The new Hillary Clinton ad in Iowa is both positive, featuring a man talking about how Hillary helped to save his son's life — and negative, with the man condemning any other candidate who might say you can't trust her:

Barack Obama is already hitting back at a report by Robert Novak that the Hillary Clinton campaign is spreading word that they have some sort of unspecified dirt against the Illinois Senator.

"She of all people, having complained so often about 'the politics of personal destruction,' should move quickly to either stand by or renounce these tactics," Obama said in a press release. "I am prepared to stand up to that kind of politics, whether it's deployed by candidates in our party, in the other party or by any third party.

Full Obama statement after the jump.

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History might be about to repeat itself for the McCain campaign. Robert Novak reports that McCain is going to consider pulling out of the Iowa caucus and focusing his attention on New Hampshire, as he did in 2000.

Novak says McCain would do so in order to lessen the embarrassment of fifth place showing behind Romney, Huckabee, Giuliani and Thompson. McCain also placed fifth in Iowa in 2000, when he did not contest the state, coming in behind Bush, Forbes, Keyes and Bauer.

A Michigan state appeals court has upheld a lower ruling that struck down the state's January 15 primary on technical grounds, potentially canceling the rogue primary. The office of Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said no decision has been made on whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

If the law remains invalidated, the state Republicans will select their delegates at the Jan. 25-26 state party convention, while Democrats are tentatively planning to hold a February 9 caucus.

Lou Dobbs has moved to counter the speculation — in many ways of his own making — that he is planning to run for president as an independent. "I don't know where this is coming from," he told the New York Times. "I have no interest in running, and I’ve said that throughout."

The rumors began after Dobbs recently wrote that there was "a strong likelihood that an independent populist candidate will emerge in the next several months, whether from an independent movement or from within the party structures."

A new EPIC-MRA poll shows that Hillary Clinton has increased her lead over Barack Obama in Michigan, which is expected to hold its rogue primary on January 15, pending current litigation.

Clinton leads Obama 49%-18%, up from 40%-21% in a poll released September 1. John Edwards is at 15%, meaning that both Obama and Edwards would need to do well in Iowa and New Hampshire if they want a good result here. On the Republican side, it's a statistical dead heat between Rudy Giuliani at 28% and Mitt Romney with 25%, followed by Fred Thompson at 13% and John McCain at 12%.

The national GOP has stripped Michigan of half its delegates, and the Dems have taken away all the delegates, but a popular win here could still be crucial in generating momentum.

Late Update: As has been pointed out, only Hillary and Chris Dodd will appear on the Democratic ballot — so this primary probably won't count for much on the Dem side.

Tom Tancredo has a new guest column in the Denver Post, defending his literally explosive ad after the paper had condemned it.

"If my advertisement is 'fear-mongering,' then Mothers Against Drunk Driving should apologize for suggesting that drunk driving kills innocent people. So do open borders," Tancredo writes. "The narrative text of my Iowa advertisement distinguishes between the 20 million illegal immigrants who come here 'to take our jobs' and those who come full of hate to conduct acts of terror. It is not fear-mongering to suggest that terrorists will join in taking advantage of our porous borders."

Again, here's that ad:

On a conference call this afternoon, Edwards campaign advisers tore into Hillary Clinton over her performance at last night's debate, claiming she laughed off a question about trade policies that have a direct impact on the lives of working people:

"If you were in Iowa and you watched that debate," said Edwards campaign manger David Bonior, a former House Dem Whip, "and you were in tune to how those trade deals have hurt us, and you heard the response by Senator Clinton, and you heard the response by Senator Edwards, that would make a huge difference in regard to both of those candidates."

"I was shocked," said Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers. "She might have wanted to laugh at Ross Perot, but she shouldn't have laughed at the fact that Ross Perot was right."

Here's a video of the moment where — according to the Edwards camp — Hillary laughed off the impact of NAFTA:

The Edwards camp's attack is part of a general argument that the Clintons are ultimately a bunch of corporatists selling out the American worker, and then dismiss any question about it. So do they have something here, or is this a stretch?

Okay, we've got some more detail for you on the controversy surrounding CNN and the girl who asked Hillary whether she prefers "diamonds or pearls" at the close of last night's debate.

Specifically, a CNN spokesperson confirmed to me that the network chose that question and asked her to ask it.

But in the network's defense the spokesperson also says that the girl wasn't "forced" to ask it. She submitted the question in advance -- it was her question -- and voluntarily agreed to ask it. CNN selected the question and asked her towards the close of the debate if she wanted to ask it. She said yes.

As you may have heard by now, the girl said on her MySpace page that she was forced to ask this question and that she would have preferred to ask one about Yucca Mountain. She said this in response to the storm of criticism and ridicule the question has since received.

And it looks like the girl is right: Though she did submit the question, CNN did select it and ask her to pose it.

Hillary's rivals are accusing CNN of going soft on the frontrunner, and they're pointing to this question, among other things, as proof of this.

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A new SurveyUSA poll in Iowa shows that Barack Obama is a stronger general election candidate in this swing state — one of only two to switch from Gore in 2000 to Bush in 2004 — than compared to Hillary Clinton's performance:

Clinton (D) 47%, Giuliani (R) 43%
Clinton (D) 49%, Romney (R) 43%
Clinton (D) 49%, Huckabee (R) 43%
McCain (R) 48%, Clinton (D) 44%
Obama (D) 52%, Giuliani (R) 39%
Obama (D) 53%, Romney (R) 39%
Obama (D) 56%, Huckabee (R) 35%
Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 42%

Barack Obama has just picked up a handy union endorsement in Iowa. The United Auto Workers Region 4, which includes Iowa, Illinois and seven other states, has endorsed his candidacy. The vote wasn't even close either — 65% out of about 420 delegates.

John Edwards and Hillary Clinton have been leading the race in union support, which can be very valuable in getting people out to the caucus. For Obama, getting some union support of his own certainly couldn't hurt.

Remember the "diamonds or pearls" question at last night's debate? The student who asked it is now saying that she was set up by CNN to ask it, and now, and complains that she's now being "swamped" by hateful e-mails as a result.

"Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN," UNLV student Maria Luisa wrote on her MySpace page. "I was asked to submit questions including 'lighthearted/fun' questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance."

Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are both enjoying leads throughout the South, according to a new Elon University poll. In the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Georgia, Clinton leads Obama by a 45%-17% margin, and Giuliani edges out the South's own son Fred Thompson by 25%-16%.

The poll confirms that both Obama and Thompson are struggling with what should be base constituencies: African-American voters and Southern conservatives, respectively.

John McCain's campaign is condemning the recent round of push-poll phone calls attacking Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, and is asking the state attorney general's office to investigate the calls for failing to disclose who paid for them. The McCain camp has good reason to want to condemn them — apparently they also ask "questions" that would benefit McCain

Campaign vice chairman Chuck Douglas acknowledged that the calls were "made to appear to be friendly to Senator McCain, but we had nothing to do with the poll at the state or national level." Assuming that they're being honest, this wouldn't be the only time they've had to deal with out-of-control donors/supporters, as they've also worked to stop an independent ad campaign in South Carolina.

Update: The calls have also been received in Iowa.

Okay, some really interesting stuff just went down in the Senate this morning with respect to Iraq war funding: GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell tried to pull off a tricky maneuver that would have slipped no-strings-attached war funding passed Senate Dem leaders -- but it flopped.

The Senate GOPers did, however, succeed in killing a Dem bill that would have provided funding for the war but also had a provision containing withdrawal from Iraq as a mere goal.

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Here's today's key story out of the Iowa local press: The Des Moines Register reports that Congressman Steve King (R-IA) is openly bashing the idea of the Republican Party nominating Rudy Giuliani, warning that a Rudy nomination would undermine the GOP.

King was critical of Giuliani's record on abortion, gun rights and illegal immigration, as well as his past support for gay rights. "All these things are essential to the Reagan coalition," King said, worrying that Rudy's candidacy could give rise to a third-party spoiler candidate.

Here's today's key story out of the New Hampshire local press: The Union Leader reports that New Hampshirites have been getting push-poll calls — that is, calls disguised as polls but are actually meant to communicate negative message about a particular candidate — targeted against Mitt Romney.

The calls, which among other things attack Romney's Latter-Day Saints religion, have reportedly been traced back to Utah-based firm Western Wats, which has done push-polling in past general elections against Democrats as well as primary campaigns against Republicans. The calls do not specify which candidate is being supported by them, as is required under New Hampshire law.

Here's today's key story out of the South Carolina local press: The Spartanburg Herald-Journal has a story about Janet Huckabee's three-day bus tour of the first Southern primary state, accompanied by former South Carolina first ladies Iris Campbell and Mary Wood Beasley.

Huckabee has been enjoying a surge in the Iowa polls lately, but would need some organization and constituency beyond that even if he were to win the first caucus. South Carolina, with its large number of evangelical conservatives, would seem like fertile ground for the ex-governor and Baptist minister.

• The transcript of last night's Democratic debate is available here.

• Hillary Clinton's performance last night was much stronger than last time, and is being widely hailed by organized punditry as a comeback. That said, her challengers are still coming on strong in the wake of the last debate, and they didn't let up, either.

• David Yepsen gave the win to Hillary. "After two bad weeks in the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign, she recovered her footing and pushed back sharply at her opponents in a debate Thursday night," Yepsen writes. And as for the challengers: "They blew it."

• Hillary Clinton said she was not playing the gender card or running because she is a woman — and then skillfully played the gender card to great applause. "And I have to tell you, as I travel around the country, you know, fathers drive hours to bring their daughters to my events And so many women in their 90s wait to shake my hand," she said, "And they say something like: I'm 95 years old, I was born before women could vote, and I want to live long enough to see a woman in the White House."

• John Edwards did not attack Hillary quite as brutally as he has in past debates, possibly a sign that they know it can go too far and alienate voters. But at one point he criticized Hillary for taking money from lobbyists, and the audience booed — a sign that it might already have gone too far.

• Barack Obama also gave a forceful attack against Hillary, accusing her of distorting the facts on Social Security. He was met by a mix of loud applause and loud booing, but in his case there were far more applause. "You know, this is the kind of thing that I would expect from Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, where we start playing with numbers," he said. "We start playing with numbers in order to try to make a point. And we can't do that. No, no, no. This is too important."

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This is pretty big. As some people have been speculating today, aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have confirmed to me that the version of the FISA bill that was just reported out of the Judiciary Committee does not -- repeat, does not -- contain retroactive immunity for the telecom companies.

And a source close to Reid says that this is "most likely" the version that the Majority Leader will file a motion to proceed on. The aide declined to comment when this might happen, however, saying that it could happen next month.

All in all, it looks like a big victory for opponents of telecom immunity.

Late Update: Here's a bit more detail on what happened on the Judiciary Committee today. Sources say Senator Russ Feingold offered an amendment that would have stripped telecom immunity from the bill, but it was defeated. Then Senator Arlen Specter, the ranking GOPer on the committee, offered a "compromise" amendment saying that in these lawsuits the Federal government, and not the telecoms, would be the defendants.

But because of a procedural difficulty Specter's amendment wasn't voted on -- and Senator Patrick Leahy, the chair of the committee, essentially went around Specter's amendment and moved to have a vote to report the bill out of committee without any telecom immunity in it. That passed along strictly party lines. And that's where we are.

Hillary Clinton has a new radio ad in South Carolina, aimed at a key constituency in the state — veterans. In the new ad, Hillary pledges more support for veterans' health care, and declares that the government has been eager to send troops to Iraq but not eager to take care of them when they return.

In addition to the battle between Hillary and Obama for African-American voters, veterans could also turn out to be an important demographic for both parties' primaries — and a female candidate might have to work extra hard for their support.

The ad is available after the jump.

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A senior GOP official in Iowa tells us that Mitt Romney has decided not to attend the Fox News GOP debate in the state that was set for December 4 -- effectively killing the debate, according to this official.

Chuck Laudner, the executive director of the Iowa GOP, says that he got word of Romney's decision two hours ago. He claims that other leading GOP contenders were waiting to see what Romney was going to do -- and now that Romney won't be attending, the others will pull out too.

"With no frontrunner, there's no debate," Laudner said, adding that many Iowa GOPers would be upset with Romney's decision -- a potential blow in a state where Romney is facing an aggressive insurgent challenge from Mike Huckabee. The Iowa GOP had been heavily promoting the debate, the first one to be broadcast by Fox News in the state.

"It's disappointing," Laudner said, adding that Huckabee, John McCain and Fred Thompson had said they'd be showing up and that Rudy was waiting to see what Romney did. "We're losing a statewide 2000-person event. It's a huge, huge event. We had county chairs raising money off of it. They're not gonna be too happy."

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The new Obama ad in New Hampshire goes beyond the usual political ad, in which the politician promises to do something for people. Instead, the candidate here does call for more educational opportunities, but also asks the people to take care of an important need themselves:

Ben Smith says one line in particular adds a "Clintonian" touch: "We need parents to turn off the television and instill in our children a sense of excellence."

A question from the new Fox News poll is pretty telling about what we might be seeing in a couple months:

If you woke up tomorrow morning and the United States were suddenly in an extremely serious crisis, which presidential candidate would make you the most comfortable sitting behind the desk in the oval office making decisions — Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani?

Giuliani 46%
Clinton 41%

One should consider this a sneak peek of the campaign that Giuliani will run if he wins the Republican nomination. Come to think of it, it's the campaign he's been running this whole time — and if this poll is any indication, it might be Rudy's best hope.

The Edwards campaign unveils a new Web site: Plants For Hillary. It features pics of actual Hillary-supporting shrubbery asking, you know, planted questions. Take a look.

In all seriousness, the officially-sanctioned campaign attack Web site, as opposed to the surreptitious one, is one of the many new genres we're seeing more of in Campaign 2008, along with the official campaign attack YouTube and other similar stuff. This campaign really has gotten those creative juices flowing, hasn't it?

Get ready for another filibuster showdown. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said at a press conference today that he is ready to keep the Senate in session through the weekend in a new effort to force votes on the new $50 billion stop-gap spending bill for Iraq, which ties funding to a drawdown of troops.

"We'll either do it the easy way or the hard way. It's up to the Republicans," Reid said at a press conference today, according to Roll Call. "We will have a Sunday vote scheduled ... If they want to give us consent to have a vote earlier, we'll do that. But if they don't, we're not only going to be here, we're going to be here working."

Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime fixture in the Clinton firmament, has announced over at Salon that he's joining the Hillary campaign as a "senior adviser."

Sid, who wrote for The New Yorker in the 1990s before joining the Clinton administration, has long been tight with Hillary, helping her get elected to the Senate in 2000. So, as Kevin Drum notes, this is not unexpected given their history, but it could make a bit of news, given Sid's often-aggressive posture towards the media.

Indeed, Sid was one of the chief elaborators and promoters of Hillary's "right-wing conspiracy" view of the political media. So this might result in more aggressive pushback against the media from Camp Hillary than we already seen -- though it's unclear whether he'll have the same pull within Hillaryland that he once had.

A spokesman for the Hillary campaign didn't immediately return a request for comment on exactly what role Sid would be playing.

So it looks as if national Dem strategists are planning a major political offensive against House Republicans on the subprime mortgage crisis -- an issue Dems think will help them capture more House seats in 2008. And the polls appear to suggest that there's plenty of voter angst out there to speak to.

In an interview with Roll Call, DCCC chief Chris Van Hollen made it clear that national Dems think the issue could play out as a winner for them and knock Republicans onto the defensive heading into next year's elections. “You are already hearing candidates talk about it,” Van Hollen said. Roll Call adds that House Dems will bring a big mortgage overhaul bill to the House floor today that has considerable support from rank-and-file House Repubs but is opposed by Republican leaders.

House Dem leaders think this will give them a big opening to paint the GOP leadership as in the pocket of mortgage industry groups and callously out of touch with the American people on the issue -- and feed their argument that the GOP is indifferent to the economic squeeze felt by the middle class.

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The new SurveyUSA poll of Ohio apparently shows Hillary Clinton to a more electable Democrat than Barack Obama in this key swing state:

Clinton (D) 49%, Giuliani (R) 44%
Clinton (D) 51%, Romney (R) 42%
Clinton (D) 54%, Huckabee (R) 37%
McCain (R) 47%, Clinton (D) 46%
Giuliani (R) 49%, Obama (D) 41%
Obama (D) 45%, Romney (R) 41%
Obama (D) 48%, Huckabee (R) 38%
McCain (R) 52%, Obama (D) 37%

Other polls in Ohio have shown that John Edwards does better against the Republicans than either Hillary or Obama, perhaps due to his populist appeal.

Here's today's key story out of the Iowa local press: The Des Moines Register has a feature on a major difficulty posed by this cycle's January 3 caucus — specifically that student participation, which was 3.9% of the Democratic caucus in 2004, will be seriously diminished because of the winter vacation.

Some organizers are pushing to keep college dorms open during the break, and are refocusing their efforts specifically on in-state students as opposed to out-of-staters who would otherwise be legally qualified to vote in Iowa.

In yet another sign of Mike Huckabee's surge in Iowa, a new poll released this morning shows that the Iowa GOP Primary has officially become a two person race between Huckabee and Mitt Romney -- and it's now unclear who's ahead.

The new American Research Group survey finds that Romney and Huckabee are effectively tied, with Romney at 26% and Huckabee at 24% among likely Republican caucus goers, well within the margin of error. Rudy and John McCain lag way behind at 11% and 10% respectively.

That's not all. The poll also finds that of among registered Republicans who say they'll definitely participate in the caucuses, Mike Huckabee has a slight edge over Romney, 24%-23%, though this is also a statistical tie. This suggests some solidifying bedrock support for Huckabee.

This poll echoes the findings of several other polls released this week.

The key here is that even a strong second-place finish against Romney in Iowa -- let alone an upset victory -- will be perceived as a big loss by Romney, since he has sunk huge amounts of money into the state and has made his lead in Iowa (and New Hampshire) a touchstone of his argument as to why he can win the nomination. So with the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, Huckabee's surge has very big implications for Romney indeed.

We'll bring you a post on the local reasons for Huckabee's Iowa surge in a bit.

Here's today's key story out of the New Hampshire local press: The Union Leader reports that Secretary of State Bill Gardner said he will not set the primary date this week. Instead, Gardner is waiting on news from Michigan about whether their rogue January 15 primary law, which a judge invalidated for technical reasons, will go forward or not.

Gardner is empowered by state law to unilaterally set the primary date, so as to protect the state's position as the first primary. He has been hinting/threatening at a December date, but most observers expect the primary to be held on January 8 if the Michigan law is upheld.

Here's today's key story out of the South Carolina local press: The State has a feature story today on the efforts by the second-tier Democrats to try to break through in South Carolina, mainly through the support of key state legislators and the hope that the top three Dems might run into problems in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The main challenge seems to be that the these candidates have to break through the dominant media focus on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and to a lesser extent on John Edwards. At the same time, the bar being set for success seems to be very negotiable. "If Joe Biden comes out of Iowa first, second, third, or fourth," said state Rep. Fletcher Smith, a Biden state co-chair, "then the national press will follow him and give him momentum to go on."

Here's a seat that House Democrats might have to worry about: Indiana state Rep. Jon Elrod (R), considered a rising star in local GOP circles, will announce his plans to challenge Rep. Julia Carson (D-IN) next year.

Carson, who has suffered from a series of health complications in recent years and is currently on medical leave, has been openly contemplating retirement. Despite her district's Democratic tilt — John Kerry took 58% of its vote in 2004 — Carson won by a lackluster 54%-46% margin in 2004 against an underfunded opponent, giving the GOP some hope for an upset here.

The Des Moines Register has scheduled two more debates, giving Iowans another chance to scrutinize their choices.

The Republican debate will be held December 12, and seven candidates have accepted the invitation. Only Rudy Giuliani — whose campaign seems to be down-playing the state — has yet to commit. The Democratic debate will be held the very next day, December 13, exactly three weeks before the caucuses, and the top six Democrats have been confirmed as attendees.

A group of House members have sent out a packet nominating Bill Richardson for a Nobel Peace Prize, in honor of Richardson's work in such countries as Sudan and North Korea. "I'm profoundly humbled by this nomination, but I was just trying to do my part," Richardson said

Some of the 12 members who co-signed the packet are Richardson endorsers, but others are not — one is even a Republican, Jim Ramstad of Minnesota. However, it's unclear whether any of them are among the roughly 3,000 officially designated nominators that the Nobel Committee selects each year, or whether this is one of the many unsolicited nominations that the Committee receives regularly.

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is expected to announce his resignation today, and has scheduled time on the House floor to give his farewell speech. However, an exact date for his departure has not yet been set.

Hastert did not seek a position on the GOP leadership team after they lost the majority in 2006, and had already announced that he would not seek another term in 2008. The only question left had been whether he would serve out his full term.

Former Sen. John Durkin (D-NH), the last Democrat to win a Senate election in New Hampshire, will reportedly endorse Chris Dodd.

Durkin was elected to one term in a special election in 1975, following a close, disputed result in the regular 1974 race, and was defeated in 1980 by Republican Warren Rudman. He endorsed Howard Dean in the 2004 race, then rescinded his endorsement after the "Dean Scream" speech and switched his support over to John Edwards just before the New Hampshire primary.

The country's Catholic bishops have approved a document entitled "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," essentially a guide on how Catholics can maintain their faith in the context of voting in the upcoming election. The guidelines do give Catholics an escape clause if they want to vote for a pro-choice candidate, saying that it must be despite that position and because of "other morally grave reasons."

Another cardinal, Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, is not being so flexible. Saying that the Democratic Party is "extremely insensitive" to the church's positions, he's openly criticizing the support that many Catholics give to Democratic candidates: "I think that, at times, it borders on scandal as far as I'm concerned."

Barack Obama has been hitting Hillary regularly for allegedly standing in the way of the release of records of the Clinton Presidency -- prompting many to ask whether he would release his own records from his time in the State Senate. Well, now Obama has offered an answer of sorts to those asking him to do this: He doesn't have any records.

"I don't have — I don't maintain — a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records," Obama said during a campaign stop in Iowa.

Of course, as the AP story notes, "Obama hasn't always claimed there were no papers left from his time in the state Senate." Check out the full story here.

A new Quinnipiac poll of Ohio shows Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani continuing to lead their respective primaries — although Rudy has only a weak plurality, and the general election match-ups would seem to say that John Edwards is the most electable Democrat for this key swing state.

Hillary leads the Dem side with a healthy 42%, followed way behind by Barack Obama at 17% and John Edwards with 14%. On the Republican side: Rudy 27%, McCain 14%, Thompson 13%, and Romney 11%.

The general election numbers are available after the jump.

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That was quick. Here's Obama spokesman Bill Burton, on Hillary's announcement earlier that she now opposes giving driver's licenses to illegals:

“When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it’s easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them.”

Um, ouch?

After weeks of taking a pounding from Dem rivals for not taking a clear enough position on whether she supported New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegals, Hillary has now come out against the plan in the wake of news that Spitzer withdrew it this afternoon. Here's her statement:

"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal. As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."

This is likely to spark a whole new round of skirmishing among the Dems. Last month, just after the debate where she gave an equivocal answer about whether she supported the plan, Hillary advisers told The Washington Post that she ultimately backed the plan.

Today's statement will almost certainly provoke another volley of criticism of her from rivals who will point to that previous position as proof of her vacillation on the issue. Stay tuned.

Late Update: Obama responds.

Late Late Update: The Huffington Post quotes an Obama aide saying that unlike Hillary, Obama sticks by Spitzer's original plan. This drew a sharp response from Hillary spokesman Phil Singer, who told HuffPo:

"It's unfortunate that the other campaigns are employing hot rhetoric, but there are basic differences between the candidates: Sen. Clinton would not give driver's licenses to undocumented people, Senator Obama would."

It's worth remembering, of course, that Hillary did support this same underlying policy idea before. Now, however, the Hillary camp is seeking to draw a sharp contrast with Obama over it.

Ron Paul's campaign is really raking in the cash for his effort to up-end the current policies of the Republican Party. The Paul campaign's stated goal for the quarter is $12 million, and they're not playing the expectations game, either - they're posting a running tally on their front page of just how much they've brought in.

So how are they doing so far? The quarter is less than halfway over, but they've already brought in over $8.1 million as of this writing, over two thirds of the way there. So while Paul hasn't performed well in the polls and has garnered no establishment support, the dollar count sure seems to demonstrate a genuine yearning for a conservative alternative to the current Republican consensus.

One other quick thing about the email the McCain camp sent out attacking CNN for covering his supporter's "how do we beat the bitch" moment: It fibs pretty audaciously about what actually happened at the event.

Here's how the email, from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, describes it:

A voter used a word that I would not have used to describe Senator Hillary Clinton and asked the Senator how he was going to beat her. Senator McCain first responded by saying that he respected Senator Clinton, as he has said repeatedly throughout the campaign. Then, focusing on the question, he pointed to the new Rasmussen national poll showing that he is the only Republican candidate who can beat her in a general election.

Actually, that's not how it happened at all, as the video shows. Rather, what happened was that first the supporter asked the "bitch" question. Then he laughed and said, "that's an excellent question." Then he went on to talk about the poll. Than, finally, as an afterthought, he added that he "respected" her. He did not "first respond" by professing his respect, as the email claims.

Special thanks to TPM Reader JH for sending this in.

Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig, one of the founders of the Creative Commons movement and a leading intellectual and legal proponent of free information and open government, has endorsed Barack Obama.

"After the debacle that is the last 7 years, the duty is upon the Democrats to be something different ... I would give my left arm to be able to celebrate their difference," Lessig writes. "This man, Mr. Obama, would be that difference. He has as much support as I can give."