From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger
Romney's direct questioning of Giuliani brought the most flustered
reaction of Rudy I have seen in months. While the sanctuary mansion
line got good laughs, Romney's explanation and questions left Giuliani
without an answer.

From NBC's Mark Murray
He received an initial round of boos, but has gone on to give an earnest defense of his support of comprehensive immigration reform. "We tried and we failed."

From NBC's Mark Murray
Another debate, another round of boos? Rudy just got booed by the audience for going on too long.

From NBC's Mark Murray
As Chuck Todd speculated on Hardball today, Romney is really trying to get under Rudy's skin. Trying to bring out Rudy's anger?

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Romney has gone after Giuliani on illegal immigration and this question opened up the back and forth.  Romney went after Giuliani saying he did run a sanctuary city and cited his undocumented workers being welcome in New York quote from the 1990s.

Giuliani said Romney's house was a "sanctuary mansion," that he employed illegal immigrants. Romney took umbrage and shot back.

It was definitely the most fiery we've seen the candidates at a debate.

Also, is this a replay of the Democratic debate... where the two front runners dominated going after each other and then were booed off to move on?

From NBC's Mark Murray
Giuliani asked on sanctuary cities, and Romney follows... and he pounces on Rudy...

Rudy fires off sanctuary cities in MA...and a "sanctuary mansion" -- ie, Romney's home.

From NBC's Mark Murray
Not only is the first question of the debate -- but this is the first, first question we've ever heard by guitarist...

*** Update *** Well, it wasn't the first question...but the first YouTube addressed to the candidates.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Giuliani said NYC was "not a sanctuary city." Is this Romney's opening?

From NBC's Mark Murray   
The camera just showed him...

From NBC/NJ's Matt Berger
I couldn't help noticing that Rudy and Romney shook hands off the bat. Wonder how often that photo will be used tomorrow morning?

From NBC's Mark Murray
No GOP candidate received more applause than any other as the candidates were introducted...

From NBC's Mark Murray
The debate is about to get underway, and when moderator Anderson Cooper announced this GOP YouTube debate received more YouTube submissions than the Dem one, the crowd hollered.

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
Here at the Capitol City Brewing Co. in Arlington, VA about 20 Fred-heads have gathered as part of the Young Professionals for Fred Thompson debate watching party. The campaign just held a pre-debate conference call featuring Thompson Political Director Randy Enwright, John Rich from the country music group Big & Rich, Jeri Thompson, and the director of the group's new web-based Phone for Fred program Graham Shafer. The campaign will also be live-blogging the debate on its Web site and holding surrogate-hosted online conference calls with supporters during commercial breaks to update watchers on how the debate is going.

The campaign is using the debate tonight to unveil it's new internet phone banking program, which allows supporters to sign onto the campaign's Web site, download a list of phone numbers of voters in key early states like Iowa, South Carolina or New Hampshire, a script on what to say to them and what questions to ask to determine which issues are important to those voters and then volunteers can make calls from anywhere in the country in support of Thompson. The volunteers can enter in data about the calls online to be sent directly back to the campaign's headquarters, or they can fill out forms to send in later.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The pre-debate buzz here has been the Giuliani expenses story. It was awkward, to say the least, to see members of the Giuliani staff watching CNN's report on the issue in the press spin room, particularly as members of the press approached and called over and over to get the campaign on record to clarify.

For the record, Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella told First Read and told reporter after reporter who asked, "This is completely common. NYPD has the responsibility for the mayor's security, round the clock."

CNN reported longtime Giuliani adviser Tony Carbonetti saying, "These were all legitimate expenses."

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) also said he is confident neither the NYPD or Giuliani did anything wrong.

From NBC's Mark Murray
The Edwards campaign -- which is proud to beat its chest that it introduced its plan first -- joined the Clinton-vs.-Obama spat over health care.

"Barack Obama's plan leaves out 15 million people. The truth is that some people will choose not to buy insurance even though it's affordable, knowing that the rest of us will pay for their emergency room visits," Edwards said in a statement. "But it is just as bad to say that everyone will have insurance without a plan to get there. Hillary Clinton says her plan will cover everyone through a 'mandate' but does not provide even the most rudimentary idea much less a detailed plan of how this 'mandate' would work. To get fundamental change in our health care system, we need a fundamental change in our politics. That starts with being clear and direct about what we are going to do and how we are going to do it."

A campaign press release goes on to describe how Edwards' plan would cover all Americans:
-- require proof of insurance when income taxes are paid and when health care is provided  -- families without insurance will be enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP or another targeted plan
-- families that lose coverage will be expected to enroll in another plan or be assigned one

From NBC's Mark Murray
The Democratic National Committee just issued this press release: "'Due to the uncertainty created by the ongoing labor dispute between CBS and the Writers Guild of America, the DNC has canceled the December 10th debate in Los Angeles. There are no plans to re-schedule,' said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney."

From NBC contributor Jenny Anzelmo and NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
LYNCHBURG, VA -- After Huckabee delivered an address at the evangelical Liberty University here, he picked up an endorsement from Jerry Falwell, Jr., the son of the school's late founder. "My father supported Huckabee before he was number two in the polls," Falwell said. "We're just proud, honored to have you here."

Falwell was not expecting to endorse Huckabee today, but when put on the spot, he did. "He's my choice, yes," Falwell said to cheers from students and a smile from Huckabee. While Falwell called Huckabee his "close friend," he also said Thompson would have been good choice.

While this is a personal endorsement and not an endorsement from the university, it is valuable as Huckabee's campaign continues to grow momentum heading into tonight's debate. Huckabee's poll numbers have tripled since July, and the latest Washington Post/ABC poll shows him at 24% in Iowa, just behind Romney's 28%.

In terms of endorsements, Thompson has the nod from National Right to Life, and Giuliani has Pat Robertson's support. Huckabee, who is running on the Christian conservative platform, now has this endorsement to add to the mix.

As mentioned earlier, Huckabee's opponents have been attacking his gubernatorial record, especially when it comes to taxes and immigration. In light of closing in on front-runner status, Huckabee expects there to be "a lot more venom pointed my way" in tonight's CNN/YouTube debate. "I'll defend myself, but I don't think my job is to go and pop somebody in the kneecap," he said. "People don't want a president because he has disabled the other candidates. They want a president who's looking at the future and has a vision for America."

On the issue of electability, Huckabee continued to stress his appeal to the "ordinary American" and called himself the only candidate who "has faced and defeated the Clinton political machine four times." When asked a question on Bill Clinton saying he "opposed Iraq from the beginning" in South Carolina yesterday, Huckabee declined to comment but made it clear he thinks Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.

"I plan to run against her, not him," he responded. "She'll be my opponent, not him. And we'll have plenty of time to discuss it. But there will be enough fun having the Democrats sort out his statements without me jumping in the middle of it. I've got my own tank to swim in right now."

The Liberty students received Huckabee well. When asked why younger voters should support him, Huckabee called himself a "vertical thinker" and said younger people are "more interested in what you going to do." As evidence of this youth support, after the endorsement, many Liberty University students asked fellow classmates to sign a petition for Huckabee to be on the Virginia ballot. Liberty student Kate Rundele said she agrees "with him on pretty much everything" and stressed the importance of having a Christian president -- even taking the opportunity to say Mitt Romney does not fall in this category. Josh Covert, another student, said the prospect of Romney becoming president is "a scary situation." They both stressed their beliefs that Romney would push a Mormon agenda on the American public.

Liberty University has yet to give an official endorsement, but the LU board of directors has voiced their support for the governor. Jerry's brother Jonathan Falwell has also given Huckabee a personal endorsement.

From NBC's Andy Merten and Mark Murray
In a speech from Iowa today, Clinton went after Obama on the issue of health care. "You know, among the Democrats, all of us except Senator Obama have universal health care that have put fourth a plan. Senator Richardson, Senator Edwards, Senator Dodd -- we've put fourth universal healthcare plans because we know if we don't cover everybody, we're going to leave millions and millions of people out. It's a substantive and important difference, because if you don't start with the goal of covering every American, you will never get there."

She added, "And I'm proud that Senator Edwards agrees with me, Senator Dodd agrees with me, Governor Richardson agrees with me. Congressman Kucinich has a different approach, but he gets everyone covered to have universal health care. If we don't have universal health care, then we will be betraying the Democratic Party's principles. And it's important that those who will caucus on January 3rd understand this difference. Senator Obama's plan does not, and cannot, cover all Americans. He has called his plan universal, then he called it 'virtually universal,' but it is not either. And when it comes to truth in labeling, it simply flunks the test."

And: "He's been saying there's no difference between our plans. But his plan would leave at least 15 million Americans uninsured, including more than 100,000 people right here in Iowa. So why don't we just say everybody against the wall, you don't get insurance. We're very sorry, but we're just not going to have a plan that covers you."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- First Read is on the ground here in this 80-degree, February 5th state, where the CNN/YouTube GOP debate will take place tonight at 8:00 pm ET. Look for our liveblogging throughout the night.

There has been a lot that's gone on since the last Republican debate. Rudy-Romney has picked up, Thompson has seen his poll numbers in the early states decline, and Huckabee has seen his rise. Giuliani and Romney have been going after each other on everything from immigration and taxes to crime and health care. Thompson, meanwhile, has hit Giuliani on guns, and Huckabee's record is starting to be examined more closely now that he shows second place in Iowa polling -- and even one Florida poll out this week.

With all that and the GOP race so fluid, tonight's debate is set up to be a pivotal one. Expect the attacks to come and go in all directions, as each candidate vies for the spotlight. Rudy and Romney will likely take some pointed shots at one another.

Will Romney bring up Bernie Kerik? Will Rudy bring up Daniel Tavares and that Romney-appointed judge in Massachusetts? Will Romney attack others, especially Huckabee? He's mentioned him on the trail, but ignored him in a new Iowa mailer showing the "leading candidates." Will Thompson, who is vying for the same constituency as Huckabee, go after him on taxes and immigration -- perhaps even calling him a pro-life liberal again? Another question: Will Huckabee go after anyone? Can he continue with the Mr. Nice Guy front? And that leaves McCain: Will he try to trumpet perceived stability in Iraq having just returned from a Thanksgiving trip there? Will there be another Woodstock line?

And what about the others? Paul has raised a ton of cash since the last debate. Will he be booed again for his foreign policy views like at the FOX debate? Might McCain use him to highlight his own toughness or resoluteness with regard to Iraq? Stay tuned.

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
In a conference call to announce the personal endorsement of Linda Nelson, president of the Iowa State Education Association, Obama said that he would "fine parents" in order to enforce the mandate in his health insurance plan that all children be covered.

"I would sign them up in school in the same way they would get inoculated. I would fine parents if form some reason they refused. I am happy to be very clear on how we would enforce the mandate," Obama said. He went on to say that he believed that the vast majority of American parents wanted to ensure that their children did receive health coverage.

Obama once again questioned Clinton's health-care plan, saying that her criticisms of own his plan, which does not mandate health insurance for all Americans, overlook the costs of health care. And he criticized her for not explaining how she would mandate coverage. "Unfortunately she hasn't told anybody how she would enforce this mandate," Obama said.

"Until she clarifies what she would do to enforce this mandate, is she going to fine people or take other steps to enforce this? It's more of a political point she's trying to make a than a real point," he added.

Regarding President Bill Clinton's statement yesterday that he had opposed the Iraq war, Obama chuckled, "If he did I don't think most of us heard about it." Obama wouldn't comment further on the issue, simply saying, "All I know is that I opposed the war. Senator Clinton made a different decision. My understanding was that Senator Clinton and President Clinton were talking frequently, and you'll have to ask them about that."

The conference call also focused on Obama's education plan, which he released last week in New Hampshire. The plan calls for recruiting an army of new teachers and helping American kids learn math and science to become globally competitive.

When asked if he would be open to temporarily recruiting foreign teachers to the United States to make up for the shortfall in math and science teachers across the country, Obama said he thought the step was unnecessary and said the main issue in recruiting teachers was paying them more. He compared the short fall in teaching to nursing, saying that the main issue was pay.

From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike
Yesterday in Florida, Romney lashed back at Giuliani for taking him to task on his tax record, saying that the former New York mayor's comments were unfounded. "I cut taxes 19 times," he told reporters. But that claim raised eyebrows in the Giuliani campaign, causing the team to wonder just what those 19 tax cuts were.
 
Last night, the Romney camp started circulating papers documenting the tax cuts.
 
Indeed, there were 19 tax cuts, according to the campaign's documents, but they are listed in a couple of different categories. Ten were "filed by governor and enacted" -- three of which were the BioTech Job Incentive Payment Credit, the Fire Sprinkler Accelerated Depreciation, and the Senior Circuit Breaker Expansion.
 
The other nine were "not filed by the governor but enacted by the legislature." And a few those were the Home Heating Oil Deduction/Energy Efficiency Credit and the Job Incentive Payment Expansion.

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
CHARLESTON, WV -- After accepting the endorsement of West Virginians for Life on her husband's behalf, and holding her first solo press availability here on Monday, Jeri Thompson sat down with NBC/National Journal for a candid conversation about her husband's presidential campaign and her role in it.

A big part of feeling comfortable with her position in the campaign, she said, was participating in Maria Shriver's forum of candidates' wives in California last month. Although she was already entrenched in the campaign process, she said that being able to interact onstage with women who had so much more experience in the political spotlight helped her to see how much other wives were involved in the process.

"I came away really imbued with a sense of community from them, from both sides," she said. "Elizabeth Edwards was the first woman who defended me when some folks were, I would say, mischaracterizing me, and I will forever be grateful to her for that. There's sort of a funny side to this and that's that what I didn't realize is some of these women have been in this 20, 25 years doing this with their husbands as governors, or definitely in the limelight. Frankly, I've been sort of the grassroots, sort of behind-the-scenes girl. 

"What I learned from these women is that they all participate at a great level in the campaigns in as much as they care about the issues as much as their husbands. And they care about their husbands' schedule and how the campaign is working and they have a lot to say about how it works. And if they didn't, wouldn't that be the story? If we didn't care about our husbands or didn't care that they were being overworked and underfed and over-whatever else you do on the campaign trail since I'm not there all the time. Wouldn't that be the story?"

For a wife who has been criticized for micro-managing her husband's campaign from the beginning, seeing the involvement of other wives gave Mrs. Thompson a sense of "camaraderie," she said. And although she didn't elaborate on what she meant by this, she also added that the event taught her that the wives are "not covered the same way."

On the topic of her husband's campaign, Mrs. Thompson pointed to the specific policy papers he has released so far as evidence that he cares more about the issues than he does about the process. "One can look at things in a papa bear or a mama bear way of looking at things," she said. "Several years ago, folks were trying to encourage Fred to run, and he looked at the situation and he felt that the kind of leadership, the sort of tough choices that he thinks he's best at making, maybe weren't needed at the time. The country was looking for more of a nanny state. Things are now to the point that we must address some of these issues before it's too late."

Fred cared most about the issues even after he left the Senate, Mrs. Thompson said. "When he was coming home from Law & Order, he didn't talk about the set," she said. "We didn't go to the parties in New York or LA. I think we went to one party, which I think I wore one dress to that you've seen a thousand pictures of, and that's all we've ever done. What Fred cared about, what he talked about when he came home at night, was the stuff in the China commission that he could tell me.

"Guess what we talked about at night? Nuclear proliferation. This doesn't make it seem that exciting in the Thompson household. And I have to confess, often it's not very exciting. But these are the things that motivated him that he cared about, that he was passionate about."

Mrs. Thompson then recounted a conversation she had with her husband before he decided to run for president, using it as evidence that Fred seemed "unfulfilled" by his life on television. "'I'm really worried,' he said one night with a glazed look in his eyes, 'About a nuclearized Middle East,'" Mrs. Thompson said. "'Well honey why don't you do something about it,' you sort of say casually as you're putting the dishes in the dishwasher, not thinking you're going to have a further conversation about it. But once this conversation starts stringing out to weeks at a time -- anyone who's married or has close friends knows that someone who's not fulfilled becomes disenchanted and must move to something that makes them fulfilled.

"He was happy. He had made more money than he thought that he ever would… He just didn't feel like he had done everything he could do."

From NBC's Mark Murray
After breaking the news of Bill Clinton claiming -- briefly -- that he had opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, the AP's Ron Fournier runs this column about Clinton campaigning on the trail yesterday. Some excerpts:
-- Bill "was unscripted, in-depth and generous. He also was long-winded, misleading and self-absorbed. 'Good Bill' and 'Bad Bill' (his nickname among some aides) returned to the public arena Tuesday as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brandished her double-edged sword of a husband to fend off rivals in the Jan. 3 caucus fight."
-- "'Ladies and gentlemen,' Clinton told 400 Iowans at the start of his three-city swing, 'I have had a great couple of days out working for Hillary.' In the next 10 minutes, he used the word 'I' a total of 94 times and mentioned 'Hillary' just seven times in an address that was as much about his legacy as it was about his wife's candidacy."
-- "Clinton's stump speeches have always been remarkably accessible despite their length and complexity. One reason is that, while he talks without notes, Clinton's remarks are organized like a neat classroom outline... What he left the crowds with was the assurance that his wife understands their plight. For a man who convinced so many voters that he felt their pain, this may be his most powerful calling card Clinton can leave to Iowa crowds and his wife."

From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike
ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Sure, there are the meetings behind closed doors for prep on the day of a debate, but Romney also played in a flag football game here with his five sons and a handful of his campaign staffers.

After one play, Romney ran down the field yelling, "This is not tackle, this is not tackle!"

Covered in sweat, he was swarmed by reporters before leaving the game about halfway through. He explained that it "makes all the difference" on the trail if he can have his wife, Ann, or even one of the five sons with him. He's got the whole family in tow for tonight's debate, and they will be seated in the front row-ahead of Giuliani's family. "Ann is really the one who keeps me from going off the edge of the road. She's the guardrail in our family," he said.

When most of the players thought the game was over, it was Romney's oldest son, Tagg, who kept reminding them all that they still had the second half to go. But before the sons re-took the field without their father, they spoke with reporters and talked Iowa. "The five of us will each take turns being there a lot in the next few weeks," Tagg said.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker and several top Romney staffers played in the flag football game, including Carl Forti and Ben Ginsberg. Communications Director Matt Rhoades was told he was kicked off his team to make room for the much taller mayor. Who didn't play in the game? Kevin Madden. He is in town for the debate but was nowhere to be found at the game.

From NBC's Joe Laliberte
NBC News has obtained a Richardson mailing to New Hampshire voters, entitled "Protecting Our Sporting Heritage." Its cover photo features Richardson hunting with a man and a young boy, all of them holding shotguns.

The mailing goes on to say, "Bill Richardson protects 2nd Amendment rights. Americans have a long and proud sporting heritage, and that heritage is strong here in New Hampshire. It's a heritage Bill Richardson shares, and as a gun owner and outdoorsman, it's one he's worked to protect... And as a candidate for governor, Richardson was endorsed by the NRA in 2006." It concludes, "Bill Richardson will never support legislation that would compromise 2nd Amendment Rights of Responsible Gun Owners…"

The mailing also refers to his community Web site for sportsmen, www.SportsmenForRichardson.com. Yet while Richardson has never backed away from his support of gun rights -- in fact, as First Read has mentioned before, Richardson is the NRA's favorite presidential candidate in either party -- this particular site doesn't appear on his campaign's main Web site. While the main site links to communities such as Veterans for Richardson and Native Americans for Richardson, it doesn't mention Sportsmen for Richardson.