So this is a very big day for those of us who inhabit the political world: Hillary Clinton is campaigning for President for the first time today in Iowa. Needless to say, the crush of media attention will be intense. A rundown of the various media takes on this key day follows after the jump.

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Barack Obama has just won the backing of another top Kerry fundraiser: Kirk Wagar, a prominent Florida trial lawyer and former DNC Florida finance chair, a Kerry insider and another source have confirmed to Election Central.

Obama's winning of Wagar comes a day after he scored the backing of another top Kerry fundraiser, California-based venture capitalist Mark Gorenberg. Kerry's exit from the race two days ago has freed up many of his top fundraisers and operatives, many of whom are being wooed by the other candidates.

Wagar raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Kerry in 2004, according to the St. Petersburg Times. According to our Kerry insider, Wagar dislikes Edwards despite their shared trial lawyer background. A partial list of other major Kerry donors and operatives that are up for grabs is here.

We've just spent some time talking with a key Kerry insider. And this person has given us some interesting intelligence on efforts by other campaigns to woo Kerry's top operatives and donors, and we'll be sharing bits of what we learned today. First off, we've put together a list of some of the operatives and donors that are up for grabs right now -- along with little bits of intelligence about each one our insider has shared. View it after the jump.

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Will former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee announce that he's running for President when he appears on Meet the Press this Sunday? According to the Arkansas Times, three sources confirm that he will do just that. The paper adds that Huckabee has appearances scheduled in Iowa next week. Though the Huckabee camp has yet to confirm the paper's report, it did send out a release today saying that Huckabee would be on Tim Russert's show on Sunday morning, where he would be discussing "his future plans."

As promised, we've compiled a full list of GOP Senators who are up for reelection in 2008, and noted all of their stances on Iraq. The full rundown after the jump.

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More bad news for Mitt Romney: It appears former Massachusetts governor Paul Cellucci is passing over his fellow state pol to endorse Rudy Giuliani for President. Cellucci told the Boston Globe that though Romney called him and asked for his endorsement in a meeting two weeks ago, he'd decided instead to go with Rudy. Cellucci insisted that there was no snub intended, said his decision was merely "pro-Rudy" and not "anti-Mitt," and described Romney as a "capable leader."

Hardcore conservative Duncan Hunter, of all people, has just become the first candidate to go up on the air in New Hampshire and Iowa — though the size of the buy is unknown. The Boston Globe reports that Hunter's "Peace Through Strength" PAC — yes, that's really its name — began airing an ad yesterday in the two states promoting a fence along the Mexican border. "Let's make sure Homeland Security builds the border fence," Hunter says. "It works, and it's the law." No hard info is yet available about the size of the buy from his PAC, but the Globe says it's running in the two states, providing little more detail beyond the fact that it's up on a local station in Manchester. Nonetheless, it's worth a watch.

The maneuvering in the Senate is intensifying around the Iraq escalation question, with two new GOP Senators saying that they may introduce their own resolutions on President Bush's plan, today's Los Angeles Times reports.

John McCain, the leading advocate of escalation, and GOP Senator John Cornyn both are saying they may introduce such resolutions, the obvious goal being to give Republicans something to support so they don't break ranks fully and back the tougher resolutions fully opposing the surge that have already been introduced.

Though few details are available on the two planned resolutions, Cornyn's resolution would effectively endorse the "surge," while McCain wants to create some sort of way of measuring the effectiveness of the "surge" -- a move that could blunt the criticism of those who say McCain is sinking more and more American lives into Iraq with no regard for whether this is at all likely to be effective.

The maneuvering around Iraq is probably the single most important unfolding drama in the Senate right now, with extensive implications for the 2008 Presidential and midterm elections.

In a few minutes, we'll be bringing you a list of 2008 GOP Senators up for reelection. We'll try to suss out as best we can who stands where, too.

And just in case you've lost track of all the resolutions that have been introduced, we have a full roundup of them for you right here.

Great Moments In Fox News Dept.... Fox News has announced on the air that they are planning to run the fictitious scene that was cut from ABC's 9/11 special this weekend. This is big news: Remember, that's the fictious scene about how the Clinton administration allegedly let Osama Bin Laden get away — the one that sparked a massive, days-long battle between ABC and Clinton and his defenders that resulted in ABC editing out the scene. You can see Fox's announcement of this on our You Tube below. Amusingly enough, the ad for this upcoming segment was preceded by their usual "You Decide" ad attesting to Fox's self-proclaimed objectivity. To watch the two ads, click here. (Editor's note: These ads actually did run as shown, one after the other.)

Hillary Clinton -- who's set to go to Iowa this weekend -- has just hired a top operative from the state to run her Iowa operation. Clinton's camp announced a short while ago that she'd signed up longtime Iowa politico JoDee Winterhof to run her Iowa campaign. Winterhof was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's chief of staff from 1999-2003 and worked on his Presidential run and Senate campaigns.

Meanwhile, our massive, comprehensive, constantly-updated guide to all the operatives on all the Presidential campaigns is here.

Here are a few quick updates on the Presidential candidates:

* Barack Obama has landed the support of one of New York's most prominent fundraisers, Ben Smith reports.

* Tom Tancredo has called for the abolishment of the Conressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the wake of the rumored refusal of the Black Caucus to admit white Rep. Steve Cohen, D-TN.

* Mitt Romney will be visiting Iowa tomorrow, going to Waterloo, Fairbank and Dubuque with his son, Tagg, according to a campaign press release.

* Rudy Giuliani will be in New Hampshire tomorrow, giving the keynote speech to the Littleton Chamber of Commerce in Bretton Woods. He'll follow that up at the state GOP's annual meeting in Manchester on Saturday.

* Jim Gilmore and Tom Tancredo are also visiting New Hampshire this weekend, appearing separately at restaurants in the state, while another restaurant will feature a private fundraiser for John McCain featuring Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., a McCain backer.

* Bill Richardson and Wesley Clark will be appearing together this Saturday in Nevada, with both speaking at a fundraising dinner for the Douglas County Democratic Central Committee.

* In New Jersey, a Quinnipiac poll finds Rudy Giuliani leading the GOP field with 39%, followed by John McCain at 21%. On the Dem side, Hillary Clinton is in the lead with 30%, trailed by Barack Obama with 16%.

* A poll from Arizona State University has John McCain dominating the GOP side, as is to be expected among primary voters in his home state, with 54% of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 14%. On the Dem side, Barack Obama is leading Hillary Clinton, 29%-23%.

Barack Obama has just landed one of John Kerry's most important fundraisers: Mark Gorenberg, a California-based venture capitalist who's a top fundraiser for the Democratic Party, a source has confirmed to Election Central.

Gorenberg is a heavyweight in fundraising circles who's helped turn San Francisco into a major fundraising source for Democrats. He was a leading fundraiser for Kerry in 2004 as his California finance chair, and also raised more than $1 million for 27 Dem House candidates in 2006, according to the Connecticut Post.

Kerry left the Presidential race yesterday, and his top donors and operatives are being aggressively wooed by the other Dem candidates. More soon.

GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney — who has struggled recently to convince conservatives that he is a reliable ally and is deeply committed to their issues — gave three political donations in 1992 to Democrats, according to a review of records by Election Central.

According to FEC records, Romney gave $250 to both then-Congressman Richard Swett (D-NH) and to then-Congressman John LaFalce (D-NY). Romney also gave the legal limit of $1,000 to Doug Anderson, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for an open Senate seat in Utah — a total of $1,500 for Democratic candidates. Only the contribution to Swett has thus far been publicly revealed.

The donations could be problematic for Romney because prominent social conservatives — who Romney needs to win the GOP primaries — have been heavily criticizing Romney of late for flip-flopping on social issues like abortion and gay rights. Conservative leaders have argued that his conversions have been based on politics, and that he can't really be trusted on their issues. The newly-revealed donations to Democrats are likely to be viewed by these conservatives as simply more evidence that Romney has a more liberal past than he's let on.

Romney's contributions to Dems came at a time when he was a registered Independent, and even voted for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 primaries. Indeed, his contributions at the time suggest that he was drifting away from the GOP. In addition to his giving to the Dems, his donations to Republicans had all but ceased. Romney had routinely made donations of $1,000 or more to the Massachusetts Republican State Committee throughout the 1980's, but did not make any donations to them in 1990, 1991 or 1992.

Only two years later, however, Romney veered back to the GOP, unsuccessfully running for the Senate in 1994 against Ted Kennedy as a Republican.

Asked about Romney's mindset at the time he made the donations, Romney campaign press secretary Kevin Madden told Election Central: "I don't have a snapshot into — I mean, 1992 was a long time ago." Madden argued that any liberal leanings from 15 years ago are "greatly overshadowed by a conservative record of governing as a fiscal conservative and a pro-family conservative."

"With 15 years comes a lot of age, comes a lot of wisdom, and comes a new understanding of what's required to face the challenges of the future," Madden said.

Less than 24 hours after declaring he won't seek the Presidency, it's already clear that John Kerry is launching a new post-presidential-ambitions phase in his career: He's making a bid to be one of the Senate greats, and the centerpiece of this effort will be his aggressive stance against the Iraq war. Here's a screengrab from his new web site, setadeadline.com:

To understand what Kerry's up to, make sure you read this column today by the Boston Globe's Scott Lehigh. He writes:

When, in December 1982, [Ted] Kennedy said he wouldn't be a candidate for president in 1984, his people couldn't quite admit that the dream had died. I distinctly remember one adviser insisting that Kennedy would still be viable in future years. But time moves on, and by December 1985, when the senator announced that he wouldn't run in 1988, the truth had become obvious to everyone.

"I know that this decision means that I may never be president," Kennedy said. But, he added, "The pursuit of the presidency is not my life. Public service is."...

Except for confirmed Kennedy loathers, few doubt Ted Kennedy's place in the pantheon of Senate giants.

There's a lesson there for Kerry...

Freed of the self-imposed need to consider every move, to weigh every consequence, to worry about how each and every remark might affect his future, he can become a senator who tells the hard truths this nation needs to hear. And if ever we needed an uncowed truth-teller on the international scene, the time is now...

At 63, his presidential hopes are dead -- but as a US senator, his best days might just lie ahead.

We'll be bringing you some video from Kerry's new site of him speaking about the next phase of his career in a bit.

In a move confirming that health care is taking its place alongside Iraq as a key issue driving the Democratic Presidential primary, Barack Obama is issuing the following call in a speech in Washington this morning: "The time has come for universal health care in America." Obama is now the second Dem candidate to make universal health care a central issue in his campaign; John Edwards issued his call for it earlier this year. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is planning on resuscitating some of the ideas in her failed health care effort in the mid-nineties as part of an effort to directly confront her potential vulnerability on the issue, according to some private remarks her husband made at a conference. The full text of Obama's prepared speech is after the jump.

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Becoming the latest in a long line of GOP candidates whose rational for a Presidential run is that he's the only real conservative in the race, hard-core winger GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter declared today that he's running for the White House. Here's his new campaign Web site:

Hunter -- who gave a speech this morning announcing his candidacy -- has a vaguely Orwellian campaign message: "Peace through strength." Not that Hunter has much strength himself right now, at least politically: A recent CNN poll found that he's favored by one percent of registered GOP voters.

Hillary Clinton holds a large double-digit lead over Barack Obama in a new poll released today by Time magazine. The poll finds Hillary ahead at 40%, with Obama trailing 19 points behind at 21% and John Edwards in third with 13%. On the GOP side the race is much closer, with John McCain leading Rudy Giuliani by a statistically-negligible margin of four points, 30%-26%. And in head to head matchups, Clinton ties McCain at 47% while McCain would beat either Obama or Edwards by seven points.

Four big states are all but certain to move up their primaries -- a development that could help Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and possibly Rudy Giuliani, today's New York Times reports:

Associates of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York Democrat, and Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, said that should either of them stumble early on, the respective party primaries in California and New Jersey — two states that would seem particularly hospitable to them — could offer an expensive but welcome firewall.

But at the same time, states like New Jersey and California could provide an opening for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who faces the daunting prospect of overcoming resistance among social conservatives in the Republican contests in Iowa and South Carolina in January.

And several party analysts suggested that having such delegate-rich states at stake on Feb. 5 could persuade candidates who might otherwise step out after a defeat in Iowa or New Hampshire to press on in hopes of a dramatic recovery on the new Super Tuesday.

The state legislatures in the four states -- California, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey -- are likely to move their primaries up to early next February, which means that amazingly, we could be witnessing contests in these big states in just over a year.

While all the campaigns are trying to adjust their strategies accordingly, the truth is that no one can yet predict the effects the changes will have. Add these likely schedule changes to the list of reasons why Campaign 2008 is the most wide-open Presidential race in decades.

As you may know, the press and the bloggers are all abuzz today about Rep. Michele Bachmann's schoolgirl-crush moment with President Bush at the State of the Union address. In an encounter with Bush at the address, Bachmann leaned in for her ceremonial kiss on the cheek — and then proceeded to passionately kiss his cheek and then kept holding on to his shoulder, with all the glee of a teenybopper! (See video below.)

But guess what: We're here to report that this is most certainly not an isolated incident, and it seems likely that Bachmann's, um, feelings have been around for quite some time. Back in August, then-Congressional candidate Bachmann posted a blog entry about a campaign event with Bush, and she seemed every bit as smitten with him then. Bachmann wrote (emphasis ours):

President Bush and I did share our custards with Governor Pawlenty, Senator Coleman and Karl Rove. Every bit of custard was gone well before we arrived at the Jundt home!

As we were driving, President Bush was constantly waving to people along the streets. I was struck by the humility he has towards his role as President of the United States. He enjoys connecting with people, even ever so briefly, and having them feel they have made contact with the President of the United States. I turned around and looked out the back window. The expressions on people's faces were priceless. They were just ecstatic when they realized The President had just waved at them.

If they were ecstatic, I can not even put into words the honor and joy I felt from having the support of The President.

The rapture!

Incidentally, Bachmann today referenced a third, shall we say, charged encounter with the President. Commenting on yesterday's embrace, Bachmann told the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "He kissed me in Minnesota, too."

Senator Barack Obama's Presidential campaign just announced the hiring of two new key operatives in Iowa: Paul Tewes as State Director, and Emily Parcell as Political Director. From Obama's release:

Paul is a native of southern Minnesota. He was the Caucus Manager for Al Gore's Iowa campaign in 2000. He then worked for the DSCC from 2001-2004 where he was Political Director for two years. In 2005, he ran the national campaign against Social Security privatization.

Emily Parcell is a native Iowan with extensive experience in Iowa Democratic politics. A veteran of the 2002 re-election campaign of Sen. Tom Harkin and the 2004 Iowa Caucus campaign of Rep. Dick Gephardt, Parcell successfully managed the Iowa Senate Democrats' political operation during the 2004 and 2006 elections in which Democrats picked up a net gain of nine seats and took control of the Iowa Senate for the first time since 1996.

Want to see a full rundown of who's who on the other Presidential campaigns? Our massive, comprehensive, completely up-to-date Election Central guide to the staffers on all the campaigns is here.

Here are a few quick updates on the movements of the Presidential candidates:

* Former MA Gov. Mitt Romney is set to announce two big South Carolina campaign hires: Terry Sullivan, who managaed Sen. Jim DeMint's successful campaign in 2004, will be his state campaign manager, and George Ramsey, who was DeMint's political director, will play the same role for Romney in the state.

* In other Romney news, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking GOP member on the House intelligence committee, has endorsed the former MA Governor and will serve as his campaign's adviser on intelligence issues.

* Rep. Mary Bono has become the first member of Congress outside of New York state to officially endorse former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani for President.

* Giuliani will also be the keynote speaker at the South Carolina GOP's state executive committee meeting on Feb. 3rd.

* Former NYC Gov. George Pataki -- who's made a few noises about running for President in the past -- recently closed the New Hampshire office of his political action committee. Is it an indication that he's decided against running in 2008? We report; you decide.

* Sen. Hillary Clinton will visit Iowa on Saturday and New Hampshire on Feb. 3rd and 4th.

* Sen. Sam Brownback announced the first meeting of a public-private task force examining whether...TV makes kids fat.

* On the heels of Rep. Dennis Hastert's endorsement of Mitt Romney, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay cautioned right-leaning Republicans against endorsing presidential hopefuls two years before the election.

* GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum on Feb.25. Paul formerly ran for president in 1988 on the Libertarian ticket.

* In the '07 Kentucky's Governor race, GOP Sen. Jim Bunning has endorsed former Rep. Anne Northup, who lost her seat to Democrat John Yarmuth last November.

* In "08 Minnesota Senate news, Sen. Norm Coleman is planning to introduce a bill for a $5 billion increase in research on stem cells that don't involve destroying embryos, a move that seems designed to mitigate criticism of his opposition to embryonic stem cell research, something that could impede reelection.

Many Democrats may be relieved at John Kerry's decision not to pursue the Presidency again, but it isn't easy for some of Kerry's top supporters. I checked in with prominent Kerry backer Robert Zimmerman, a major Democratic donor who personally raised over $1 million for Kerry in 2004. Zimmerman offers an interesting take -- after the jump.

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So I just got off the phone with a prominent supporter of John Kerry with whom the Senator recently discussed the question of whether he should run for President again. And this person said that the reaction to Kerry's botched joke -- combined with the fact that top donors and organizers were rapidly committing to other candidates -- was key in tipping the scales against running again for the White House.

"It was too steep a hill to climb," this supporter tells me. "Too many major figures are in this race. Too many major donors had signed on with other candidates."

The key for Kerry, however, according to this backer, was that the reaction to the botched joke triggered memories of the 2004 loss and made him doubt that Dems would take another chance on him.

"Republicans aren't uncomfortable with candidates who run again," this supporter says. "But Democrats could not get over their disillusionment with losing in 2004. And the botched joke opened up the floodgates of apprehension again among Democrats."

"In his mind, he just saw the dynamic of running against a very crowded, accomplished field as being very daunting," the supporter concluded. "Organizers were being snapped up, and he just didn't see the momentum there."

Update: A top Kerry donor offers a very interesting take here.

John Kerry "won't make a second bid for the White House," sources are telling CNN. More in a bit.

This passed almost entirely unnoticed, but it's important. Late yesterday House GOP leader John Boehner was interviewed by CNN, and he appeared to set a deadline for President Bush to show that his "surge" strategy will succeed. He was asked the following question: "How long can you and your membership give the President and give the Iraqi military before you say, `You know what? You're not doing your job.'?" Boehner's answer: "I think it'll be rather clear in the next sixty to ninety days as to whether this plan's going to work." So if the "surge" isn't successful by Boehner's deadline, what will he advocate then? Let's all see if we can remember that Boehner said this, shall we? View the video here.

This moment passed almost entirely unnoticed, but it's important. Yesterday House Minority Leader John Boehner was interviewed by CNN, and he stated very clearly that President Bush's deadline for the "surge" to work was two to three months.

Remember that leaked campaign dossier published by the Daily News that revealed the political and fundraising plans of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign? Well, the reporter who originally broke the story, Ben Smith, has now posted the entire thing on line -- all 140 pages of it! You can view it right here. We'll be taking a look through it a bit later in hopes of ferreting out nuggets you might be interested in. Meanwhile, if anything in it catches your eye, please let us know.

Hillary Clinton's entry into the Presidential race three days ago triggered an immediate rush of activity among her top Dem donors in New York, some of whom are insisting to fellow donors that the time has come to get in line behind the New York Senator, today's New York Observer reports.

Her announcement had the effect of "simultaneously ending the conversation that Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and the other members of an increasingly crowded field of candidates hoped to have with key fund-raisers," the paper says. "The sheer scale of what Mrs. Clinton is trying to do, if she can do it, will leave little room for her rivals to profit from the traditional Democratic money network." Or so Clinton's fundraisers hope, anyway. As Fred Hochberg, a high-profile Clinton fundraiser, put it, “It is absolutely time for people to make a choice."

It's unclear whether efforts by Clinton's fundraisers to close the spigot to other candidates will be effective, however. John Edwards has a financial network of his own, built up from the 2004 campaign and from a career as a trial lawyer, and Barack Obama will be able to raise bucket-loads of cash off his novelty value as a fresh face, as well as his sheer popularity and charisma.

As Election Central reported yesterday, Clinton scored a coup by winning the support of top Dem donor Hassan Nemazee.

The White House has just sent out excerpts of the speech President Bush is set to give as his State of the Union address tonight. One part in particular jumped out at us:

“Both parties and both branches should work in close consultation. And this is why I propose to establish a special advisory council on the war on terror, made up of leaders in Congress from both political parties. We will share ideas for how to position America to meet every challenge that confronts us. And we will show our enemies abroad that we are united in the goal of victory.”

This appears to be a rather straightforward effort to make Iraq the Dems' problem, too -- and to paint any Dems who don't accept Bush's "offer" as not sufficiently desirous of victory. And given Bush's steadfast refusal to listen to Congressional leaders on Iraq thus far, such an offer rings awfully hollow.

Be that as it may, it's also worth noting that the President already made such a propopsal -- and Dem Congressional leaders have already rejected it. During his recent primetime address on Iraq, Bush said: "Acting on the good advice of Senator Joe Lieberman and other key members of Congress, we will form a new, bipartisan working group that will help us come together across party lines to win the war on terror."

But Dem leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid rejected Bush's overture, writing a letter to the President on Jan. 19 that said: "We believe that Congress already has bipartisan structures in place, like the committee system and other Congressional working groups such as the Senate’s National Security Working Group, that could produce the result you described in your speech."

It's not clear, to put it mildly, why tonight's overture will be received differently. More excerpts after the jump.

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Will Mitt Romney's troubles with religious conservatives ever end? First he had to answer questions about past political moderation. Then he had to explain voting for a Democratic Presidential candidate. And here's the latest: He now has to explain why he gave money to a candidate who was both a Democrat and a Mormon. Reporter Jonathan Martin has learned that Romney wrote a check in 1992 to then-Representative Richard Swett, a New Hampshire Dem and co-religionist. Many Evangelicals, of course, are suspicious of both Dems and Mormons. Nonetheless, Romney's spokesman isn't denying the charge, telling Martin, "A $250 contribution made almost 15 years ago is, obviously, greatly overshadowed by strong conservative governing and a proud, Republican record of balanced budgets and pro-family advocacy."

It's all but certain that Hillary Clinton's past effort as First Lady to reform healthcare — ridiculed by opponents as socialized medicine — will be used against her as she runs for President. But now it looks like she may have evolved a strategy to deal with the problem: She's not going to run from her health care record — she's going to confront the issue directly by running on her record. More after the jump.

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Hillary Clinton has just scored a big coup: Top Dem donor Hassan Nemazee, who was John Kerry's 2004 New York finance chair and the force behind the DSCC's fundraising success in 2006, has decided to back the New York Senator, Election Central has learned.

Nemazee told Election Central that he told Clinton of his decision this afternoon after some difficult deliberation over which of the candidates to support. "The hardest part of my decision is that I have long and deep relationships with the other candidates," Nemazee told me. "But I believe that she's the best qualified and best suited for this race, and will ultimately prevail both in the primary and the general election."

Asked if he saw Clinton as more electable than Obama and the other candidates, Nemazee said: "I wouldn't have chosen Hillary if I didn't think she was going to win the primary and the general election. She's the best prepared and the best qualified and she is in my judgment electable."

In the world of New York's top donors, Nemazee is one of the biggest gets. Kerry's New York finance operation raised approximately $75 million in 2004. With Nemazee as the national finance chair, Chuck Schumer's DSCC in 2006 raised $115 million, outpacing the NRSC by substantial sums and thus helping Dems take control of the Senate.

Now Nemazee is set to push hard on Clinton's behalf. "I'll be doing my best to raise as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time," Nemazee said, adding that he hadn't set a fundraising target.

Barack Obama has just passed over an African American candidate for mayor of Chicago in order to endorse Mayor Richard Daley — who recently broke his longstanding tradition of neutrality in national primaries to support Obama for President, The Chicago Tribune reports.

It's a bit surprising that Obama didn't endorse Daley's opponent, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown. Daley has been facing an ethics investigation, Brown's underdog candidacy would have been helped immensely by the support of Obama, and Chicago has never had a black woman as Mayor. But Daley, of course, can be immeasurably helpful to Obama's Presidential candidacy, mainly by dint of his family's extensive political and fundraising connections across the country.

So did Daley and Obama cut a deal in which they agreed to endorse each other? Though Brown hinted that she thought this was the case, Obama has vehemently denied it. "I had made a determination well before my exploration of my presidential candidacy that this was the right thing to do," Obama said.

Hillary Clinton's headed to New Hampshire. Today's Union Leader reports that Clinton has accepted an invite to speak at the state Democratic Party's largest annual fundraiser on March 10, known as the "100 Club" fundraising dinner.

The speaking gig has produced Presidents in the past. According to the paper, the 100 Club was first created in 1959 by New Hampshire backers of John F. Kennedy to boost his profile a year before he was elected President.

Clinton, incidentally, is set to go to Iowa this weekend. She's off and running.

The battle for the coveted position of über-hawk in the GOP primaries continues. Though John McCain has been calling for ever larger amounts of troops to be sent to Iraq, Romney has now tried to do him one better: He's called for a hardline, neocon-style approach to Iran.

The Associated Press reports that Romney gave a speech in Israel calling for economic sanctions on Iran that would be, in Romney's words, "at least as severe to the sanctions imposed on Apartheid South Africa." (It's worth noting that even leading Republicans like Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms opposed sanctions on South Africa at the time.)

That's not all. Romney also called for genocide charges against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over his calls for the destruction of Israel, and declared that Congressional authorization would not necessarily be needed to attack Iran: "The military option remains on the table."

Meanwhile, in other Romney news, he's set to pick up a key endorsement today. Roll Call reports that former Speaker Dennis Hastert will throw his support to Romney today.

As President Bush prepares to deliver his State of the Union speech tonight, an interesting political dynamic is at play: Democrats and Bush have swapped places politically, with Bush eager to emphasize domestic initiatives, while Dems are looking to spotlight national security issues like the war in Iraq. Advisers to Bush tell the New York Times that Bush's speech will highlight domestic issues such as health care and global warming. Meanwhile, Dem Senator and war critic James Webb is preparing a response to Bush that will seek to highlight Bush's escalation plan for Iraq. This about-face from past years -- when Bush sought to put Dems on the defensive by focusing on national issues, while Dems tried to focus on domestic questions -- shows yet again just how dramatically the unpopularity of the Iraq war has reshaped our political times.

Is Rudy definitely in? Looks that way. The latest sign: Giuliani is looking to sell a key part of his consulting business, according to today's New York Post. The paper says that officials at his business, Giuliani Partners, have been meeting with potential buyers of the "Wall Street wing" of his operation. The Post also quotes a "source" suggesting that Rudy's looking to sell off this chunk of his business because it gets involved in issues that are "politically sensitive." Neither the source nor the paper elaborates.

Meanwhile, today's Sarasota Herald Tribune of Florida reports that Rudy's heading to Sarasota to deliver a speech. Like hundreds of other speeches Rudy has given since leaving office as New York's mayor, the Sarasota one "will likely touch on his role in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks," the paper says.

Senator John McCain has signed up two top Iowa GOP activists -- one of whom ran President Bush's Iowa field operation in 2004 -- in preparation for the Iowa caucuses next January, Arizona's KVOA-TV reports. The first hire, Ed Failor, who worked for Bush's reelection, is also a top exec at Iowans for Tax Relief. "He's credited with helping Bush pull out a narrow win in the state -- the first time Iowa has voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984," KVOA says. Meanwhile, the other hire, Karen Slifka, is currently a strategist for the Republican National Committee and longtime Iowa organizer.

There are approximately 24 hours until President Bush is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address -- and a new poll has just found that his approval rating has dipped below 30%. The CBS survey, released this evening, finds that Bush's approval number has sunk to 28%. The poll also finds that an astonishing 66% oppose Bush's plan to escalate the war in Iraq. Full poll findings here.

Bobby Jindal -- who narrowly lost to Governor Kathleen Blanco in 2003 and has served in the House since 2005 -- officially declared today that he'll run for Governor again. In a blog post on his Web site, Jindal says that he'll "reach out" across the state over the next few months -- though don't mistake that for a promise that he'll be campaigning anytime soon: "BUT, and this is very important, I will not kick off my campaign until the summer."

For Jindal, staying off the trail carries a hidden benefit: It means there will be less direct political attacks on him, since he won't be out there campaigining. Instead, all the fire will be focused on one person: Embattled Governor Blanco.

Three new Senators have just unveiled a resolution today against President Bush's escalation plan: GOPers John Warner and Susan Collins, and Dem Senator Ben Nelson. The measure, which is intended as a softer alternative to the Biden-Hagel resolution introduced last week, stops short of advocating any sort of concrete Congressional action against Bush's escalation proposal; indeed, one of its most conspicuous features is its refusal to use the word "escalation" to describe Bush's troop increase. Rather, it uses the word "augmentation" -- the preferred language of the White House. On-air commentators are already starting to hail this resolution for its centrist and bipartisan nature and its reach for "compromise." So here's our question: Can anyone seriously argue that this measure represents anything close to the center of popular opinion in this country?

GOP leaders continue to break ranks from President Bush on Iraq. The latest is House Minority Leader John Boehner, who is getting ready to demand that President Bush report to Congress every 30 days on the progress that the Iraq government and the administration is making in the war, CNN reports.

CNN also says that Boehner will reach out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to suggest the "formation of a new bi-partisan panel devoted exclusively to Iraq oversight." Boehner's move comes just hours after GOP Senator John Warner made big news today by letting it be known that he'd be introducing a resolution opposing the war.

For now, however, gestures like those of Boehner and Warner may remain little more than symbolic. It's unclear as yet whether Boehner's demand for a regular briefing from the White House would be accompanied by any threatened action against the President. And it appears that Warner's resolution will be a non-binding one -- indeed, it appears to be little more than a condemnation of "escalation," delivered in less hard-hitting language than the non-binding resolution against Iraq proposed last week by Chuck Hagel and several Dem Senators.