshire."

Also of intense interest ... 56% of those polled said they were undecided, 29% were leaning to one candidate and 14% said they had definitely made up their minds.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Elizabeth Edwards talks extensively to The Huffington Post about homeschooling Jack and Emma Claire -- and juggling their studies with life on the trail.

"Because we're on the road so much, I could do some things when I'm at home, as I was for most of last week, I can be engaged in things. Or when they're on the road with us, I can be engaged in things, but in terms of somebody there when we're not at home -- which of course is the problem with campaigning. We have employed a certified teacher to teach them. We found someone who uses experiences inside the classroom and outside the classroom... because we thought that was an ideal combination for this experience and he has done an incredible job. ... For example, we live on an old farm outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and they go out into the woods. A lot of the old farmland is overgrown so they'll go out and catalogue the different plants that are there or take pictures of the different insects and animals and make molds of the footprints or little paw prints they see in the woods. I think it's been an incredible experience for them to have this wide range of ways in which they learn. I don't think it's impossible to translate some of these things into a public school setting, but it's been a little easier of course, because it's just the two children and the teacher who can walk out the door."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Gen. Wesley Clark appeared with Hillary Clinton today in Des Moines at an unscheduled stop at the Drake Diner -- part of the campaign's effort to find an edge in the caucus contest, which is proving the most competitive state race en route to the Democratic nomination.

Clinton introduced diners to the general, who is because of his extensive foreign policy experience an oft-mentioned veep possibility. She also chatted with a handful of voters who worked at an area children's hospital and with a man who asked about housing issues.

"I'd love to have your support," the senator said at one point; one of the diners said she would have his.

Clinton then settled in at the counter to chat, before the cameras, with Clark and former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack about the challenges of campaigning over the holidays.

Clinton wondered aloud how they would keep momentum going over the holidays, saying politics that time of year isn't at the top of voters' agendas.

"You can't call them on Christmas," Vilsack said.

"You can call them on the 26th," Clark responded with a chuckle.

They also spoke about China and ways to fight global warming.

Clark called eggs his "comfort food," and both he and Clinton ordered fruit bowls, reports NBC/NJ's Athena Jones.

From today's Hotline:

"There's no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard, only another fist."

-- Mike Huckabee, in his WH campaign's very first TV ad, 11/18.

How far will funny get Mike Huckabee with Iowa voters? In a new 30-second TV ad with actor, action hero, Huck supporter Chuck Norris, the duo pitch a light-hearted view of the former Arkansas governor while also stressing that he's a "principled, authentic conservative."

Recent polls indicate a Huckabee surge in Iowa. But is his support real, or merely a reflection of voter frustration with frontrunners Mitt Romney's and Rudy Giuliani's conservative credentials?

Script:

MH: My plan to secure the border? Two words, Chuck Norris.

CN: Mike Huckabee is a lifelong hunter who will protect our Second Amendment rights.

MH: There's no chin behind Chuck Norris's beard, only another fist.

CN: MH wants to put the IRS out of business.

MH: When Chuck Norris does a push-up, he isn't lifting himself up. He's pushing the earth down.

CN: Mike is a principled, authentic conservative.

MH: Chuck Norris doesn't endorse, he tells America how it's going to be.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

The movers and shakers in the '08 race stopped by the Sunday shows this weekend:

Mike Huckabee was on "Fox News Sunday":

On his Chuck Norris ad: "Oh, it probably doesn't convince anybody. The spots we'll run next week will start doing that. But what it does do is exactly what it's doing this morning, getting a lot of attention, driving people to our website, giving them an opportunity to find out who is this guy that would come out with Chuck Norris in a commercial. So what we want to do is to, first of all, show that running for president is serious business but that a person ought to have a little fun doing it. And so we're going to have some fun. We've had fun throughout this campaign. We plan to continue doing that. But we also want to let people kind of find out who I am and what I'm about. This commercial, we think, will drive a lot of new folks to our website who will then do some serious research about the issues."

New Mitt Romney ad up tomorrow in NH and Iowa ... The 30-second spot features Ann Romney and touts the brood's family values.

It amounts to a big 'Take that, Mr. Mayor.' In case you hadn't already surmised as much.

Script for "American Family":

MR: "The future of this country is more affected by the work that goes on within the four walls of the home than anything else. You teach kids about what TV to watch. You teach them how to read."

AR: "And that's how we raised our boys, is knowing that they were the focus."

MR: "It's just essential to have a home where faith, where love of country, where determination, where all of these features that are so much a part of America's culture are tied to our kids. And without them, I don't see how a society continues to lead the world."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

MANCHESTER -- Forget all the talk of piling on and parsing and planted questions, former President Clinton said tonight that he watched last night's Democratic debate with pride in his heart.

"I was immensely proud of Hillary, but I was also proud to be a Democrat," Clinton told a few hundred people gathered here for a Young Dems rally, part of a weekend DNC meeting.

Clinton's speech was tame compared to his musings last week in Iowa. Tonight, 42's mentions of his candidate wife were few, but complimentary. He said HRC has the best combination of experience and ideas in the field of Dems -- and noted that she is the only candidate running who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

He did offer up one modest itsy bitsy flip of a flop about Hillary, saying that she is best qualified to solve the nation's health care crisis. Last week, in Iowa, he took the blame for the plan she failed to push through Congress in the early 1990s, a move that prompted Hillary's opponents to say she can't tout her experience on health care and then allow her husband to say its demise wasn't her fault.

"She knows more about it, and I think she has the best plan," Clinton said last night of his wife.

Clinton wrapped up his New Hampshire visit today (he was in Gorham and Whitefield earlier) with a speech at the Radisson Center of New Hampshire, telling a mostly Gen Y audience that voters "hire the Democrats when they need something done."

"The American people know in their hearts that they need this country back in the solution business," he said.

Clinton also gave a shout out to former Veep Al Gore for his work on global warming, saying, "Thank God Al Gore finally won the Nobel Prize."

He also waxed a tad nostalgic for his '92 primary experience, saying, "My races are over," and that his foundation work has taken over.

"I just try to make things happen, and my action is more important than my speeches," he said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

After Judith Regan filed her suit against News Corp, the media immediately became curious as to exactly how many times Rudy Giuliani had been on Fox News Channel. Since The Hotline keeps track of how many times the '08ers do a one-on-one interviews on the newsmaker cable and broadcast network shows, we've gotten a lot of inquiries.

So we've broken down the number of times the GOPers have appeared on the three main cable nets in the past year (going from 1/1/07 to 11/15/07). A caveat, we did not start timing Fred Thompson until it looked like he was serious about a run so his first appearance in our candidate times chart was 3/11/07. The raw data:

There have been arguments made on blogs that other '08ers have made more appearances on FNC than Giuliani. That's true. The data above proves it. However, proportionally, Giuliani gives more cable interviews on FNC than the other two nets. Of his 21 cable interviews this year, 16 were on FNC. Mike Huckabee did have more FNC interviews than Giuliani (27 compared to Giuliani's 16) but Huckabee also had more overall cable interviews, plus Huckabee gave more interviews to CNN and MSNBC than Giuliani did.

Interestingly, the only candidates who tend to show favoritism to FNC as Giuliani does are Thompson and Mitt Romney. Thompson has yet to appear on MSNBC and Romney hasn't made many appearance on the other two nets.

All the raw data can be seen at The Hotline's subscriber-only site, here. Any questions about the methodology, e-mail Emily Goodin.

From today's Hotline:

"It's just an investigation of a federal agency. They go on all the time."

-- Sen. Ted Stevens, on the "massive press interest" in his legal troubles, Anchorage Daily News, 11/16.

The Iowa Republican Party is reeling today from news that FOX News has canceled its Dec. 4 debate because Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani would not be able to show. Giuliani pulled out this week, and Romney's camp declined Wednesday evening, according to Mary Tiffany, communications director for the state GOP. Both campaigns cited scheduling conflicts.

"We were shocked," Tiffany told On Call. "It's obviously disappointing for the party, and I think it's also disappointing for the voters."

But this isn't the first GOP forum to go belly up because the frontrunners opted not to attend. The Nov. 6 MSNBC debate was also canceled due to candidate scheduling conflicts, Tiffany said. And both men failed to turn out for the Oct. 25 AARP forum; John McCain and Mike Huckabee did appear.

Tiffany said today that Iowa Republicans are being shortchanged -- and that maybe the DNC is on to something by sanctioning debates and requiring their candidates to attend.

"Here are two network debates that would've and should've happened in Iowa," Tiffany said of the FOX and MSNBC forums. "I think in the long-run that this is a mistake."

The GOPers last debated in Iowa -- frontrunners included -- Aug. 5 in Des Moines.

The candidates are expected to participate in a Dec. 12 debate sponsored by the Des Moines Register.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

David Yepsen for the Des Moines Register
That's Why the Lady is the Champ

Wash Post's Kornblut and Balz
Democratic Contenders Step Up Attacks in Debate

Molly Ball for the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Faceoff in the Silver State: Clinton Strikes Back

The sum total of it is that Hillary Clinton regained any ground she had lost since Philly. A combative John Edwards, Yepsen said, should've stayed home. And Barack Obama waffled on the very question that Hillary's taken such heat about for the last two weeks.

One other Yepsen note of interest ... Hillary, he said, needs Edwards in the race and running relatively strong in Iowa. He posits that if Edwards loses ground, some of his supporters could defect -- to Obama.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Karl Rove took part in C-SPAN's Distance Learning classroom 11/15 and was asked about the WH '08ers:

Asked what his reax would have been if told months ago Giuliani would be leading in nat'l polls: "I would have raised an eyebrow and I think Rudy Giuliani has done a very good job at staying on top of the Republican field longer than I would have anticipated and with a substantial amount of support from people that I thought he would not have been able to draw."

More: "I think it's because of two things. One is because he's put the war on terror at the center of his campaign and for many voters that is the attractive thing. Second of all, he's talked about his experience as the mayor of New York City and by saying that he took on crime, and he took on welfare and he took on the coarseness of life in this big urban city and he turned it around -- he's said something to people about values."

Asked if anything's surprised him about the campaign so far: "Lots of things. Romney's done a very good job -- run a text book campaign at building support in Iowa and New Hampshire and, of course, Michigan, being an early state gets him. But he has a very well organized and very well-run campaign. And the strength that he has in these early states is authentic. On the Democratic side I've been surprised at how weak Obama and Edwards have turned out to be. They're both going to give her some scares. She's going to lose something along the way -- maybe starting with Iowa -- but it's surprised me they've not been able to take the openings they've been given and exploit them. And someone characterized Obama as another Adlai Stevenson and I think that's accurate. .. And I've frankly been a little bit surprised by that."

Asked about Thompson: "Early on he had a very interesting approach using the net and a big buzz. I'm not sure he got in early enough to take advantage of that buzz. But McCain, Thompson, even Huckabee have the ability in this close contest we've got -- we've got essentially four or five people, depending on how you define it -- who got a shot at the nomination, it's that some of them have strengths and it's that others are going to require something that changes the dynamic" (C-SPAN 3, 11/15).

On Call is writing out of rainy Manchester this evening. Here's what one local Democratic activist said after the debate:

"Hillary did what she should've done in Philadelphia. She fought back, forcing Edwards and Obama to retreat, and she answered the driver's license question with a simple response."

Indeed, it seems it was HRC's night. Even when pulling lines directly from her stump speech, Clinton's answers were mostly clear and crisp, and she managed to effectively call out her opponents for their "mudslinging."

“I don’t mind taking hits on my record on issues, but when somebody starts throwing mud at least we can hope it’s accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook," Clinton said.

HRC came off tonight as the smartest kid in the class -- but with a directness and sense of humor that she lacked in the last debate. She even managed a chuckle at the debate's last question, which underscored the fact that gender is an unavoidable element of the 2008 campaign, no matter who raises it.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

A fun, yet loaded question for Clinton, so sayeth the questionner. "Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?" asked a female UNLV student.

"I know I'm sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice," Clinton said. "I want both."

Then Biden piped up with just one last quip for good measure. "Diamonds," the senator said.

Maybe Campbell wants to re-ask her earlier question about gender ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

What qualities would you look for in choosing a Supreme Court nominee?

Respect for country's privacy laws, Clinton said.

Obama:"Part of the role of the court is that it is going to protect people who may be vulnerable in the political process ..."

Edwards, too, with the privacy talk and discussion of protection for a judge who desegregated schools.

Where are Kate Michelman and Kim Gandy and the Emily's Listers on this issue? Why aren't they demanding more of their Democratic candidates on the choice issue? Especially with the SUPCO in flux ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Clinton and Obama feuding again -- This time over plans to preserve Social Security.

"This is the kind of thing i'd expect from Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani ..." Obama says of Hillary's proposal. More to come on this ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Richardson said that a fence along the Mexican/American border is a terrible idea and isn't a factor in the country's war on terror.

"Let's talk about the need to bring this country together," Richardson said. "... We should stop demonizing immigrants. And I'm against the fence because it will not work."

The U.S., Richardson said, has to secure the border, double the number of border patrol agents, punish those who knowingly hire illegal workers and implore the Mexican government to provide jobs for their citizens.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Q: What will you do now to prevent an 'unnecessary war' in Iran? Asked by a mother and her son, who has served three terms in Iraq.

"That's not what our troops need," the soldier, Christoper, said. "Our troops need to come home now."

Clinton said she opposes a rush to war and advocates a diplomatic approach in Iran.

Edwards: "My own view is that it's important for us to stop Bush, Cheney and the neocons at every single stage."

He added, "I think it's absolutely crucial for Democrats on this issue to show real strength, real backbone and stop this president from moving forward."

Obama called for "bold diplomacy." "i think that the next president has to lead that diplomacy," he said, adding that he will "meet with not just our friends, but also our enemies."

"That's what strong countries and that's what strong presidents do," Obama said.

Obama played some defense, though, when Blitzer asked him about his missed vote on a bill declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Obama said missed votes are one of the hazards of running for president. He said he made a "mistake."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

"I think that every single candidate should be held to exactly the same standard," Edwards said, when he followed on Clinton's answer to the gender q.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Campbell to HRC -- Exploiting gender, Mrs. Clinton?

Clinton hits this one out of the proverbial park. No doubt. ...

"I'm not exploiting anything at all. I'm not playing, as some people say, the gender card here in Las Vegas. I'm just trying to play the winning card."

"They're attacking me because i'm ahead."

"As Harry Truman famously said, 'If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen,' and I feel very comfortable in the kitchen."

"From time to time there may be some impediments, and it has been my goal over the course of my lifetime to be part of this great movement of progress."

HRC said she is thrilled to be taking aim at the "highest, hardest glass ceiling." Her bid, she acknowledged, is "history making," celebrated by 95-yr-old women and young girls alike.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Kucinich, on perhaps his favorite subject, used the opportunity to take Edwards to task.

"The fact of the matter is you voted for China trade understanding that workers were going to be hurt. You are a trial lawyer, you know better," Kucinich said.

Edwards answered: "I'm not sure what being a trial lawyer has to do with it."

"Product liability," Kucinich called out from across the stage.

Edwards gives him a 'whatever' look and tries to refocus. "I think America's trade policy has been a complete disaster," Edwards said. "What I believe is that powerful interests, particularly big corporate interests have literally taken over this govt."

Wolf asks Hillary if Ross Perot was right about Nafta. "All I can remember from that is a bunch of charts," she said.

HRC: "Nafta did not do what many had hoped, and so we do need to take a look at it."

Clinton said that a third party independent investigative arm needs to be established to review corporations that do business in China. "We should not permit any items to be imported into our country until we're sure they're safe," HRC said. "... Nafta was a mistake to the extent that it did not deliver in the way we hoped it would."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

In foreign affairs, as in the situation with Pakistan, would security or human rights guide a candidate's policies as president?

Richardson -- Democracy and human rights would be paramount. Assistance, he said, should be conditioned to Musharraf.

Dodd -- National security is most important.
"This is an administration that has stepped all over our Constitution in the process" of our dealings with Pakistan and Turkey. "The security of the country is number one," he added.

Clinton --" I agree with that completely," she said, echoing Dodd.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

And why does Dodd keep laughing?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Here you go ...

Biden -- No

Richardson -- Yes

Hillary -- No

Obama -- Yes

Edwards -- seemed like a No

Dodd -- No

Are we clear yet?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Responding to Wolf Blitzer's question about whether the candidates will support the eventual nominee, everyone says (grudgingly?) that they will. Except Dennis Kucinich and Biden.

"Only if they oppose war as an instrument of policy," Kucinich said.

And Biden: "Hell no, I wouldn't support any of these guys," he joked before saying that oh, okay, he would.

"Is that a planted question?" Edwards said, prompting some boos.

Edwards, who earlier this week declined to answer a similar question asked by a reporter, added: "Absolutely."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Ok, not true, but Joe Biden does inject a little sense -- and humor -- into a debate spiraling quickly out of control.

The Delaware senator says that real people don't give a hoot about the animosity between the candidates, the dueling egos. They worry about making their mortgage payments, keeping their jobs, whether their children will come back from war, if their children will encounter drug dealers on their walks to school.

"Ladies and gentleman, every political campaign gets to this place, and I'm not criticizing any of the people who are the ones who always get to talk at these things," he said. "This is not about experience, it's not about change. It's about action."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

HRC hits back with: "I hear what Sen. Obama is saying, and he talks a lot about stepping up and taking responsiility," but his universal health care plan would leave 15 million Americans without insurance, HRC said.

They battle back and forth, heated, about the merits of their respective plans. But Hillary punctuates the argument with a plea for her electibility. And a reminder that the GOP is not going to cede the White House to the Dems without a fierce battle.

"We can have a different politics, but let's not forget here the people we are against are not going to give up without a fight," she said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

First question to Hillary from Campbell Brown ... Was her Illegal immigration answer symbolic of her inability to take firm positions on controversial issues?

HRC is wearing asbestos? Ah -- she can withstand any amount of fire. We get it...

"I am happy to be here tonight, and this pants suit it's asbestors," HRC said.

"It is important that we have a candidate who is tested and a president who is ready to lead from day one," Clinton added.

Obama was asked for a follow. HRC is capable, he said, but not a straight talker.

"What the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, and that is not what we've seen from Sen. Clinton on a host of issues," Obama said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

The official slogan reflects the fact that Nevada became a state in 1864, during the Civil War. Appropriate, of course, given the expected brawl set to take place in Sin City tonight.

So the natural follow -- Can HRC use tonight's Las Vegas battle to help restore the perception that she will become the eventual nominee? Or will the much-anticipated follow to the Philly fracas that left Clinton wounded fuel a growing sense that she's vulnerable?

Ponder these questions:

JRE
Will Edwards go after Hillary as fiercely as he did at Drexel? And if he does, will he be lauded or panned? Can he challenge her without seeming like a bully? Will Edwards commit to endorsing HRC if she wins the nomination or will he offer up the name of the GOPer he'd rather back? And will he be the first on stage to raise the planted question issue? Bet on the latter.

Barack Obama
Will Barack Obama join in the pile-on? If he lets Edwards do his dirty work, will it help or hurt his chance to be the obvious alternative to HRC? Can he summon some of that Iowa JJ charm and determation?

HRC
What zinger does she have at the ready to counter any mention of those planted questions? Will she put the driver's license brouhaha to bed? Can she? Does she say aloud that she was defering to her home-state guv, not dodging the original question? How does she halt -- again, can she? -- the likely team haranguing she's bound to endure? And will one firm, dismissive, notable quip put the "boys" in their place? Oh, and will Blitzer out-Russert Russert? Don't count on it...

Chris Dodd
Why hasn't he -- and will he -- go after Edwards? His shot at fourth depends on it.

Bill Richardson
How does he pitch the importance of this western state to his campaign -- especially after directing much of his state staff to Iowa? PS, Happy b-day, governor.

Joe Biden
Can he snag the most memorable debate line again? Maybe a gig succeeding Conan would be preferable to 1600 Pennsylvania.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Barack Obama is up with a new 30-second spot tomorrow in New Hampshire, focusing on the importance of education in the life of every child.

The script:

My parents weren't rich. My father left me when I was very young.

The one thing I was able to get was a great education.

We should give every child the same chances that I had.

By investing in early childhood education and recruiting a whole new generation of teachers. But government alone is not going to solve the problem.

We need parents to turn off the television and instill in our children a sense of excellence.

We've got to ask more of ourselves if we want the kind of world class education that they need.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

If anyone wondered if John Edwards' campaign had milked the HRC question planting mini-scandal to death, ponder no more. Today, as the Nevada debate fast approaches and journos and pundits alike speculate about the answer Clinton might have to any official questions on the subject, Edwards' team launched plantsforhillary.com.

JRE's campaign:
"As part of the PlantsforHillary.com web site, potential plants can listen to testimonials from past plants, read the 'Top 10 Questions Plants Should Never Ask Hillary,' learn how to recognize other plants at Senator Clinton's events, submit suggestions for planted questions, and purchase the soon to be released 'Questions are hard...so plant them' t-shirt."

From parsing to planting, Clinton is taking hit after hit after hit from Edwards since the Philly debate two weeks ago. But could Edwards, with such frivolous nastiness, be opening himself up for a backlash? It's one thing to smack Clinton for waffling on the war, but could the plant talk soil (I couldn't help it) Edwards' chances with Iowa voters. Iowa nice, remember, JRE?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

From today's Hotline:

"There is nothing worse than losing to Barack Obama. You never hear the end of it."

-- Obama body man Reggie Love, on playing basketball with him, Chicago Tribune, 11/15.

Look out tonight for On Call's blow-by-blow of the Democratic debate in Las Vegas. CNN's Wolf Blitzer to moderate. Preview to come ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

DIXVILLE NOTCH -- During Ron Paul's two-day retail tour this week of New Hampshire's North Country, he stressed several points:

a. He is mad for the Constitution. If it's not in there, he doesn't want to legislate it. Think health care.

b. He is against the war in Iraq. And as the only GOPer to oppose President Bush's policies, his campaign presents a clear view -- get the troops out, now. And while you're at it, Paul said, remove any remaining troops from Japan or Europe or anywhere else the U.S. has tried to bolster local forces over the last half century. Even Israel.

"I believe it is our presence over there that causes so much hatred," Paul said this week, at a Colebrook house party, of U.S. involvement abroad.

c. Guns are okay by Paul. Abortion is not.

"It's pretty hard for me after delivering 4,000 babies to think I'm not dealing with life."

d. Integrity. Sincerity. Credibility. He has it, the others don't, Paul told voters.

e. He is promoting "the cause of freedom." One translation -- no income tax. A very popular position in tax-averse NH.

"My message is very simple, more freedom, less government," he said.

Voters in New Hampshire's northernmost towns appeared pleased to meet Paul. From Dixville Notch and North Conway to Litchfield and Littleton, Paul sold himself as an alternative to the status quo politics of both parties. He regaled voters with the tale of his record-breaking $4.2M Internet fundraiser. And he said that he is running for the GOP nomination because he understands that candidates are forced to work within the two-party system. That it's harder to mount a viable challenge as an independent.

And judging from the crowds at his event, it's just as difficult, perhaps, to pinpoint which types of voters are being drawn to Paul. Though one thing is certain, he is a draw; a recent CBS poll shows him running fourth in NH at 8 percent -- and, more importantly, threatening to mess with John McCain's comeback potential here.

Some possible Paul supporters IDed themselves as Dems but said that they can't stand frontrunner Hillary Clinton and are shopping around. Others said they haven't voted in years or have traditionally written in no-name protest candidates. Still others said there's no discernable difference between the GOP and Dem frontrunners and that they view Paul as an alternative.

"To have this man in my house is to me one of the most incredible things in the world," said Colebrook Selectman Larry Rappaport, a transplanted New Yorker who supported McCain's bid in 2000 but hosted the house party for Paul. "He stands for every single thing I believe in. I'm probably as surprised as anyone at how well he's doing."

Paul, 72, is being backed by undeclared voters Timothy and Gloria Burchett of West Stuartstown. Undeclared voters -- who make up 45 percent of those registered to vote in the 2008 NH primary, according to Secretary of State Bill Gardner -- are the unknown factor here and could turn state polling on it's head.

After watching him on television and at the debates, Timothy Burchett, who runs a traveling nurse company, said he felt Paul was the only candidate in the race who would not "sway in the wind."

"I called up his office and said, 'Where's this guy from?'" he said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Mitt Romney was on the "Live Desk" 11/14:

Asked about Giuliani saying he's concentrating his campaign on the 2/5 states: "If you go to Iowa and New Hampshire you'll see that Mayor Giuliani and his surrogates and his advertisements and his mailers and so forth are hot and heavy in the early primary states. He doesn't want to lose. He wants to do well and it doesn't look like he's been able to catch fire either in Iowa or New Hampshire in the kind of way he hoped. ... I think one of the reason you've seen such a changing in the ledes here in the case of Fred Thompson and Mayor Giuliani and Senator McCain is that they just haven't ignited the kind of support in Iowa and New Hampshire you may have expected."

Asked why he hasn't give a "Mormon speech": "There's really nothing new on that front. ... Ultimately, of course, the decision is mine. ... I'd like to, at some point, talk to people about the role of religion in America. ... Whether there's a speech on that topic or not, who knows? There's nothing of that nature that's been written by me; nothing that I'm planning on giving at that this point but perhaps down the road that might be an interesting topic to talk about" (FNC, 11/14).

Sources say that former New Hampshire Sen. John Durkin will endorse Chris Dodd for president. The senators have known each other for 30 years. Durkin is the last Democrat to represent the Granite State in the U.S. Senate.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

The New Hampshire Democratic Party has sent out notice that Bill Clinton will be a featured guest at this weekend's Eastern Regional Conference of the DNC. The former POTUS is expected to kick off the confab Friday in Manchester.

Also likely to attend: Michael Dukakis and Donnie Fowler. Barack Obama's sister is a maybe, as is Jimmy Carter's son, who supports Joe Biden.

Expect Young Dems, Stonewall Dems and other leaders from around the country.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

After weeks of giving a less-than-clear answer on the topic of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, Hillary Clinton said today that she backs Eliot Spitzer's plan to, well, withdraw his plan. This two weeks after her Philly debate gaffe and after several iterations of an attempted non-response response.

"I support Gov. Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal. His difficult job is made that much harder by the failure of the Congress and the White House to pass comprehensive immigration reform," Clinton said in a statement, per NBC/NJ's Athena Jones.

"As president, I will not support drivers licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration, including border security and fixing our broken system."

Until now, Clinton has said she understood the tough siuation governors like Spitzer were in because they had to "fill a vacuum" left by the federal government's balk on immigration reform. She also said before that that she "broadly" supported plans like Spitzer's but did not pretend to know the details."

The episode and HRC's ensuing parsing have left Clinton vulnerable to her opponents' attacks for the first time. The race in Iowa is a statistical three-way tie, according to recent polls. Clinton, however, maintains a double-digit lead in NH, though it's smaller than it's been, also according to recent surveys.

Her opponents, chiefly John Edwards and Barack Obama, have said the Clintonesque waivering is symbolic of HRC's inability to take a stand.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton today:"When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it's easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Your On Call editor has been on the road (North Country, 22 degrees this a.m.) for the last few days and largely sans Internet service. But I'm back, and will post some catch-up stuff. And, of course, if you have anything to add, any fabulous dish, email me at jskalka@nationaljournal.com ...

From today's Hotline:

"The last thing in the world you want to do when you're running for president is respond to gossip column stories."

-- Rudy Giuliani, on Judith Regan's lawsuit against News Corp., NBC/NJ, 11/14.

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Tom Tancredo was in the "Situation Room" to discuss his new ad airing in IA:

Asked if he's using fear to get votes: "I'm using reality. I am asking all of the candidates who are involved in this race -- anybody who thinks they should be president of the United States had better pay attention to this. Do you think ... that this is not a serious issue? Do you think that there is a candidate out there who should not discuss this? I want them to discuss it. I want to know what they are going to do about it. Specifically, do they have the guts to do what is necessary to do to protect this country? And if not, they don't deserve to be president. And they sure as heck should be forced into discussing it."

Asked if this is an act of "desperation": "Never, ever did I expect to be a top-tier candidate. Certainly at this point in time. Never. I am not surprised by this. And it's certainly -- it is nothing new. All I'm saying to you is this: I believe my candidacy, at 1 percent or 2 percent, I believe my candidacy has forced the issue of immigration to the top tier of debate topics. I will tell you that. And now I'm trying to force it to the next level, to the really important part of this debate. And you know what? Whether it gets me 1 percent or no percent, it doesn't matter. Is the issue something we as presidential candidates, we as a nation, should be confronting? I certainly believe that's true. And I don't care whether this runs my numbers up or down."

From today's Hotline:

"Yeah."

-- Fred Thompson, asked if he's working hard enough to win, "Today," NBC, 11/13.

The Concord Monitor asks Mitt Romney if he'll give "the speech." His answer -- xerox John F. Kennedy's.

"In 1960, when he was running for president, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech aimed at questions about his Catholicism. Kennedy extolled the separation of church and state and assured voters that would never take orders from the Pope. Romney is often asked whether he'll give a similar speech; yesterday, he said he wasn't sure.

'John F. Kennedy gave the landmark speech on the topic. He said what needs to be said,' Romney said. 'I don't know that there's something different that needs to be said than what he said. I guess I could go back and reprint it!'"

Roger Simon, meanwhile, sees seriously bad behavior in Hillary Clinton's planted question scandal:

"The culture of control in presidential campaigning has gotten way out of control. Staffs now want to control every moment of the campaign: not just what the candidate says and how she says it, but what questions she gets asked about it," Simon writes for Politico.

Richard Cohen in The Washington Post says the sky is falling and maybe Mike Bloomberg can fix it. Unlike Ross Perot, Cohen writes, Bloomberg is tempermentally suited for the presidency.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

John Edwards has a new ad up in Iowa today that promises he'll push a health care plan through Congress within six months of being sworn in. If not, Edwards says in the 30-second spot, he will present legislation that would end coverage for the president, Congress and all senior political appointees in the legislative and exec branches, effective July 20, 2009.

(That day would mark the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. Coincidence? Is health care for all Americans the next frontier?)

Meanwhile, Joe Trippi sent an email yesterday to Edwards supporters promising a preview of the spot in exchange for a campaign contribution.

"People will be talking about this television spot," Trippi wrote. "It highlights an idea that will truly shake up Washington. We can't say what it is. Not just yet. but this spot will be talked about. If you make a contribution today, I'll e-mail you a preview of the spot. You'll be among the first to see it -- and you will have been responsible for helping us air it in Iowa and other key early states."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

A variety of WH '08 talk dominated TV last night:

Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod played "Hardball" last night:

On Obama's J-J speech: "He said on Saturday night, this is a very different time. I think people are very, very serious about where we are at this point in time. We're at war. We've got this terrible problem of global warming, climate change that's upon us. The economy's a mess. I don't think people are up for more of the same old politics. ... And you can see it in Iowa. We're dead even in Iowa. The polls have closed in New Hampshire. I think the American people are ready for the real change, change as we say that they can believe in, and that's what he's offering."

On HRC: "She's good at what she does. She's got a great campaign. They're running a textbook campaign. But it's a campaign designed to get you through an election. It's not designed to bring the country together. It's not designed to solve problems."

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

John McCain has a new 30-second ad up in New Hampshire and the Boston market today that aims to highlight the senator's "commitment to ending wasteful pork-barrel spending in Washington," according to a campaign release. Called "Outrageous," the ad also includes another hit against HRC for that Woodstock museum.

Here's the ad; script after the jump.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

AP's Liz Sidoti is reporting that Fred Thompson will be endorsed tomorrow in Washington by the National Right to Life Committee.

Thompson's campaign has struggled from the start to gain traction with conservatives (and traction, period), and the backing of the most prominent anti-abortion group in the nation could help stop the bleeding.

More notable, though, is the fact that the group declined to back one of the frontrunners, Mitt Romney, whose position on choice has evolved during his time in office. Romney has struggled to convince the religious right that he is strongly anti-abortion, having advocated during his 1994 Senate campaign that abortion should be "safe and legal." As governor, meanwhile, he said he would protect Massachusetts' abortion laws.

Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden released this statement today: "Gov. Romney has a great deal of respect for all of those who advocate tirelessly in the name of protecting and defending the sanctity of life. He looks forward to continuing to work with his supporters and others involved in the pro-life effort now and throughout this campaign."

The AP story ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

From today's Hotline:

"Hello Iowa. And hello, Chicago!"

-- Joe Biden, on rumors that Barack Obama's campaign bussed in supporters to the IA J-J Dinner, National Journal/NBC, 11/10.

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Lots of '08ers on the Sunday public affairs shows this weekend:

Barack Obama was on "Meet the Press":

Asked why Dems are skeptical about his knowledge and experience to be POTUS: "I have not been on the national scene as long as some of the other candidates in this race, and so part of our job throughout this campaign is to give people some sense of what I've done before I got to Washington; what I did as a constitutional law professor, as a civil rights lawyer, as a state legislator. And what we discover is when people actually find out my track record, they're pleasantly surprised. And so that's why our focus on the early states like Iowa and New Hampshire's been so important, because we can interact much more intimately with people and give them a sense not only about my track record but also my vision for the future."

GOP delegates met 11/10 to decide a replacement for the late-Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA 01), and rejected her husband and a candidate backed by the Club for Growth. Instead, they chose the “relatively little known” Del. Rob Wittman (R), according to the Newport News Daily Press.

At their convo, Dems chose Iraq Vet Philip Forgit (D) as their nominee, but due to the overwhelming nature of the CD – Pres. Bush took 60% here in ’04 – GOPers start out with a huge advantage.

Davis’ husband, Chuck, announced his intentions to run early in the race and was expected to clear the field, but nearly a dozen GOPers eventually entered their names for the nominating convo. In the end, the contest came down to Wittman and Club for Growth-backed Paul Jost (R), and Jost conceded just before 10 p.m. after it appeared he wouldn’t win. Wittman: "I think folks just caught on to our message. We're just getting back to the basics of good government."

While Wittman may not be well known, the short general election race – the election will be held on 12/11 – will greatly favor the GOP nominee in this race [TIM SAHD].

David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register: Score one big one for Barack Obama:
"The leading Democratic presidential candidates showed up for the Iowa Democratic Party's big Jefferson Jackson Dinner Saturday night," Yepsen wrote. "Five of them gave really good speeches. Barack Obama's was excellent."

The NYT has these nuggets about HRC's behavior during her opponents' speeches:

" When Mr. Obama spoke about Mrs. Clinton, the New York senator talked quietly with people at her table. At one point, Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of her campaign, brought over Quincy Jones, the record producer, for an introduction. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Jones embraced as fans snapped pictures, while Mr. Obama continued his implicit attacks on Mrs. Clinton.

"But Mrs. Clinton noticed — applauding and rising to her feet — when Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico implored Democrats to refrain from attacking one another. 'It is critically important that Democrats not tear each other down,' he said. 'I believe it’s important to point out policy differences on Iraq, Iran. But it’s important to remember the American people want a positive campaign.'”

The New Republic says "Obama Shines in Iowa" ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Last night at the Iowa JJ, Hillary Clinton unveiled a new (hot or not?) slogan, Barack Obama turned out an enviable show of support and a well-received speech to boot, and John Edwards, the first candidate to speak at the 9,000-person event, railed against corporate corruption.

First, Hillary ... The catch phrase she's expected to push for the next two months and beyond should she secure the nomination ... "Turn up the heat: Turn America around."

"I'm not interested in attacking my opponents, I'm interested in attacking the problems of America, and I believe we should be turning up the heat on the Republicans. They deserve all the heat we can give them," Clinton said last night after repeating that she's "comfortable in the kitchen," a line she's been using the past several days.

HRC's slogan appeared on giant green and yellow signs hanging from balconies in the Veteran's Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, reports NBC/NJ's Athena Jones. It was also written on placards that served as centerpieces on some of the tables in the cavernous hall.

Obama's pre-rally before the event drew 4,000 people, according to his campaign. Together, he and his wife, Michelle, led the crowd three blocks from the site of their pre-rally to the dinner. The couple danced in the streets.

Obama's campaign told NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan that they brought buses of supporters from four staging locations across the state and printed 11,000 signs for the event. Anburajan says that a third of the dinner's attendees were Obama backers. Not a detail forgotten, even the reporters received Obama souvenirs, fortune cookies, boasting that "Iowans will caucus for Obama" and "You're fired up! Obama's ready to go!" and "Your outlook will be more hopeful ... when Obama is president."

And Obama was equally focused in his speech, accusing his fellow Democrats of waffling on torture, Iran and the Iraq war. Obama slammed his opponents for "acting and talking and voting like George Bush Republicans."

"When I am this party's nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq, or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, or I support Bush/Cheney policies of not talking to leaders that I don't like ... or that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether it's okay to torture, because it's never okay," Obama said.

With a clear shot at Clinton, he continued: "I am not in this race to fulfill some long-held ambitions, or because I believe it's somehow beholden to me. I never expected to be here. I always knew that the journey was improbable," he said.

The Illinois senator railed against both the use of the politics of fear by both parties. But he also tried to present himself as tough enough to handle the inevitable mud-slinging that a general election contest brings.

"If those Republicans come out at me with the same fear-mongering and Swiftboating that they usually do, I will take them head on," he said.

Edwards, whose wife, Elizabeth, was in Raleigh last night with their children, said the 2008 contest is the "great moral test of our generation." He also hit on one of his chief complaints of HRC, that she's beholden to lobbyists and special interests.

"Washington is awash with corrupt money, with lobbyists who pass it out, with politicians who ask for it," Edwards said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

The Boston Globe is reporting this morning a new poll that shows Hillary's lead has narrowed, nine points since September, and that the GOP and Dem contests are fluid in the Granite State.

HRC 35%
Obama 21%
Edwards 15%

Romney 32%
Giuliani 20%

From The Globe:

"The primary contest in both parties remains highly fluid - just 16 percent of likely Republican voters said they had definitely decided whom to back; among likely Democratic primary voters, only 24 percent are firm in their choice. And neither Clinton nor Romney has closed the deal with their party's voters, the poll suggests.

"'It's still really open,' said Andrew E. Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which conducted the Globe poll.

"In the Democratic race, Clinton's lead has narrowed 9 points since September, when a CNN/WMUR poll conducted by UNH showed her with a 43-to-20 percent advantage over Obama. Among Republicans, Romney has reestablished the lead over Giuliani that he enjoyed in the summer, after the same September poll showed the two candidates neck and neck."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Hillary Clinton can't shake the bad news cycles that have dominated campaign discourse over the last week -- going on Day 11 -- and tomorrow is not bound to be a brighter day.

Her campaign has admitted that a staffer planted a question with a student in the audience at a recent forum. The story was broken by Grinnell College's paper, The Scarlet & Black. Clinton, a spokesperson said, was not aware that the student had been briefed by a member of her campaign.

Lousy news for HRC going into the very important JJ weekend. But it's made worse by the imminent release of a UNH poll expected to show the race for the Democratic nomination somewhat narrowed.

So does the Drexel debate gaffe + Bill Clinton's musings (HRC, he said, is not so responsible for that failed 1990s healthcare reform effort she's been touting on the trail as evidence of her experience) + the brewing planted question drama = trouble for HRC? Dimmed until her recent tumult, will the chorus of A.B.C. -- Anybody But Clinton -- grow louder?

Expect more on this tomorrow from On Call.

For now, AP's story:

Clinton Staff Planted Question at Forum

By JAMES BELTRAN

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An aide for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a Grinnell College student a question to ask the Democratic presidential candidate during a forum this week in central Iowa.

That the question had been planted by the campaign was not mentioned at the event.

"This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again," the campaign said in a statement issued Friday night. Clinton herself did not know when she called on the student that the question had been suggested by one of her staff, the campaign said.

"The senator had no idea," Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee told The Associated Press.

Clinton appeared at a biodiesel plant in Newton on Tuesday to introduce her energy plan. A student, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, later told Grinnell College's student newspaper, The Scarlet & Black, that she was asked by a senior Clinton staffer to pose a question about global warming. She also said that staffers prompted the senator to call on her, the newspaper reported.

"A member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Sen. Clinton's energy plan at a forum," the campaign statement said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Roberta McCain, in an interview with her son on 'Hardball' this evening raised the matter of Mitt Romney's Mormon faith while discussing his qualifications for president.

She said that her son, John McCain, is "the only qualified candidate in the entire lot." Asked by NBC's Chris Matthews about Romney, Roberta McCain, 95, said: "As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon, and the Mormons of Salt Lake City caused that scandal. And to clean that up again, it's not a subject."

NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli said the candidate, who at the start of the segment called his mother his "secret weapon," sought immediately to mitigate her remarks.

"I think that Mormons are a great people," said John McCain. "I think that it should in no way be a factor in consideration or lack of consideration for Gov. Romney. I think that it should never be a consideration, and I know that he'll be judged on his record. He's a fine and decent man and a fine family man."

Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Romney, was quick to criticize Mrs. McCain and her candidate son -- but not by name.

"I would disagree with any candidate or any campaign surrogate that chooses to disparage someone based on the faith that they hold, and instead implore other candidates and their campaigns to make a case to voters based on the important issues facing the nation," Madden said.

Tomorrow night's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, a critical fundraiser for the Iowa Democratic Party, is not at all about the money. It's about the show -- and which Democratic presidential candidate flaunts the best celebrity talent, packs Vets auditorium with the rowdiest supporters, and, most importantly, who gives the most inspiring speech.

The dinner will be attended by 9,000 people, reports NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann. Six Democratic candidates are expected to show, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be master of ceremonies.

Tickets sold for between $20 for balcony seats to several thousand for tables on the ballroom floor.

The candidate's speeches will be interspersed with remarks from Iowa royalty, including Sen. Tom Harkin, Gov. Chet Culver, Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, and U.S. representative Leonard Boswell, a famed amateur auctioneer.

The top campaigns are hoping to win the visibility battle by packing the auditorium with their supporters, and the best way to get those folks fired up is with pregame festivities. So each of the campaigns is hosting a tailgate-style rally outside the auditorium, featuring live music and food.

Among the acts rolling into town are Grammy award winner John Legend, who is playing Barack Obama's pre-rally, and banjo whiz Ralph Stanley, who is playing on behalf of John Edwards' campaign. Among the debunked rumors that were circulating earlier in the week – no Jimmy Buffett, who was rumored to be appearing for Chris Dodd; and no Goo Goo Dolls or Sheryl Crow, who some whispered would be playing on Hillary Clinton's stage, Dann reports.

The JJ marks the start of the home stretch of primary season. Tides can begin to turn there. The national media descends on Des Moines to see who is turning out the most feverish crowds. Candidate speeches can be critical in shaping CW in the final two months. Game on.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Hillary Clinton received the coveted support today of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. Strickland, a former Methodist minister, is often mentioned as a possible veep. The importance of his endorsement goes without saying ...

John Edwards also won a potentially plum endorsement -- from Iowa Caucus 4 Priorities, a project of Priorities Action Fund. The weight of the group's backing will depend on its leaders' success in turning out the 10,200 members who have signed pledges to attend their precinct caucuses.

Peggy Huppert, Caucus 4 Priorities state director, told On Call that Barack Obama actually won the group's online poll by a small margin. But in evaluating answers to the organization's 12-question candidate survey, a panel of leaders -- including founder Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream -- determined that Edwards is most committed to their priorities -- diverting wasteful Pentagon spending into education, healthcare and renewable energy programs, and cutting funding for weapons systems.

Huppert said Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd were eliminated from consideration in the first round -- for not providing yes or no answers to the survey.

"John Edwards thinks that we have a fight ahead ... and that special interests aren't going to willingly give up their power," Huppert said. "We think that John Edwards can be a bulldog for us on this issue."

Huppert believes the group's concerted education and GOTV effort could help lift Edwards to victory on Jan. 3.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Tom Minnery, senior vice president of James Dobson's organization, Focus on the Family, tells National Journal Contributing Editor Linda Douglass that he was the source of the email, which he sent to the American Spectator website.

Minnery read his email to Douglass: "There is absolutely no truth to your blog report that Dr. Dobson is about to endorse Governor Huckabee. Dr. Dobson is not close to endorsing anyone in the 08 presidential primary. I expect you to make a correction."

Minnery told me that Dobson has never endorsed in a presidential primary, though he has not ruled out doing so this year. He stressed that Dobson is "not close" to making such an endorsement. As previously reported, Dobson opposes Rudy Giuliani and is underwhelmed by Fred Thompson.

Minnery did not want to speak on Dobson's behalf about Mike Huckabee.

The Spectator has now updated its report on Dobson/Huckabee. The site reported earlier today that "sources close to Dobson say that within the next ten days he is coordinating an endorsement plan with the presidential campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee."

National Journal Contributing Editor Linda Douglass reports that Paul Weyrich, founder of the Free Congress Foundation and co-founder of the Moral Majority, told her today that he saw an email from James Dobson in which Dobson "denies ferociously that he has decided to endorse (Mike) Huckabee."

"He said it was made up," Weyrich told Douglass. "He has no idea who came up with this, but he is trying to stop it."

Weyrich reiterated to Douglass that Dobson's denial was "in ferocious terms."

Weyrich, who is supporting Mitt Romney's presidential bid, would not say to whom Dobson's email was addressed and said he no longer had the email.

Much has been made this week of the fractured nature of a trio of presidential endorsements from leaders of the religious right. Pat Robertson announced his support for Rudy Giuliani in Washington earlier this week, and John McCain's campaign trotted out Sam Brownback in Iowa. Huckabee, widely regarded as a more suitable ideological fit for Robertson, Weyrich and Brownback, was left scrambling to explain his inability to draw their support.

Dobson, Focus on the Family founder, remains a critical get for the leading Republican candidates. Each is working to cast himself as the candidate who will best represent the interests of evangelical voters. With the fractured nature of this week's endorsements, could Dobson tip the balance of favor among Christian voters to one candidate?

From today's Hotline:

"Because that's who makes the laws that govern our land."

-- Christian Coalition Pres. Roberta Combs, on why they're focusing on Congress, and not WH, in '08, AP, 11/8.

If you needed a sign that Mike Huckabee's campaign is kicking in to a higher gear, that they're getting ready to make it happen in Iowa, this just might be it.

Huckabee Iowa State Director Eric Woolson just called NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann to say that he HAS finally purchased a Blackberry. NBC/NJ reported last month that the longtime Iowa insider and de facto local communications director did not carry a hand held email device, a fact many took as a sign of Huckabee's shoe-string organization.

"I couldn't email you to tell you because I haven't figured out how to turn it on yet," Woolson joked. He says he will get a tutorial from the governor's daughter, Sarah, today.

Woolson announced the Berry purchase at a recent national staff meeting. He reports that everyone cheered.

Woolson is still pondering a name for the new toy, but is strongly considering "Barry."

(NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann)

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Lots of '08ers on TV again last night:

ABC's Tapper talked with Rudy Giuliani in IA for "Nightline":

Asked if he's worried the Bernard Kerik indictment will cause people to disregard his own record as a prosecutor: "No. I think that people are capable of looking at that and saying you have to look at that and judge that in the overall context of what I did and how many right decisions did I make and how many wrong decisions did I make. And the balance is very much in favor of -- I must have been making the right decisions if the city of New York turned around."

Giuliani: "People are complex but the fact is that the results for the city for New York were excellent results but there were these problems I should have known about but had I known about them at moment I knew about them I would not have gone ahead with him."

Asked if lessens the seriousness of what Kerik did to talk about the good things he did: "Not at all. ... It's the complexity of human life. And the reality of human life. Richard Nixon had this very serious problem but his breakthrough with China was one of the historical things that happened in the 20th century. You can't take that away from him. It was" (ABC, 11/8).

Here's the Romney ad.

Script after the jump ...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

In preparation for a three-day swing through New Hampshire beginning today, Mitt Romney's campaign is this morning unveiling an ad on immigration in the Granite and Hawkeye States.

Per spokesman Kevin Madden, "The ad offers a contrast between Governor Romney and the Democrats on the issue of immigration. He contrasts his actions to strengthen enforcement of our laws and border security with Hillary Clinton's embrace of sanctuary policies that weaken border security efforts."

The ad does not mention Giuliani, according to the AP's report. But the campaign has said that while Romney will be talking about immigration in New Hampshire this weekend, nothing new is to be expected in terms of policy, reports NBC/NJ's Erin McPike.

Barack Obama, on a bus tour through Iowa the last two days, will miss the Senate vote tonight to confirm Michael Mukasey for attorney general, according to a spokesman.

"Sen. Obama won't be going back to DC tonight to vote for Mukasey," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director. "He's already announced his position on it. I don't think the vote will be close."

Obama has told reporters on the trail with him that he could not support a nominee unwilling to be candid about his feelings on torture, according to NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan.

So he's missed the Mukasey and Iran votes ... Change agent? Courageous candiate willing to take tough stands? You decide.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Bill Clinton today in Iowa took the blame for his wife's most public policy failing during her eight years in the White House: healthcare. By doing so, he practically -- and is it unilaterally? -- strips that line from Hillary's stump speech.

"She has taken the rap for some of the problems we had with health care the last time that were far more my fault than hers," he said. "Let's just face it. We couldn't raise money. This time, when you let the tax cuts for upper income people expire, it'll create a pool of money that wasn't there last time. We told her she had to get to universal coverage and there would be no new money. She had to figure out how to do it. She also was very vulnerable to a Senate filibuster last time. Because they were on the 'Just say no to Bill Clinton.' "

Here's the case HRC's campaign makes on www.hillaryclinton.com for why she's the most qualified to get a health care plan through Congress :

"Nobody has worked harder or longer to improve health care than Hillary Clinton. From her time in Arkansas when she improved rural health care to her successful effort to create the SCHIP Children's Health Insurance program which now covers six million children, Hillary has the strength and experience to ensure that every man, woman and child in America has quality, affordable health care."

Barack Obama, also in Iowa today, suggested that Hillary can't campaign on her efforts in the 1990s to get Congress to pass a health care initiative and then allow her husband to say she wasn't involved with the Clinton administration's failed plan.

"I’m not sure about previous characterizations," Obama said, during a stop at a gas station in Albia. "All I know is that part of the record she’s running on is on healthcare, so its hard to gauge if one of her claims is to have experience in this issue and then to suggest somehow that she didn’t have anything to do with the way it didn’t work."

When asked if the comment was a mixed message, Senator Obama first hedged before elaborating that the comment brought into question Senator Clinton’s claim that her experience trying to pass healthcare in the 1990s had allowed her to learn from her mistakes and would help her to pass universal healthcare if she were to win the presidency, reports NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

President Bill Clinton campaigned today in Iowa, and, rather than interpret his remarks for you, we're just going to put them out there for you to process ...

"She'll win it by a pretty good margin"
"If Hillary could be nominated, I expect her not only to win the general election, but I think she'll win it by a pretty good margin. Because it'll just be two people, heads up, where you can see and hear the differences in approach and ideas. And no matter what they say about her - they've already said it all - and she will keep trying to give the election to the American people about the issues."

Oh, those demonizing dogs
"And I think we saw in 2006 that the Republicans have run that little demonizing dog out of the pen about one time too many. There's a lot of mange on that dog now. I don't think it's going to work anymore. So I feel good about that."

Balancing work and family, those women are just better equipped
"There are probably still some people who won't vote for a woman for president. But what the experience of other countries is that the prejudice lingers only as long as it's kept underneath the surface. ... In a way I'm kind of surprised that America's lagging so far behind given the political activism of women. ... But I think that if a woman clearly is intelligent and strong enough to do the job, has sensible ideas about economic policy and is credible on national security, that women would be more trusted on health care, education, balancing work and family, all these family and work issues I think would be a big asset, not a liability."

Not one leg in the grave yet
"Hillary and I, maybe we're just artifacts. Sometimes I hear some of these other candidates talking -- they make me feel like a mummy. I mean, I'm only 61, I don't think I've got a leg in the grave yet."

Another right-wing conspiracy?
"I think that she's done pretty well. The extreme right-wing faction of the Republican Party, which has controlled their national party since 1980, they've been working on her for 16 years. I think she's held up pretty well. Looks good for a 60-year-old girl, I think. So don't worry about that. She can win this race. She's in way better shape now than I was before I got nominated. I was running third in the polls when I won the Democratic nomination, because they worked on me cause they didn't want me to run. And they kept thinking if I keep dumping on Bill Clinton I can convince the Democrats to vote against him."

(NBC/NJ's CARRIE DANN)

Rudy Giuliani said today in Dubuque that voters looking at the indictment of his former police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, should recognize he made a mistake.

"I am not running as the perfect candidate, and I'm not running as the perfect president," Giuliani said. "What I'm running as is somebody who's had a great deal of success."

He apologized for not properly vetting Kerik before recommending him to be secretary of homeland security, reports NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger.

"I made a mistake in not clearing him effectively enough," he said. "I take the responsibility for that."

He said anyone evaluating his record will find mistakes.

"If you go through my record, and find some mistakes, tell me about them, because I'll probably admit that I made them," he said. "And if you go through my record and you find some successes, I'll also be happy enough to show you those. But the balance has been, really I think, getting results that other people weren't able to get."

Giuliani continued to tout his pre-mayoral experience, and was flanked by two former colleagues from his tenure as U.S. attorney. Rob Bonner, who served as U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, and Daniel Webb, who served in Chicago, both touted Giuliani's record for reducing crime.

Giuliani said he met with the local sheriff, and learned that illegal immigrants cannot get drivers licenses in Iowa.

More to come, but a quick summary of Bill Clinton's remarks in Glenwood today, per Carrie Dann, NBC/NJ campaign reporter.

On Healthcare:
The failure of the healthcare plan in the 90's was more President Clinton's fault than Hillary's. He said that she didn't have the funding to do it correctly.

On Gender:
There are always countries who have had female presidents. Even Argentina. The former president thinks HRC will win by a large margin in the general election. Her gender will be a big asset, in part because a woman can balance things better, he said.

On Republicans and Swiftboat:
Republicans like to make Democrats look like cartoons. Don't you remember the Swiftboat ads?

On Polling in Arkansas:
Hillary's running six points ahead of Mike Huckabee in Arkansas because they know her better.

Full quotes and details soon ...

About that David Greene NPR story ...

NPR Editor's Note: Since this story aired, Hillary Clinton's campaign contacted NPR to say that the campaign paid Maid-Rite a bill for $157 the day of Clinton's visit and left $100 in tip money. NPR contacted Maid-Rite manager Brad Crawford, who confirmed that a bill was paid and tip money was left. Crawford, who was not in the restaurant at the time, said that he believes a campaign staffer left the money with one of his employees, but "where Hillary was sitting, there was no tip left." Neither Anita Esterday nor the manager on duty that day were available for comment as of noon Thursday.

From today's Hotline:

"If I wake up as a roach tomorrow, I'll know we've reached there."

-- FL House Min. Leader Dan Gelber (D), on the WH primary calendar's "almost Kafka levels of lunacy," Palm Beach Post, 11/8.

New Hampshire voters received an email from Kate Michelman this week, pitching John Edwards as a modern-day feminist. In it, she says that female voters have long since put away their lava lamps and bellbottoms and should, likewise, permanently stash their 1970s views of feminism.

"The one thing that a feminist has always embodied is the passion and dedication to fight the status quo," writes Michelman, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "Being a feminist and standing up for women’s issues means a willingness to take on the norms and power structures of our time. John Edwards is the only candidate that has demonstrated a commitment to this fight."

Underscoring the vital importance of women voters in the 2008 campaign, Michelman has been out front for Edwards in pushing the line that HRC is misusing the whole woman thing. But as dicey, and even disingenuous, as it is for HRC to try to erase a lackluster debate performance by blaming her male opponents for "piling on" their criticisms, it seems equally risky for Edwards to try to position himself as the girl-power candidate.

"Like a true feminist, John Edwards has refused to play by the boy’s rules," Michelman writes.

Michelman and Cate Edwards are criss-crossing the Granite State tomorrow and Saturday, carrying this message -- how it will resonate remains to be seen -- to women and young voters.

The full text of Michelman's email after the jump.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

UPDATE: Clinton Camp Says HRC Left Tip, Restaurant Manager Confirms

NPR's David Greene reports about what happens when real people find their stories folded into the candidates' campaign rhetoric. One single mother, a waitress at Maid-Rite, famous for its meat sandwiches, chatted with Hillary Clinton during a recent campaign stop about her struggles to make ends meet. Her story wound up in HRC's stump speech, Greene reports. The waitress, meanwhile, was left wondering why the former first lady didn't leave a tip.

Here's the start of Greene's posting on NPR's site:

November 8, 2007 · Covering a presidential campaign can feel like this: Stop in one town, watch a candidate talk and shake a few hands, then move along to the town up the road.

There went Toledo, Iowa.

So that was Independence, Iowa?

The crowd back in Cedar Rapids sure was big.

It can be easy to see these scenes as photographs passed in a gallery or a set of props neatly arranged for a candidate to make a pitch.

The reality is, these scenes are full of people with a story to tell — not only of whom they may vote for, but of what drew them to a political event or how a candidate may have touched them in a fleeting conversation.

On a recent trip to Iowa, I came across two women who clearly had stories to tell. One had a chance encounter with Hillary Clinton. The other sought out Barack Obama.

A Chance Encounter with Clinton

I followed Clinton during a recent bus tour across Iowa, when she and her entourage pulled into a Maid-Rite, a greasy spoon famous for its loose-meat sandwich. Clinton settled into a red stool at the counter, ate a sandwich, chatted with her waitress and then was on her way.

The scene gave Clinton perfect fodder for her next few stump speeches. Turns out her waitress was a single, working mom — just the kind of voter Democrats are courting aggressively this year.

Clinton recalled the meeting for an audience up the road in Boone. "The woman waiting on us — it was her first day," she said, adding, "She was a little nervous. Single mom, raised two boys, works at a nursing home and always has a second job."

If she's elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better.

The way Clinton eased the waitress into her rhetoric is something repeated day after day, by all the campaigns. But in the process, people like the waitress don't always have their stories told.

Read Greene's follow, 'Nobody Got Left a Tip,' after the jump.

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Lots of endorsement talk last night:

Sam Brownback was on "Hardball" to talk about his endorsement of John McCain:

Brownback: "John is the full package. He's a fiscal conservative. He's got a 24-year pro-life voting record. He's a pro-life candidate that can beat Hillary Clinton in the fall. He has foreign policy experience, which I think is important. And the guy is clearly ready to be commander in chief."

Asked if it's a personal endorsement or an endorsement of McCain's Iraq plan: "It's a personally endorsement, but it is also saying that the surge is working. ... I think the guy is the full package. And there's no surprises in this package. You know pretty much John McCain. He has been around on the national scene for a long time. I just think it's time, really, for our team and our side to give him a second look. And you're seeing that surge, that McCain momentum really pick up now."

Hillary Clinton holds a double-digit lead nationally over Barack Obama, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released tonight.

Hillary 47%
Obama 25%
John Edwards 11%

But the poll shows that HRC would be in a statistical dead heat in a hypothetical contest with Rudy Giuliani, leading 46% to 45%.

The poll — which surveyed 1,509 adults from Nov. 1-5 and has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 2.5 percentage points — comes in the wake of the Drexel U. debate. HRC, of course, is still playing defense about her hedged answer on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Eight days later she's fighting her opponents' charges that the exchange is evidence of an evasiveness, of a disingenuousness that has permeated her public career.

Still, even with that pummeling, she maintains a strong national lead that hasn't slipped since NBC/WSJ's last poll in September.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Fred Thompson is expected to attend the Country Music Awards tonight in Nashville. He'll join country music star John Rich of the band Big & Rich, reports NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy. Rich is known to play a guitar that has "Vote Fred '08" engraved on the neck. He is nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year.

Will FT make an appearance on stage tonight?

Pat Robertson, the influential founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, announced his support for Rudy Giuliani in Washington this morning. The endorsement could be a boon for Giuliani in Iowa, in particular, as he tries to ingratiate himself with social conservative voters opposed to his views on abortion and gay rights.

"With all the crises that confront our nation and the world, we need a leader with a bold vision who is not afraid to tackle the challenges ahead," Robertson said during a press conference at the National Press Club. He said Giuliani has "proven time and time again that he is a social conservative."

The Robertson endorsement - in as much as individual political endorsements sway voters -- could play well in Iowa and South Carolina, but isn't expected to have the same weight in New Hampshire. In fact, it could have converse implications in the Granite State, where GOP voters tend to look for their candidates to be conservative on fiscal matters but to have a hands-off view about abortion and gay marriage.

Andy Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center, said he doesn't believe Robertson's support for Rudy will resonate with New Hampshire voters.

"I don’t think it’s going to make a blip," he said. "Those things, I don’t think, are going to get too much play here mainly because there’s not a strong social conservative network."

There is another rub for Rudy in trotting out Robertson, a matter his opponents would be wise to exploit. With 9/11 as Giuliani's key selling point, someone is bound to harken back to Robertson's post Sept. 11 remarks, blaming abortion, pornography, the occult and more for causing God to allow the attacks.

Today, Robertson said he believed the threat of Islamic terrorists was the "overriding issue" for the next election, as well cutting government waste and the selection of social conservatives for federal courts.

Robertson ran for president in 1988, and came in second in Iowa, behind George H.W. Bush. This year, he sends a message to evangelical voters that Rudy is OK by him and that a third-party candidate need not enter the race.

"Having him aboard gives us a great deal of confidence," Giuliani said. "He has tremendous insights into what the main issues are and how they can be dealt with, his advice is invaluable and his friendship even more invaluable."

The endorsement comes on the same day as Sen. Sam Brownback endorsed John McCain, and a day after Paul Weyrich backed Mitt Romney.

We know that evangelical voters helped George W. Bush win a second term, but with three of their national leaders backing different candidates is this a sign that this critical GOP voting bloc is fragmented?

(JENNIFER SKALKA and MATTHEW BERGER)

From today's Hotline:

"To me, the overriding issue before the American people is the defense of our population from the bloodlust of Islamic terrorists."

-- Pat Robertson, on endorsing Rudy Giuliani, mult., 11/7.

Updates from our Hotline Political Network Affiliates -- Updated 24/7

Lots of '08ers on the tube last night:

CNN's Crowley sat down with Hillary Clinton on the CNN Election Express:

On the 10/30 Dem debate: "I understand the necessity for criticism. We are getting toward the end of a very long presidential primary process. And I wasn't at my best the other night. We have had a bunch of debates, and you know, I wouldn't rank that up in my very top list."

On the WH archives: "The Archives are moving as fast as they can. And both Bill and I have a commitment to that. I think there has been a lot of misunderstanding. You know, the Archives takes possession and control of presidential records. They by law actually have to look at every record before it is released. That is not something Bill and I have asked to be done, that is what they must do by law. And Bill has gone further than any other president ever in saying, speed up the process, put things out."

Take a look at John Edwards's latest...

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

The 12/11 special general election in OH-05 will feature state Rep. Bob Latta (R) and '04/'06 nominee Robin Weirauch (D). Latta defeated state Sen. Steve Buehrer (R), teacher Mark Hollenbaugh (R), electric co. lineman Fred Pieper (R) and businessman Michael Smitley (R) in a highly contentious primary. Weirauch defeated '06 SEN candidate George Mays (D). Results, with 100% of the precincts reporting:

GOP primary
Latta 32,036 43.7%
Buehrer 29,387 40.1%
Hollenbaugh 4,901 6.7%
Pieper 4,211 5.8%
Smitley 2,716 3.7%

DEM primary
Weirauch 31,744 72.1%
Mays 12,274 27.9%

The battle for the most conservative members of the GOP base gets serious this morning, with dueling endorsements for Republicans Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.

Giuliani will be endorsed this morning at the National Press Club by Pat Robertson, according to Giuliani campaign sources. The McCain campaign, meanwhile, seeking to steal some of Rudy's thunder, announced this morning that Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who abandoned his presidential bid last month, will endorse McCain today in Iowa.

How will Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson respond? Could either endorsement alienate more moderate Republican voters ... say in New Hampshire?

Here's Robertson in 2005 in the LAT singing Rudy's praises and saying he would make a "good president."

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

Maybe, finally, possibly, Barack Obama is making those distinctions between himself and Hillary Clinton. Last night at a Cedar Rapids town hall, Obama offered examples of their differences on foreign and domestic issues, criticized HRC's efforts to reform health care and raised the specter of the old Clinton dramas.

"I believe I can bring this country together in a way that Sen. Clinton cannot do," he said, reports NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann. "And the reason I believe that is because I don't carry the baggage of the 1990s. I'm not interested in fighting the fights of the past."

The Illinois senator chided Clinton for her vote on the Kyl-Lieberman resolution and her alleged unwillingness to engage in diplomacy with world leaders. He was particularly harsh in his rhetoric against her failed health care overhaul during the 1990s.

"When I hear her say it was a lonely fight, I have to disagree. Eighty percent of the American people wanted universal health care at that time. It wasn't that lonely," Obama said, greeted with applause from over 700 attendees at the Cedar Rapids community college where he spoke. "The reason that it became lonely was that she made a decision to close the door and to work just with her people."

The AP's Liz Sidoti is reporting that Sam Brownback will support John McCain's presidential bid, a potentially much-needed boost to the Arizona senator's struggling campaign. At the very least Brownback's backing will prompt those 'Is McCain Off Life Support?' questions anew.

Brownback, the AP reports, will announce his support for McCain in Dubuque and then travel to two other cities for similar evenets. The anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage Kansas senator dropped out of the race last month, having struggled to raise the necessary cash -- despite being the clear candidate of the religious right. It's unknown what kind of sway Brownback actually has with that constituency, but as the GOP contenders push their conservative credentials (Fred Thompson's mention of God in his new Iowa TV ad is just one example), his backing can't hurt.

Rudy Giuliani's much-ballyhooed morning endorsement, meanwhile, remains a mystery -- as many had speculated that he'd successfully wooed Brownback.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)

We're a bit closer to finding out who won the OH-05 special primary this morning. With nearly 95% of the precincts in, state Rep. Bob Latta (R) holds a slim, 1,496-vote victory over state Sen. Steve Buehrer (R), and leads him 43%-41%. Putnam Co. is the only county to yet report results, and that's due to a voting malfunction that's causing a delay in processing votes.

Putnam Co. is outside of both Latta's and Buehrer's population base, so it probably won't go strong for either candidate. And according to the Toledo Blade, OH Sec/State Jennifer Brunner said that Putnam Co. has a small amount of voters, and their vote totals might not affect who wins. Brunner: "If I'm Bob Latta, I have some sense of security because no candidate is going to win all of the votes in a county."[TIM SAHD]