Romney: McCain's "my friend" -- This after the two exchanged jabs in the past two days.

From NBC's Chuck Todd
Wolf did Rudy a favor by asking him his opinion on the immigration legis. in question before the Romney-McCain fireworks began. Rudy doesn't want to get involved in this debate...  And McCain, to this credit, is letting Giuliani off the hook.  Smart of McCain to take on Rudy on this instead of Romney.

From NBC's Chuck Todd
Already, Tom Tancredo is coming across as a much better spokesperson for his cause than he did in the first two debates where he fumbled a number of times.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Softball to Tancredo... who's next?? Fireworks coming? eh hem, Romney - McCain. Will Giuliani play peacemaker in the middle there or lean back like Clinton when Obama fired off at Edwards?

From NBC's Mark Murray
Tancredo: "We are becoming a bilingual nation, and that is not good."

From NBC's Chuck Todd
If the debate stopped right now, the lead would be: "The leading Republican candidates for president avoided attacking each other and instead concentrated their fire on the Democrats, at least on the issue of the war. In particular, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani both brought up the Democrats and used them as a punching bag in each of their first two answers..." But of course, we have yet to discuss immigration.

From NBC's Mark Murray   
Rudy was the first to mention the foiled terror plot at JFK airport -- not surprising for the former New York mayor.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The positioning war continues. Giuliani: "This war is not a bumper sticker. This is a real war." Another shot at Democrats. So far, this early at least three shots at Dems -- none at each other. Different than Sunday night.

From NBC's Chuck Todd
In Iran that is... Don't miss Brownback's call to "develop the labor union movement" in Iran. It's not everyday a Republican will be praising a union.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Duncan Hunter just went on record saying he read the NIE.

From NBC's Mark Murray
There must be a few Paul fans in the audience, because after he delivered his antiwar views, he received some applause.

From NBC's Chuck Todd
There was just a moment on the tube where CNN showed every Republican candidate angled to McCain listening intently to his lecture about what's next for Iraq. It was a powerful moment for McCain and a photo the McCain folks will want on the cover of tomorrow's Union Leader.

BTW, looks like the criticism of spreading debate air time around has gotten to CNN. So far, the questioning appears to be more fair than Sunday.

From Domenico Montanaro
is McCain looking ahead to the general, trying to appear the inevitable by taking a shot at Hillary Clinton? 

From NBC's Mark Murray
McCain just admitted he didn't read the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate... Brownback said he didn't remember reading it, either.

From NBC's Chuck Todd
I've been waiting for someone to ask the REPUBLICAN senators running for POTUS whether they read the N.I.E.  McCain gave a plausible answer; Brownback didn't give the best answer. He didn't remember the document? 

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Giuliani trying to appear as front runner with his Dems "in denial" on terrorism line.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Huckabee with best line so far -- saying he's from Hope, you may have heard of it... "All I ask is you give us one more chance."

From NBC's Chuck Todd
Give all the candidates credit, they (or their handlers) watched the Sunday debate and prepared pithy openers. From Huckabee to Thompson to Giuliani, many had very good prepared introductions.

From NBC's Mark Murray   
Rudy Giuliani made the first mention of New Hampshire's motto, "Live free or die," in his introduction.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro:
The big three are in the middle -- just like the Dem debate last night. Romney, Giuliani, McCain -- all right next to each other. 

From NBC's Mark Murray
That's what Tommy Thompson just said in introducing himself.... first (implicit) reference to Fred Thompson.

From NBC's Mark Murray
Another round of debate liveblogging is about to begin. Chuck is in Manchester, NH at the debate, and Domenico and I are watching it here in DC. Let's get ready to rumble.

From NBC's Chuck Todd
Just minutes before the debate; we've done a quick tour of the staging area (thanks to a generous pass from a friendly network competitor) and the set looks great. Nothing like having a great hockey arena to stage a debate. The best part of going to the debate hall, passing by the roped off debate protesters/candidate supporters. The Ron Paul folks are hilarious and only they could have a dominant chant that went something like this: "ABOLISH THE FEDERAL RESERVE! ABOLISH THE FEDERAL RESERVE!" 

And they kept it going for a good 10 minutes.

From NBC's Carrie Dann
With the faith of Democratic Oh-Eighters already in the news, Obama continued to highlight his own Christianity -- as well as his race -- today in Hampton, Virginia. In remarks to a ministers' conference this afternoon, Obama decried rivalries between religious groups and zeroed in on race as a false source of division in the faith community.

Bemoaning the controversy around Trinity United, the Chicago church that Obama cites as his spiritual home, he scoffed at critics who have accused the black community there of being "separatist." The church's controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., listened from the audience as Obama sang the praises of the man who "introduced him to Jesus Christ." (Recall that Wright's remarks at Obama's official announcement in February were called off amid concern that the Reverend's strong language would prove unpalatable to voters.)
 
Obama tackled the issue of race with uncharacteristic directness in his remarks, reserving particularly strong words for the Bush administration's ignorance of the "quiet riot" of discontent among blacks. In addition to invoking the race-sparked L.A. riots of 1991, he also expressed disillusionment with how an administration that was "colorblind in its incompetance" failed the black community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Vice President Dick Cheney has released a statement on Libby's sentencing:

"I relied on [Scooter] heavily in my capacity as Secretary of Defense and as Vice President. I have always considered him to be a man of the highest intellect, judgment and personal integrity... . Scooter is also a friend, and on a personal level Lynne and I remain deeply saddened by this tragedy and its effect on his wife, Harriet, and their young children.

"The defense has indicated it plans to appeal the conviction in the case. Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man."