So it's been a few months since we've had Bloomberg-for-president buzz. So why not re-start it with a cover story in Newsweek. Jon Meacham handles the profile duties for the magazine this week. "The odds against an independent bid for the White House are long, but if Bloomberg's life tells us anything, it is that he is often more motivated, and more successful, when other people say he cannot do something."

More: "A rich man with a record of service and seemingly limitless ambition, Bloomberg represents a formidable threat to the traditional party nominees. 'This is a billion-dollar campaign,' Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg's chief political adviser, told NEWSWEEK ABOARD Bloomberg's Falcon 9 jet flying from Washington, D.C., to Seattle late last week. He then amended the declaration -- slightly: 'If it happens, it's a billion-dollar campaign.'"

With so much attention be given to Iowa, it's only natural that so many third-party issue groups have flocked to the state. The LA Times' Barabak looks at the phenomenon.

The Union Leader: Michigan Democrats meet this week, and if they agree to the Jan. 15 primary, it'll clear the way for New Hampshire to go on Jan. 8.

By the way, Jan. 8, is Orthodox Christmas. To figure out the issue, Gardner turned to his old UNH classics professor, Richard Desrosiers, who is now retired but wrote up a multi-page fact sheet for the secretary of state about the Julian calendar and Orthodox churches. The sheet noted that  there are Orthodox churches in Manchester and Concord.

The AP writes that the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican, Arlen Specter, "said Sunday he is bothered by Michael Mukasey's refusal to say whether waterboarding is torture but will support his nomination for attorney general anyway… [L]ast Friday, Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California announced they would support the nomination. With nine Republicans on the panel, Schumer and Feinstein's support virtually guarantees that a majority of the committee will recommend his confirmation."

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
CLINTON, IA, -- At a lodge here along the Mississippi River, Clinton received the support of former Vice President and presidential candidate Walter Mondale.

Mondale, who was the first presidential candidate to choose a woman as his running mate, stressed Iowa's importance in the nomination process and urged people to come out and help Clinton make history. "Much is expected of you because, time and again, the citizens of Iowa have been showing themselves willing to take the extra step to get the job done. In Iowa, you just don't vote in the caucuses. You've got to go to the caucuses and you've to stay at those caucuses until the last vote is taken," he said.

The former vice president said Clinton's experience in public life and as first lady made her uniquely qualified to be president, and that she would be a president who would put people, their families, and the needs of Americans first. After a tough week for Clinton -- which included her stumble during the Democratic debate and intense criticism from her rivals in both parties -- Mondale applauded what he called her positive campaign.
 
"One thing I like about her campaign is that she's stayed focused on her positive vision for change. She knows this is not the time to tear down our fellow Democrats with personal attacks," he said. 
   
Clinton told the audience she was honored to be here with Mondale. "I urge you to participate, and I ask you to consider my candidacy," Clinton said. She then asked that the podium be moved so that she could address the crowd more informally.

"If I could have some help, we're going to get this podium out of the way here and I think that a couple of strong young men could come up, and even some strong young women, and move this out of the way," she said to chuckles in the audience.

After her stump speech, the senator answered questions on Social Security, abortion, low birth-weight babies, regulating industries, and how to prevent so many wars.

From NBC/NJ's Tricia Miller and NBC's Mark Murray
CHARLES CITY, IA - In his first event of a two-day swing through Iowa, Edwards kept up his assault on Clinton -- but added a new, more subtle offensive against Obama.

Running down his opposition to the recent Peru trade deal, Edwards mentioned that Obama supports it, and added that he hadn't heard what Clinton's position was. Edwards rarely mentions Obama on the trail, but Mike Signer, who handles Edwards' foreign policy, also questioned Obama's position on Iran in an interview with MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell on Friday.

Regarding Clinton, Edwards said, per his campaign: "For the sake of hard-working families in Iowa and all across America, I hope that Senator Clinton will finally take a stand, do what is right and join me in strongly opposing the Peru trade deal."

From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum and NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
On Meet the Press this morning, Thompson offered a conciliatory view
toward Pervez Musharraf, aligned himself with Giuliani on a contentious
social issue, and fought back against criticism about the owner of his
private jet's criminal history.

Philip Martin
A Washington Post article published this morning -- Thompson Advisor Has a Criminal Past 
-- revealed that one of Thompson's campaign co-chairmen, Philip Martin
has a history of drug problems. "Martin entered a plea of guilty to the
sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979," the article says. "The court
withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. He was charged
in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts of felony
bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contest
to the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a
plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation."

Today, Thompson told Tim Russert that Philip Martin, an advisor and top
fundraiser, is still with his campaign -- although the candidate has
yet to speak with Martin about his speckled past after finding out the
details of his history yesterday afternoon. "Nobody has made any
accusations that he's done anything illegal with regard to our
campaign," Thompson said on Meet the Press. "Now, what I understand is,
from reading this story and from third parties is that when Phil was in
his twenties, 24 years ago or something like that, these things came
about."

Thompson said Martin paid his debt to society and is now a "good productive successful citizen." He promised to talk to Martin to discuss the situation. "I'm not going to throw my friend under the bus for something he did 25 years ago if he's okay now," Thompson said. "On the other hand, I'm running for president. I've got to do the right thing. When problems occur, I'll just have to figure it out."

Pakistan and Iraq
On the foreign policy front, Thompson's views toward Musharraf appear much more conciliatory than even some of his Democratic opponents in the presidential race. The former Senator said Musharraf was heading toward a civilian government but reacted to the terrorist attempt on Benazir Bhutto's life. Thompson called for not suspending any economic aid to Pakistan at this date, but added, "We've got to play hardball with them."

He stopped short of calling for Musharraf to step down, stating that because Musharraf "knows his own country ... (and) those radical elements there" he should continue as the leader of Pakistan. Tim Russert asked Thompson, "Because of the uniqueness and precariousness and the sensitivity of this country, would we allow General Musharraf to continue under Marshall law because he's our ally?"

"Well, when you say we allow the head of a country to stay the head of the country, that's kind of a mouthful," Thompson replied. "I don't think we ought to look at it whether or not we allow someone to stand or not. The question is what's our relationship going to be like with him, what kind of support are we going to give. ... Our job right now is to make sure we know all that he knows and the reasons why he's doing why he's doing."

On Iraq, Thompson said he would continue to follow the set course, including a planned gradual troop withdrawal beginning next spring or summer "as part of the success scenario." Yet, he did not say when the last troops would be able to leave, saying we would need to be a buffer for "several years."

Thompson v. 2004 Republican Platform: Abortion
Russert asked Thompson if he would align himself with the 2004 Republican Party Platform on abortion, which called for "a human life amendment to the Constitution ... to make it clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children." Thompson's simple response was "No."

Although Thompson touted his 100% pro-life voting record, he called for states to be the ultimate decision makers. "People ought to be free, at state and local levels, to make decisions even Fred Thompson disagrees with," he said. "That's what freedom is about."

While he called for no federal funding or legislation that would assist in abortion, Thompson also came out against a federal law. "Nobody's proposed a federal law on this," he said. "Nobody's recently proposed a federal constitutional amendment."

He continued, "I do not think it is a wise thing to criminalize young girls. It's not a sense of the Senate. You're talking about potential criminal law. I said those things are going to ultimately be one in the hearts and minds of people."

This last line, "hearts and minds of people," is something Giuliani often says. Unlike Thompson who touts a 100 percent pro-life voting record, Giuliani is often portrayed as pro-choice. By using this line and saying he cannot agree to the 2004 Republican platform, has Thompson opened a can of worms for Romney and others to say Thompson is not a true Christian conservative?

"I Didn't Say That ..."
On several occasions, when confronted with his own quotes from earlier in the campaign, Thompson claimed he was misquoted. Russert brought up Thompson's quote from South Carolina last week when the candidate said the Iraqi insurgency is "a bunch of kids with improvised explosive devices." Thompson deflected, saying, "That's not exactly what I said."

We checked our video recording and this is what Thompson said on Oct. 25 in Bluffton, S.C.: "We would not be a safer America if the whole world watches us be defeated by a bunch of kids with improvised explosive devices."

On Meet the Press this morning, Thompson attempted to clarify his position by discussing the youth who are recruited. "I was talking about will and unity and the perception that we're going to have around the world," Thompson said. "I said the United States of America cannot be perceived as having run out of Iraq with our tail between our legs because of a bunch of kids on the border there making improvised explosive devices. ... They call them improvised for a reason. They are pretty low-tech kind of operations by people probably without much education, and they can be taught to do this and they are causing great damage to us."

Russert also brought up something Thompson said in Iowa on Oct. 1 that Sadaam Hussein "had had" weapons of mass destruction before the United States' invasion of the country. "Amazingly, they got that one a little bit wrong," Thompson responded. "What I was pointing out, he had clearly, before, and years before the invasion, he had weapons of mass destruction ... That's beyond dispute."

We checked this one on tape as well and this is what Thompson said in Newton, Iowa: "We can't forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any weapons of mass destruction down there, he clearly had had weapons of mass destruction. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program. And in my estimation his intent never did change. And by today, he clearly would have had that rejuvenated, especially looking at what Iran said that it's doing."

On his health
The only topic that Thompson seemed less than fully prepared to discuss with Russert was his own health. In 2004, Thompson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which is now in remission. When questioned on the status of his diagnosis and if cancer has had any relation to his recent weight loss, Thompson seemed to dismiss the question, saying that he underwent a recent round of tests in September and he is "100 percent free and clear."

"[My weight loss is] not health-related," Thompson said. "I--we got a diet around our house that was imposed awhile back and basically, if it tastes real good don't eat it. But I was encouraged by my wife and other people in the health field to watch my cholesterol, to watch my weight, to exercise more. I exercise on a regular basis and I eat better than I ever have.

"Some people in the news media asked for [the results of my recent tests]. I sent it to them. I didn't make a public announcement but I had all the tests. The doctor put out a statement; I'm in good shape. In all fairness, I get a lot of conversation about this, and it's totally legitimate. The American people have a right to know--I have a right to know and so does my family."

But Thompson also refused to go into the specifics of his condition, instead saying that he has been told that he has one of the least harmful types of lymphoma, and that he isn't the only presidential candidate who has faced this type of health crisis.

"There [are] a couple of other guys running for president, too, who have also had to deal with [cancer]," Thompson said, adding that he is not opposed to releasing some of his medical records if that's what other candidates have done. "I will release, you know--whatever the common practice is. I mean I have to go back and look and see what other people have done--what's appropriate...I put my doctor out there to answer all the questions. And I'll continue, when appropriate, to answer any questions anybody's got. It's a fair subject. I'm fortunate and like my other colleagues on the campaign trail I assume, I've got the kind [of cancer] that you can--you can deal with. There's 30-something different kinds of lymphoma, and I've supposedly got one of the better kinds."

NOTES: We noticed more than 30 "umms" from Thompson before losing count and at least nine throat clearings -- often right before answering a difficult question.

From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike
WEEKEND ROMNEY NOTEBOOK
EAST LANSING, MI, Nov. 3 -- Romney is trying hard to shake the perception that he's stiff or robotic: He was the only presidential candidate to show up at the widely attended Michigan State/University of Michigan football game Saturday in the now semi-early primary state.

Before heading into the game, he braved the alcohol-guzzling and face-painted rowdy tailgate scene. And at one point while taking pictures with students in the College Republicans' tent, the non-drinking candidate joked out loud, "I think alcohol has something to do with this crowd."

But that didn't shake him -- he got some practice at both the Iowa/Iowa State game in mid-September and the mid-October snowmobile grass drags in New Hampshire, where the buzz was that he managed to seek out some of the drunkest people there.

After hitting Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis's tailgate, Romney made his way over to the College Republicans' tent, which was set up with a rope line to cordon off attendees. But what did he do? He greeted supporters on their side of the rope line, prompting an advance staffer or two to shake their heads. "Of course he went on the other side of the rope line," one laughed. "What can I say? He's a man of the people."

Although Romney's older brother, Scott, is on the board of trustees at Michigan State, Romney wouldn't cheer for one team over the other. To explain himself, he said repeatedly, "I've got enough battles."

Anuzis, speaking to reporters before Romney arrived, said that the candidate would likely get a nice boost from the local press for showing up to the game. "All the kids will see that he was here," he said.

Several times while there Romney reiterated to the local press what he's said every time he's come to the Wolverine State recently: That it's a personal matter for him, that he recognizes it's in a one-state recession, that his politically active parents raised him there. And that attention and personal history may just be working for him. Similar to New Hampshire and Iowa, where he's spent millions of dollars, run thousands of ads and held hundreds of events, Romney is leading in the Michigan Republican primary polls, too.

From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
WEEKEND DODD NOTEBOOK
CONCORD, N.H., Nov. 3 -- Dodd argued that voters should pay as much attention to a candidate's track record as they do to their plans for the future, and said that the nation needs a leader who has experience working across party lines.

Speaking to residents of a retirement community here, Dodd said that campaigning "involves more than just going down a list of issues," but looking also at "more profound questions" we ask of a person who would become president. Saying there will likely be an issue that arises early in the term of the next president "that will never come up" in the campaign, Americans "want to know how you're gonna handle that, when that unpredictable problem arrives at your doorstep." "Where's the measure of the individual, that we have the confidence you'll do a good job on behalf of our country," he asked.

The five-term Connecticut senator focused on what he said are his two key issues: respecting the Constitution, and keeping the nation safe. And to move forward on those issues, he said the next president has to be able to "bridge that gap" between the two parties, given the "sense of frustration" Americans feel about problems in Washington.

Asked by a member of the audience how he would do that when he takes office, Dodd said the best answer he could give "is what I've done." And he hinted at some disappointment that his resume is being overlooked in the campaign so far.

"This is the only job that I know of in America where you don't have to have any references," he said. "If someone's gonna remodel your bathroom or your kitchen you want to know have they ever done this before. … When it comes to the presidency, we just kind of listen to your speeches about the future, and no one ever asks, 'By the way, have you ever done any of this before?'"

He then referred to legislation he's sponsored, each time working with a conservative Republican. "I understood that I could just give speeches about the subject matter day in and day out, and I might get applause just for trying," he said. "But nothing was gonna happen if I didn't reach out to people who I thought might agree with me on the subject matter, or to find common ground with someone to make a difference. So for 26 years, my brand, if you will, has been to reach out."

Dodd was introduced by Ted Kennedy Jr., and toward the end of his speech noted that Kennedy's uncle, John F. Kennedy, did not give his first speech as a candidate until Jan. 25, 1960. "If I waited to give my first speech as a candidate for the presidency [until] Jan. 25, 2008, to announce my candidacy," he said, "I would have missed about for or five primaries and three or four caucuses."

Dodd's visit was part of a two-day swing through the Granite State, as the campaign enters the stretch run. Earlier Saturday, he spoke in the cold, November rain outside of the State House as part of a "Step It Up" climate change rally. He made light of the foul weather, brought by the remnants of Hurricane Noel, at the end of his remarks. "It's not really raining," said Dodd, standing underneath an umbrella held by a volunteer. "It's just your imagination."

From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
WEEKEND GIULIANI NOTEBOOK
SHELBURNE -- Most of the people who came to the Town & Country Motor Lodge Friday night came to see an Elvis impersonator. The sign outside the Town & Country Inn, in fact, read, "WELCOME MAYOR RUDY AND ELVIS." But those who came to see Giuliani enjoyed an unexpected performance themselves, as the Republican frontrunner imitated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

All week, Giuliani has criticized Clinton for her answer to a question at Tuesday's Democratic debate about a plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. And he ratcheted up that criticism during stops in the North Country of New Hampshire today, most dramatically when asked about the proposal during a town hall meeting in Shelburne.

"Oh gee, I can't figure out what I think," Giuliani said, sarcastically. "Don't pick on me by asking that question! That's a gotcha question!" Giuliani paced back and forth in the front of the crowd, and asked the audience for a show of hands to tell him what they thought. "I'm for it," he said, stepping to his left. "I'm against it," he said as he jerked to the right. "I'm for it and against it. And I want to be your president," he concluded, grinning from ear to ear, as the crowd roared.

Stepping out of character, Giuliani, playing himself, then took aim at Clinton. "Give me a break," he said. "If you think a question about drivers licenses is a tough question, a gotcha question, you're not ready for Ahmadinejad." He called the New York proposal a "terrible mistake," but said he respected those who were willing to take a position on the issue, specifically referring to Barack Obama. "Being a leader requires an ability to make decisions," he said.

Earlier, as he spoke to a handful of patrons at the Northern Exposure diner in Errol, Giuliani said Clinton's alleged changing positions resembled the last Democratic nominee. "I remember last time John Kerry used to be accused of being a flip-flopper," said Giuliani, standing in front of two elk heads mounted on the wall. "She makes him look like an amateur. … He flip-flopped, but usually it took a week or two. And I don't know what she's thinking in trying to be all things to all people. But I don't think America wants a commander in chief like that."

All day, the immigration question provided Giuliani an easy attack line. Other questions weren't as easy for the former New York mayor as he campaigned in a part of the state where it has been said that moose outnumber voters. "They said when I was driving up here I was gonna see a moose, and I haven't seen one yet," Giuliani told patrons at the Errol diner. "I hope I do."

Errol is one of New Hampshire's northernmost towns, with a population of just 294, according to the 2005 U.S. Census estimate. Dixville Notch, famous for its tradition of tallying the first votes in the first-in-the-nation primary and for Stephen Colbert's reference to the town on Meet the Press, counted just 26 ballots after midnight in 2004.

In Errol, when a phone rang during Giuliani's remarks, he said to go ahead and answer the cell phone, noting his history with such interruptions. Those on hand quickly corrected him, saying it was a landline phone and that cellular service is nonexistent here.

At Dixville Notch, Giuliani was asked how he'd deal with rural problems. "Give me one problem or another," Giuliani said, unable to think of a problem himself. He eventually conceded that there "aren't too many rural areas of New York City," but said it's been a "wonderful experience" to visit rural areas like this.

Later, in Berlin, Giuliani began an answer about gun rights by first taking aim at the media, which the voter had mentioned in his question. "You are very, very discerning to notice that the New York Times is an enemy," Giuliani said. Eventually, he noted that he reduced shootings by going after criminals with guns. He then said he understands the constitutional right to bear arms for law-abiding citizens. "They probably agree with me on everything else," he said.

Still, voters here seemed prepared to give Giuliani a fair shake, even though his experience is primarily based on urban issues.

"We would need to know that he's watching out for us," said Rick Erwin, an undeclared voter in Dixville Notch who otherwise likes Giuliani's position on foreign policy.

"I like him. I like his tough talk," said Mark Campbell, an independent voter from Dummer. "I like the fact that I think he's capable of taking on Hillary."

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
OBAMA WEEKEND NOTEBOOK
Obama made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live. Here's the skit of Obama showing up at Clinton's house for a Halloween Party.

[YouTube:ndQM0X5rhfE]

SPARTANBURG, SC, Nov. 3 -- Under the banner of "Change We Can Believe In," Obama fine-tuned his argument on why he should be president of the United States over Senator Clinton. He stressed his respect for Clinton and commonalities, but he also also directly questioned the way she practices politics.

"She's also a skilled politician," Obama said, "and she's run what Washington would call a 'textbook' campaign. But the problem is the textbook itself. It's a textbook that's all about winning elections, but says nothing about how to bring the country together to solve problems. As we saw in the debate last week, it encourages vague, calculated answers to suit the politics of the moment instead of clear, consistent principles about how you would lead America. It teaches you that you can promise progress for everyday people while striking a bargain with the very special interests who crowd them out."

Obama's message was largely the same as it has been over these past two months, stressing the need to change politics in Washington. The difference with this speech was that he spent far less time stressing why his opponents thought he was inexperienced and more time on sketching out a vision on what he would like to see in his own administration.

Obama's campaign did not say whether the stronger language regarding Clinton would become part of his regular stump speech, calling Saturday's speech a "situational stump speech" given a year before the 2008 general election. The goal of the speech, according to the campaign, was to lay out Obama's vision for his presidency.

The crowd at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C., where Obama spoke, responded enthusiastically to his message and gave him several standing ovations. But the question of experience still dogged Obama after it was over.

"I admire his goals, but he didn't give enough specifics on how he would get it done," said Ralph Jones of Spartanburg, S.C. "How can you accomplish universal health care so easily?"

Jones and his daughter said they would be voting for Clinton largely because they feel she has more experience and would be more likely to win in a general election match up.

Obama tackles race question
MANNING, SC -- On the steps of the Clarendon County Courthouse, in a speech that was supposed to be about reforming the American education system, Obama instead gave an impassioned plea on why a black man could be president of the United States of America.

History was present as Obama spoke. He stood on the steps of the courthouse that heard one of the pivotal cases that became part of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Ernest Finney, South Carolina's first black Supreme Court Justice, introduced Obama.

Finney, who endorsed the senator earlier in the day, spoke of his own past, growing up in the segregated South. "My heart was dreaming of the day when a black man in America could not only run for president," Finney said, "but could be on the edge of winning."

Obama couched his run for the presidency with that history, as an epic moment that could occur if he could only overcome the cynicism of those who believed it couldn't be done.

"Now, I've heard some folks say, 'Yeah, he talks good. I like his wife. He's got some pretty children, but you know we're just not sure that America is ready for an African-American president,'" Obama told the crowd of about 800. "You're hearing the same voices you heard 50 years ago. 'Maybe it's not time yet, maybe it's better to wait.' So I just want ya'all to be clear; I would not be running if I were not confident I was going to win."

"I'm not running for vice president. I'm not running to be secretary of something or the other. I'm already a United States Senator. Everybody already knows me. I've already sold a lot of books. I don't need to run for president to get on television or the radio. I've been on Oprah. I'm running to be president of the United States of America," he said to the roaring crowd.

In making his pitch, Obama broke from his prepared remarks. A campaign aide said he had re-written parts of the speech in the morning and re-worked it again in the car. But as he stood before the largely African-American crowd in the third poorest county in South Carolina and spoke with a passion he has rarely shown on the stump in recent weeks.

Obama has addressed the question about why he could win the presidency as a black man before, though he generally only does so with this much candor or zeal in front of primarily black audiences. But it can also be argued that he tackles the question in nearly every stump speech by stressing his role as a man who can bring communities together. However, his speech today reflected a doubt within the African-American community itself that a black man could be president.

Artur Davis, a congressman from the fifth district of Alabama, who was an early endorser of Obama, said in a recent interview that that sense of disbelief played a strong role in Obama not receiving the endorsement of black politicians in his own state.

Obama tackled that doubt by touting how his campaign was doing in an all-white state like Iowa.

"We're tied up in Iowa right now," Obama said. "And let me tell you, there aren't a lot of folks in Iowa who look like me. Because they understand that what we stand for is change. And change isn't a black or white thing."

He went on to scold the audience, evoking the civil rights struggle that led the crowd to assemble before this courthouse, to tell them that believing this couldn't happen was damaging to the community's morale and the next generation.

"So to the brothers and sisters out there telling folks I can't win, don't defeat ourselves," Obama said. "Get it out of your mind that you can't do something. I don't believe in we can't do something. Yes we can do something. What kind of message are we sending to our children, you can't do something?"

Obama's message appeared to resonate with the crowd, who live in an area of the state that reflects the unfulfilled economic promise of the civil rights movement. Clarendon County is the third poorest county in the state, part of an area along I-95 known as the "Corridor of Shame" for its crumbling schools and high drop-out rate.

"I think he told them what they needed to hear," said Josephine King of Manning, S.C.

Gussey Cochrane said that she had also been considering Clinton, but Obama's message had helped bridge her sense of disbelief in the possibility of his success. "It's time for a change. It's time for a change," she said before racing forward to grab the senator's hand. --ASWINI ANBURAJAN

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
CLINTON WEEKEND NOTEBOOK
INDIANOLA, IA, Nov. 3 – With exactly two months to go before the first-in-the-nation caucuses, Clinton returned to Iowa to urge people to come out and support her and talked about her plans to help rural economies, her domestic and foreign policy experience and clean energy.

Clinton made four stops in central Iowa on Saturday, the first day of a four-day swing through the state. "Two months from tonight. I hope all of you who are eligible will be at precinct caucuses taking part in the great adventure known as the Iowa caucuses, because it is truly the beginning of our presidential process. Now that puts a lot of responsibility on people in Iowa, because the whole country, indeed the whole world is going to be watching," Clinton told several hundred people gathered in a college gymnasium in Indianola, before asking them to help make history with her.

At a stop at her Des Moines field office, Clinton joked that she would be coming back to Iowa so much the crowd would get sick of her. She got laughs in Oskaloosa, when she repeated the "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" line she used after filing for the New Hampshire primary Friday, assuring her audience she would be sticking around.

The senator told Iowans the country needed a stronger rural policy and a farm bill that would help family farmers and not just corporate farms.

"Family farms, in the aggregate, are what keep the rural economy going," she said. "I think we've got to get more economic activity in the rural areas. That's why I'm focusing on energy."

Clinton said America should encourage the use of alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel and said she planned a series of speeches over the coming days -- two in Iowa and two in New Hampshire -- on how America could have a clean energy future and reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

Throughout the day, in question-and-answer sessions, Clinton talked about how she would make college more affordable, what she would do about oil prices and the threat posed by an unstable Pakistan. She said she would support an investigation into oil companies to make sure they were not price gouging and said oil prices might fall if President Bush would not talk about having World War III with Iran.

She criticized the Bush administration's foreign policy and said it had missed an opportunity to send a special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan to help the two countries better cooperate in preventing Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents from crossing their porous border.

"We have to get back to robust diplomacy," she said, "and by that I mean using people to be emissaries and presidential envoys around the world. It's as though our government has a dearth of diplomats, because President Bush seems to use only very few people. I mean, read the paper. Condi Rice goes here and Condi Rice goes there and Condi Rice is there. That is not a foreign policy."

When asked by a college student in Indianola what she would do to ensure the financial security of the younger generation, Clinton talked about how her husband balanced the budget and created a budget surplus and how she would get back to fiscal responsibility and repeated a line she used earlier in the day.

"Unfortunately, the president and the Republican Congress are the biggest spenders in the history of America," Clinton said. "They spent twice as much as my husband. They've spent more than Lyndon Johnson did during the Vietnam War, with Medicare and Medicaid being enacted. So we have to really reverse course here.

The Republican National Committee took issue with Clinton's statement that she would represent a return to fiscal responsibility and with her criticism of Bush's foreign policy.

"Considering she has already proposed over $760 billion in new spending, someone should tell Hillary Clinton that the definition of fiscal responsibility isn't bigger government and higher taxes," said RNC spokesman Brian Walton.

For her part, Clinton often stresses that she has presented plans to pay for every policy proposal she has offered.

Walton also said Clinton lacked credibility on national security due to "her inability to find a consistent position on Iraq, her failure to support funding for our troops, and her opposition to the monitoring of terrorist phone calls as they plot to kill Americans."

Clinton questioned on gay rights
DES MOINES, Nov. 3 -- At two stops in Iowa on Saturday, Clinton addressed issues of particular importance to the gay community, after being approached in the rope line as she greeted audience members. Nick Brown, 23, asked Clinton what she thought about the military's "Don't ask, Don't Tell" policy.

"Oh I think it needs to be repealed," Clinton said. "I'm on record as saying I think we need to change that."

When pressed on what she would do as president to change it, Clinton said she would do everything she could. Brown said he was kicked out of West Point in 2003 after just "six months and 11 days" when his homosexuality was discovered and that this was an important issue for him.

"I wanted to serve my country, but I couldn't," Brown told reporters. When asked if he was satisfied with Clinton's answer, he said, "It was kind of short, but I understand. I'd like to talk with her more."

A Clinton staffer standing nearby said that could be arranged. Brown said he planned to caucus for the senator. At her first campaign stop of the day, in Oskaloosa, Clinton explained her position on gay marriage to a young man who came to greet her in the rope line after her speech, saying she was against gay marriage but for civil unions. --ATHENA JONES

Clinton to speak on energy
OSKALOOSA, IA - Nov. 3 -- Hillary Clinton said she would by giving a series of speeches, starting Monday (Nov 5) in Cedar Rapids, 2 in Iowa and 2 in New Hampshire, on clean energy. She'll be in Iowa until Tuesday and in New Hampshire Wednesday and Thursday. (Back in Iowa for Jefferson-Jackson dinner next Saturday.) --ATHENA JONES

From NBC's Ken Strickland
Breaking News: Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein say they'll support Mukasey's confirmation. The AP adds that this support likely gives Mukasey enough support to pass the Senate Judiciary Committee.

From NBC's Ken Strickland
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy said he'll vote against Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey, making him the fifth of 10 Democrats to declare his opposition. The others "no" votes are Kennedy, Durbin, Whitehouse, and Biden. On Tuesday, the panel will vote on whether -- and how -- to send the nomination to the full Senate.

According to excerpts from his statement, Leahy's decision came down to Mukasey's refusal to call waterboarding an illegal form of torture. "There may be interrogation techniques that require close examination and extensive briefings. Waterboarding is not among them," he was expected to say. "No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture... If an American was captured and waterboarded, would we consider it torture and want to raise bloody hell about it? Of course we would."

"I am eager to restore strong leadership and independence to the Department of Justice. I like Michael Mukasey. I wish that I could support his nomination. But I cannot."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
...thankfully, not in the way people usually "appear" in the magazine.

In an interview appearing in the November issue of Playboy, Richardson bluntly levels criticisms and frustrations about the Democratic Party. He talks of the "tactical mistake" made in 2000, how the party has "become the party of the poor instead of the party of the middle class," and that he reveals a resentment of "elites," particularly on his position of gun control.

"We've become the party of the poor instead of the party of the middle class," Richardson said. "I believe we have to help the poor, but we forgot about middle-class anxieties."

He added later, "We have to broaden our base. Too often we have nominated candidates who may be very strong in New England and Los Angeles and San Francisco but are unelectable in the great in-between. I resent some elites telling me my position on gun control is wrong, for example. It's a cultural issue in New Mexico and the West, a respect for a way of life. Most gun owners are law-abiding. I'm not going to change my position. That's where I may deviate from others in my party, too, the elites on the coasts. I have very common tastes."

Richardson also spoke about the way forward in his campaign, talking to dictators, baseball -- including Barry Bonds and growing up with Mickey Mantle as an idol but later becoming a Red Sox fan -- and why he and his wife never had children.

On the Democratic Party: "We've become the party of the poor instead of the party of the middle class. I believe we have to help the poor, but we forgot about middle-class anxieties."

"In 2000 our party made a tactical mistake. We should have run under the banner of economic prosperity; instead, we ran under a banner of populism. It was totally out of sync with a country that had a balanced budget, a surplus and prosperity."

"We have to broaden our base. Too often we have nominated candidates who may be very strong in New England and Los Angeles and San Francisco but are unelectable in the great in-between. I resent some elites telling me my position on gun control is wrong, for example. It's a cultural issue in New Mexico and the West, a respect for a way of life. Most gun owners are law-abiding. I'm not going to change my position. That's where I may deviate from others in my party, too, the elites on the coasts. I have very common tastes."

On campaigning: "I will never go negative. I will never attack them personally. I will, however, emphasize my advantage over senators Clinton and Obama. I will never go negative. I will never attack them personally. I will, however, emphasize my advantage over senators Clinton and Obama."

On talking to dictators: "You draw a line with an entity like Al Qaeda that professes to want to kill you. You can't talk to them. I might agree to some kind of mediation in a situation of dire national emergency but not otherwise. But yes, Obama and Clinton are fighting over whether or not you should talk to a dictator. Nobody's bothered to ask me, but I've talked to almost all of them."

On Fidel Castro: "Fidel Castro has an enormously powerful intellect and is well informed. He told me he reads every newspaper, sees every morning broadcast and reads prodigiously. He showed me all the books he read. While I have enormous dislike for his policies -- especially human rights; he incarcerates everybody who disagrees with him -- he is a fascinating character who tries to intimidate you with his intellect. Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, tried to intimidate me with his physical actions. He would try to stare me down. He had a bunch of the Revolutionary Guard around us. He was heavily armed. His gestures were menacing. But through his intellect, Castro would try to destroy every argument I made about why he should take certain steps."

On Barry Bonds: "There's no question Bonds is a great player and should be in the Hall of Fame. But I believe there should be some kind of an asterisk placed alongside his record. It should say, "There is a strong possibility that he used steroids."

On not having children: "Somebody once used it against me or once implied it in a race. The explanation is that Barbara and I tried to have children but weren't able to. We tried. We tried in vitro. It's one of our great regrets. If you look at a lot of my career, especially as governor, there's an emphasis on children. I feel I'm responsible for all children."

And why they never adopted: "We were always moving. I was in Congress, commuting back to New Mexico. I went to the UN in 1997; I became secretary of energy a year after that. I went into the private sector, and then two years later I was running for governor. Time passed us by."

From NBC's Mark Murray
Regarding Giuliani today calling Obama's Iran strategy "naive" and "irresponsible," Obama spokesman Bill Burton pulls out the Bernie Kerik and Iraq Study Group cards.

"While Rudy Giuliani may embrace Hillary Clinton's policy of not talking and saber rattling towards Iran, Barack Obama knows that policy is not working," Burton said in a statement. "It's time for tough and direct diplomacy with Iran, not lectures from a Mayor who skipped out on the Iraq Study Group to give paid speeches, and who was naive and irresponsible enough to recommend someone with ties to convicted felons for Secretary of Homeland Security."

From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Because we simply cannot get enough Washington-based stories about legislation with acronyms...

The president is almost assured of having one of his vetoes overridden for the first time in his presidency on Tuesday, when the House will vote to reverse his rejection this morning of a water resources bill.

You know and love FISA, and we can't say "S-CHIP" too many times. Now meet WRDA (pronounced "word-ah"), the Water Resources Development Act. It passed the House earlier this year by 381-40, and the Senate by 81-12. Both margins are well above the two-thirds necessary for an override, should the support hold next week. It probably will.

The bill has the distinct political attribute of spreading the wealth across political boundaries, as it includes water projects in localities throughout the nation. Ideological lines are obliterated when it comes to this kind of measure. "Everyone gets a taste," said one top GOP aide this morning.

 

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
CONCORD, NH -- Clinton filed here for the New Hampshire primary on the last day possible, attracting hundreds of supporters to the state House steps. And in a news conference after the event, she answered questions on how her gender might be affecting the race, on Iran, on immigration and the drivers' license issue she stumbled on in Tuesday's debate, and on criticism about the lack of media access to her.

Asked if she was being treated differently because she's a woman, Clinton said she didn't think her opponents were piling on because she's a woman, but rather because she's winning. On Iran, she repeated recent statements that her vote to call the country's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization was not a vote to authorize using force against the country. And when asked what she thought about Obama's proposal to deal directly with Iran's leadership, she said there would be opportunities for the president to be involved in diplomacy with the country, but that it had to be planned and managed.

Clinton added that talking directly with Ahmadinejad could undermine and short circuit the diplomatic process, and that the army and the Quds Force were not under his control. "I do not believe the president should initially be engaged in personal diplomacy. I don't think that's the smart course to take," she said. "I don't think you promise without preconditions for the president to meet with the leaders of antagonistic states and get nothing in return, and you thereby undermine even or short circuit the diplomatic process."

For her filing, the New Hampshire secretary of state's office was mobbed by reporters, photographers, and camera crews -- some of whom arrived hours before the event and stood on desks in the small office to get a good shot. The media stood behind a velvet rope as they watched her file. No other candidate has received the velvet rope treatment.
   
Clinton joked when she entered the room that were not "as many people here when I did this twice before." A supporter shouted, "She's in" at the moment the senator signed the paper.

"I couldn't be happier or prouder to be throwing my hat into the ring," Clinton later said at the news conference following the filing. She joked several times about not knowing yet when the state's primary would be.

From NBC/NJ's Tricia Miller
Cheraw, SC -- Campaigning here this morning, Edwards decried "the politics of double-speak" he said was displayed in Tuesday night's debate in Philadelphia.

"Now I have a really simple rule," he said. "When you get asked a yes-or-no question, you can't answer it yes-and-no. That doesn't work, and we saw some of that the other night."

"What I heard was Sen. Clinton saying she wanted to be for change, but defending a broken system in Washington," he continued. "Saying that she wanted to end the war, but she would keep combat troops in Iraq who would continue combat missions in Iraq. Saying that she would stand up to George Bush on the issue of going to war in Iran, but voting for a resolution in the Senate that enabled George Bush to do exactly what he wanted to do. Saying that she didn't want to change anything about Social Security in public, but then in private saying she might be for raising the cap on the Social Security tax. See, my view is, we need to say the same thing all the time."

The Edwards campaign released a video -- entitled the "Politics of Parsing" -- hitting Clinton on the same point.

[YouTube:qggO5yY7RAo]

In a media availability following the event, Edwards downplayed any implication that Clinton should be treated differently because she's a woman. He was surprised to hear about the exclusion of Stephen Colbert from the South Carolina Democratic primary in an interview with CNN following the availability, adding with a laugh that he "kind of liked" the extra attention Colbert had brought to the race.

From NBC/National Journal's Matthew E. Berger
WASHINGTON -- Giuliani said not negotiating with Iran may be the one area that he agrees with Clinton and said the position of Obama comes from lack of experience.
 
"I'll use her words about it: 'naïve and irresponsible,' " Giuliani said. "The idea of begging your enemy to negotiate with you is a fundamentally flawed position."
 
He added, Obama "has very little experience, and he may be displaying that."
 

Also, Giuliani picked up the endorsement of Sens. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). And he also defended Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general. But he became most animated when asked about Obama's assertion that he would negotiate with Iran without preconditions.
 
"If we learned anything from the 20th Century," he said, "I think what we learned is you don't beg to negotiate with dictators, tyrants and supporters of terrorists. What you do is you develop a position of real strength."
 
He said he believed "that most of the Democrats will find this to be an irresponsible position," but later said he was unsure about Clinton's position on Iran, because she had changed it.
 
"In deference to Sen. Obama," Giuliani said, "at least he sticks to his position."
 
On Mukasey, Giuliani said he believed he would make "an exceptional attorney general" and called him a man of integrity. "I think it's a shame this whole issue has been politicized, and it has been," he said. "I believe ultimately he will be confirmed."
 
Giuliani also defended the statistics he used in a New Hampshire radio ad about the survival rates for prostate cancer in the United States and England. He said the numbers were accurate for the time he had the disease and said that he actually overstated the British numbers.
 
"Those figures are absolutely accurate for the time I had them," he said. "In fact, they remain accurate today. Still, the point is very, very clear -- even if you want to quibble about the statistics."

Bond will serve as a national chairman for Giuliani's campaign. He brings conservative credentials for a Republican candidate that has not won many other Senate endorsements. Before today, Giuliani's only other Senate backer was embattled Louisiana Sen. David Vitter. Bond said he believed Giuliani could fight terrorism and strengthen the military and intelligence.
 
"These are the programs that I believe are good sound conservative values," Bond said, "and Rudy Giuliani has proven he can implement those programs. When all of that is said and done, I think America is hungry for a man who means what he says and does what he says he will do."
 
Coleman and Giuliani are a more likely pair, given that both are former New Yorkers, former mayors and former Democrats. Coleman said he believed mayoral experience would be an asset for Giuliani.
 
"Now we have an opportunity to have a mayor in the White House," Coleman said.  "Someone who understands it's about what you get done."
 
Coleman also took a shot against Democratic lawmakers, saying, "[T]heir vision is that if we are nice to Ahmadinejad, he'll be nice to us. The world doesn't work that way."

From NBC's Mark Murray
RICHMOND, VA -- We wrote about this earlier, but it bears another mention: Thompson seems to have a lot more upside as a candidate than many in the Chattering Class believe, at least according to the GOP focus group we attended here last night.

As another example, here were some of the focus group's word associations with Thompson: "grandfather," "father," "conservative," "soft spoken," "good," and "confident."

By comparison, here were words for Giuliani: "good," "cocky," "cold," "confident," and "liberal."

Romney: "leader," "principled," "good," "smart," and "articulate."

Huckabee: "don't know," "funny name," "Christian," "conservative," "good man," and "fair tax."

McCain: "Vietnam," "strong," and "confident."

No one had views on Tancredo and Hunter, and Paul drew just one response: "too weak on national security."

Here were the GOP focus group's word associations with Hillary Clinton: "dastardly," "too liberal," deceitful," and "socialistic."

And Obama: "too liberal," "hip," "inexperienced," "young," "fake," "unproven," and "soft."

From NBC's Mark Murray
We missed this AP piece by Ron Fournier: "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is looking for sympathy, support and political cover as her rivals show the temerity to run aggressively against the Democratic presidential front-runner. But don't feel sorry for her -- Clinton is no stranger to 'piling on.'"

"In fact, she's an expert at it. Ask anybody who stood on the marble floor of the state Capitol rotunda in 1990 and heard the click, clack, click of her low-heeled shoes approach the news conference of Tom McRae, a mild-mannered public servant who had the nerve to challenge then-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas for re-election."

Fournier also writes this: "Clinton's advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss internal matters, said there is a clear and long-planned strategy to fend off attacks by accusing her male rivals of gathering against her. The idea is to change the subject while making Clinton a sympathetic figure, especially among female voters who often feel outnumbered and bullied on the job."

From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike and NBC's Mark Murray
Romney this morning launched his first attack ad of the GOP primary race -- on Hillary Clinton.

[YouTube:X2HsaCqLzA0]

In the spot that begins running today in New Hampshire, Romney goes after Clinton for what he charges is her lack of experience -- and mentions a word he increasingly has used when talking about the New York senator: intern. "Hillary Clinton wants to run the largest enterprise in the world. She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be President as an internship just doesn't make any sense."

And more evidence that everyone now seems to be piling on Clinton, the Republican National Committee today has released a Web video that plays up Clinton's recent debate performance. The video features bites from our very own Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell.

[YouTube:VTRh1m-BuMs]

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
RICHMOND, VA -- With the intense focus on the Democratic presidential contest -- the latest chapter is Obama's New York Times interview on Iran -- it's safe to say that not as much attention so far has been devoted to the GOP race. That's why a focus group here last night of 12 Republican voters, conducted by pollster Peter Hart (D), was so illuminating. For the most part, these voters -- seven men, five women, all of the white, all of them Bush voters in 2004 -- are disappointed with the president, fairly undecided about the GOP field, and pessimistic about the nation's direction. How pessimistic? Not a single one thought that the next generation would be better off, which is a striking attitude.

*** Still undecided: Turning to the GOP horserace, four of the 12 said they would vote (or

were leaning to vote) for Giuliani, another three picked Thompson, two chose Romney, two went with McCain, and one said both Thompson and Huckabee. Interestingly, just one of the 12 -- a Giuliani voter -- said he was solid with his pick. Not surprisingly, the Rudy supporters cited his leadership and 9/11; the Thompson people pointed to his personality; the Romney supporters talked about his experience and presidential looks; and the McCain folks mentioned his experience and heroism. On the flip side, five of the 12 said they had reservations about Romney's Mormon faith, although two of them said that they could change their mind if Romney tried to persuade them. (On that subject, per the Politico's Mike Allen, Huckabee

won't call Mormonism Christianity in a CBS interview.) A couple cited problems with Rudy's personal life and multiple marriages -- although some of the more socially conservative group members said it wasn't fair to judge him -- but more were troubled by his position on social issues. Asked to choose between Romney and Rudy, Giuliani won, 7-5, (but much of the support wasn't solid).

*** But ready for the general? While these Republicans were divided on the GOP candidates, they weren't divided on the Democrats. None of them said they'd vote for any of the Democratic front-runners. "Anybody but Hillary," said one. Even those who expressed concerns about Romney's Mormon faith said they'd have no problem voting for him in the general election. "Being a Democrat is worse than being a Mormon," said another. For Democrats, this suggests that their eventual nominee would face stiff opposition, no matter the perceived flaws with the GOP nominee. That said, despite the focus group's low opinion of Hillary Clinton, none of them doubted that she was strong or competent. That was a revealing finding to Hart, who said it was akin to Democrats in 1964 admitting that Barry Goldwater had a meaningful national defense policy.

*** Gender card backfiring? Speaking of Hillary, NBC's Andrea Mitchell on TODAY looked at Clinton playing the gender card after her less-than-impressive debate performance on Tuesday. Indeed, there's lots of chatter today about whether the Clinton campaign is hurting itself in a general election with this talk of the men in the race ganging up on the lone woman. Asked on TODAY if Hillary was being ganged up on, Obama harked back to the tough questions and criticism he received (over Pakistan and world leaders) at the ABC debate in August, and remarked that he didn't complain that he was receiving tough questions "because I look different than the other folks on the stage."

Why did Obama change the subject? Today's front-page headline in the New York Times: "Obama Envisions New Relationship With Iran." With all the attention on Hillary --

much of it not that positive -- why did Obama seek out the Times and change the subject to Iran? Whatever the reason, the Obama campaign seems proud of the article, given that it emailed reporters a copy of the article, as well as an AP piece about a Senate resolution Obama introduced last night saying that Bush "does not have authority to use military force against Iran." Of course, Obama's folks know that they can't debate process forever, and with Iraq no longer a divisive foreign policy issue, he needs a new issue. Iran it is…

*** On the trail: Biden and Obama speak at the Greenville NAACP banquet in South Carolina. Elsewhere today, Clinton files to be on the New Hampshire ballot; Edwards campaigns with actor Danny Glover in South Carolina; Giuliani picks up an endorsement in DC and then heads to New Hampshire; Huckabee speaks at the South Carolina Renewal Project Pastors' Policy Briefing; McCain also campaigns in South Carolina and speaks at an event honoring a Marine who died in Iraq; Richardson stumps in Iowa; and Romney raises money in Cleveland and Connecticut. Also, Michelle Obama campaigns in Iowa.

Countdown to Election Day 2007: 4 days
Countdown to Iowa: 62 days
Countdown to New Hampshire: 67 days
Countdown to Michigan: 74 days
Countdown to Nevada and SC GOP primary: 78 days
Countdown to SC Dem primary: 85 days
Countdown to Florida: 88 days
Countdown to Tsunami Tuesday: 95 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 368 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 445 days

Click here to sign up for First Read emails.

Obama's interview with the New York Times: "In an hourlong interview on Wednesday, Mr. Obama made clear that forging a new relationship with Iran would be a major element of a broad effort to stabilize Iraq as he executed a speedy timetable for the withdrawal of American combat troops." Obama said "he would 'engage in aggressive personal

diplomacy'with Iran if elected president and would offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek 'regime change' if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues."

More: "Through most of the interview, Mr. Obama spoke without referring to notes. At one point near the end of the session, he leaned forward in his chair and looked at a yellow legal pad on the table in front of him, which listed points where he believed he and Mrs. Clinton differ on how to go forward in Iraq. 'You don't want to look backwards, but obviously our general view about this mission as a whole has been very different,' Mr. Obama said. "She missed the strategic interests that should have dictated whether we went to Iraq in the first place or not.'"

Thirty Democratic senators "wrote to President Bush yesterday to tell him he has no congressional authority for war with Iran, sparking debate among the Democratic presidential candidates." Of the four Dem senators running, two signed the letter -- Clinton and Dodd -- and two didn't -- Biden and Obama. "Clinton's campaign accused Obama of playing politics by refusing to support the letter, which was circulated by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. Instead, Obama introduced a measure yesterday to make the case in law, spokesman Bill Burton said."

BIDEN: Biden and Gravel filed to be on the New Hampshire ballot yesterday. 

CLINTON: Here's the New York Times' coverage of her speech at Wellesley yesterday.

The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus thinks the gender card is not appropriate: "Please. The Philadelphia debate was not exactly a mob moment to trigger the Violence Against Women Act; if anything, this has been an overly (pardon the phrase) gentlemanly campaign to date. Those other guys were beating up on Clinton, if you can call that beating up, because she is the strong front-runner, not because she is a weak woman… And a candidate as strong as Clinton doesn't need to play the woman-as-victim card, not even in "the all-boys club of presidential politics," as Clinton called it."

The New York Sun's Gerstein notes, "The Clinton campaign's use of gender in its response to the debate could play well in the Democratic primary, in which about 60% of voters are women. However, if such talk alienates men, it could hurt Mrs. Clinton in the general election, where winning male votes will be more critical."

Adds conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin: "This after the fact whining hardly seems an appropriate response from an empowered and confident woman to the normal verbal sparring that accompanies every campaign. Her Republican counterparts joust with one another on a range of issues from immigration to taxes and routinely question each other's consistency and credibility. In the general election will the GOP nominee expected to play by different rules when Hillary is the opponent? … So the lesson for her Democratic rivals and her eventual Republican opponent is plain. She doesn't like it when the guns are turned on her and will complain bitterly about the mean fellow(s) making her uncomfortable. The smart opponent will ignore the histrionics and recognize those signs as evidence his attacks have landed. And when all else fails, a new adage may be in order: "There's no whining in politics!"

Salon's Scherer has a smart piece calling this week the beginning of the main event of this campaign. And here's the main storyline we've all been waiting for: " Can anyone -- Democrat or Republican -- stop Clinton? And can anyone, besides faithful Hillary supporters, deal with the Hillary fatigue to come?"

"For the next two months, in the clumsy holiday stumble toward the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, the specter of Clinton is destined to overwhelm the nation's news broadcasts, the pundit round tables and the cluttered debates. For both Republicans and Democrats, she will lurk behind all discussions, testing the willpower and endurance of the American people. The hatred she can summon, the hope she can inspire, all of it, will be on display day after day. And no matter how they feel about her, voters will be forced to endure sense memories of the '90s, flashing back to that era's exhausting fog of anti-Clinton rhetoric."

"The group Emily's List, which supports women who back abortion rights, will try to reach as many as 100,000 women who might support the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton," the Des Moines Register reports.

Has Clinton now lost the Bush family's faith in her ability to get the Dem nod? Bush 41 is suddenly not so sure.

The Clinton campaign's courtship of one-time enemies continues. First there was David Brock (now an ally at the liberal watchdog group Media Matters), then Matt Drudge (to whom the campaign regularly leaks), and now Richard Mellon Scaife's one-time journalistic hit man, Chris Ruddy. Bill Clinton is sitting down with Ruddy for an interview in Newsmax.

Is this the Clinton campaign's effort to prove they won't be as divisive as some of their opponents are trying to argue?

Bloomberg News looks at the lawsuits by -- and against -- Clinton fundraiser and friend Ron Burkle. "The bitter allegations are detracting from the benevolent image Burkle is cultivating through his philanthropic foundations and donations and his friendship with Bill Clinton. Until last year, Clinton was an adviser to three of Burkle's funds, helping scout investments and other tasks. "The former U.S. president remains a frequent houseguest at Green Acres, Burkle's mansion, and a passenger on Burkle's private Boeing 757. Burkle jokes he stages so many soirees -- including a March fundraiser for Hillary Clinton -- that he's made his landscaper wealthy from repairs to the estate's lawns."

Under the headline, "Clinton faces China grill," the New York Post writes: "The feds are eyeing a Chinatown donor to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign to see if she was 'coerced' into being a front for someone else's contribution." 
 
The New York Daily News headlines the AP story: "Hillary Clinton Chinatown donors get visit from Justice Dept."

DODD: "Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, lagging far behind the leading Democratic challengers in the fundraising race, tried a chatty strategy on Thursday in an e-mail with the subject line: 'Fw: Re: Update?' The e-mail purports to pass along an e-mail chain that includes messages between two staff members.

EDWARDS: The Edwards campaign continues to try and force its way into the Clinton-Obama dynamic and turn the race into the competitive three-way race it is in Iowa. "For the better part of 10 months or so, the press has pretty much showcased this race as a Clinton-Obama campaign," Joe Trippi, a top Edwards adviser, told the Daily News. "The clear choice really is Clinton and Edwards."

The campaign is now officially eligible for matching funds from the FEC. He can't receive the money until January 2, but he can borrow against the note now, which is what the campaign is likely to do.

GORE: The DraftGore campaign is going to start running TV ads to try and lure the former veep and Nobel Prize winner into the race. "In the ad, an announcer says: 'Imagine what tomorrow can be. Imagine a renewed world, an end to the war in Iraq. Imagine Al Gore as president ... Call him. Write him. Seize the moment.'"

OBAMA: The Illinois senator is up with a new TV ad in New Hampshire. Per NBC/National Journal's Aswini Anburajan, The 30-second spot shows Obama telling a small crowd of people, "This Administration has further divided Wall Street from Main Street." Obama then turns to the camera and calls American workers "the bedrock" of the economy.

Bloomberg News profiles Michelle Obama. "Fifteen years after Clinton drew comment and condemnation as the standard-bearer of a new generation of professional women, Michelle Obama's juggling of professional life, motherhood and the duties of political spouse make her something of a modern-day everywoman. 'I don't think it's that unusual anymore,' Obama said in an interview between campaign stops in Clarion, Iowa, last week. 'It's not that Hillary and I have so much in common, it's just that we're in a generation now where a lot of women go to school, they develop these wonderful careers, they have their professions in their own rights.'"

More on the GOP focus group conducted by pollster Peter Hart (D)… Besides the general pessimism about the country's direction, the most interesting finding in the focus group may have been the positive attitude about Thompson. When asked which of the GOP candidates they would want as a character witness, a guardian for their children, and their next-door neighbor, most of them picked Thompson. Indeed, in a Giuliani-vs.-Thompson match up, nine of them chose Thompson. As Hart later explained, Rudy won the focus group's professional race (leadership, etc), while Fred won the personality contest (likeability, etc.) And when asked to choose between the two, the respondents went with the person they liked the most. All of this suggests that Thompson may have more upside with Republican voters than Beltway observers realize. That said, the focus group took place in Thompson's regional strength -- here in the South -- and few knew some key facts about him, like the age of his wife or that he has young children.

Lastly, many of the focus group members -- all of whom voted for Bush in '04 -- sounded disappointed with the president. The words they used to describe him: "up and down," "lacking consistency," "uneven," "single-minded," "mixed results," and "spent too much money." The opinions of Cheney weren't any better: "cold," "secretive," and "need to retire."

Jeb Bush has handicapped the GOP field, and while he claims to be undecided about whom he is supporting, check out what he says about each front-runner. He seems to become most positively animated when talking about Romney.
Giuliani: "Direct, sees the world the way it is, and he's direct and he communicates well and he has high energy and tremendous personality."
Thompson: "Committed conservative." He added that Thompson is "new at the game."
McCain: "His courage. I was in my bed watching this with my wife and I got out of bed and started cheering" when McCain mentioned the Woodstock line during the last debates.
Romney: "Intellectual curiosity… He's incredibly smart and asks the questions necessary to find that common ground for the next challenges we face, which politics is not very good at right now."
Huckabee: "I like him. He's a great speaker and clear-minded about the importance of moral principles."

GIULIANI: The AP reports that Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has endorsed Rudy.

"Britain's health secretary complained on Thursday about an advertisement run by Rudy Giuliani, saying the U.S. Republican presidential candidate had maligned Britain's health care system with bad statistics." More: The Times of London "said roughly the same proportion of men -- 25 out of 100,000 -- die of prostate cancer in the United States and Britain each year."

ROMNEY: The AP fact-checks Romney's tax record as governor. "Romney, who is now running for president declaring he never raised taxes as governor, says he merely closed 'loopholes' in the tax code. Business leaders see things differently. 'These certainly were tax increases and a new source of revenue for the commonwealth,' said Brian Gilmore, executive vice president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the state's largest business lobbying group."

"Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said the loophole closings were more about tax enforcement than tax increases. 'In cases where companies were using aggressive accounting to escape their tax liability in a way that was never intended by the law, we closed those loopholes,' he said."

Campaigning in Iowa yesterday, Romney reminded supporters he's the only major candidate who supports the federal marriage amendment. "'For those who are not familiar with it, of the four nationally leading candidates for president - and I count myself as one of those, but also Mayor (Rudy) Giuliani, and Sen. (John) McCain and (former Sen.) Fred Thompson - there's only one of us who's in favor of a federal amendment to the constitution to limit marriage to the relationship between a man and a woman,' Romney said. 'And that's me.'" But the Rocky Mountain News notes that Huckabee also supports the amendment. Romney apparently is not interested in calling Huckabee a major candidate.

The Boston Globe front-pages the influence Blackwater's Cofer Black on Romney's campaign. "[S]ome observers say they see Black's influence in many of Romney's hard-line statements, including his surprising declaration that he wants to double the size of Guantanamo Bay, the prison in which suspects are held without full legal rights; his endorsement of tough interrogation techniques; his praise for the Patriot Act; and his support for some aggressive surveillance policies."

THOMPSON: Everyone is trying to get into the act of criticizing Clinton for her Tuesday debate performance. Campaigning in Nevada, Thompson piled on. "'Yes, it's about Hillary, and we have our fun, but it's also about something else,' Thompson said. 'When our worst enemy sits down at the negotiating table and looks across the table ... how much can they get away with, how much of what they're hearing is really true? Are they going to mean what is said on the other side of the table? The question is, 'Who do we want on the other side of that table facing them?'"