Hillary will campaign for Obama this Sunday at Northern New Mexico College, her office confirms.

She's in the state to attend a couple of fundraisers with Bill Richardson to pay off her campaign debt.

Her campaigning for Obama comes at a time when tensions between the two camps, to the extent that there were any, have largely tailed off. Hillary and Obama agreed yesterday that her name will be entered into nomination at the Dem convention, after which she'll urge her backers to support Obama.

Separately, there's been a bit of confusion over who's speaking when on Tuesday night at the convention. While Virginia Governor Mark Warner unquestionably has the marquee slot as keynote speaker, the Dem convention team also confirms that Hillary will speak last, meaning she'll deliver the climax speech, which is also a good slot.

A spokesperson for Bill Richardson is adamantly denying what top Hillary confidantes told Mark Halperin and me this morning.

The spokesperson says that the New Mexico governor never...

(a) Promised not to endorse Obama; or

(b) Questioned Obama's chances in the general election.

"The Governor never promised that he wouldn’t endorse Obama," Richardson spokesperson Pahl Shipley emails me. “The Governor has never questioned Senator Obama’s electability. He believes Barack Obama is the right person to lead this country and he will be America’s next President."

So there you have it.

This morning, Mark Halperin quoted a Clinton "associate" saying that Bill Richardson privately had confided to the Clintons that he thought Obama couldn't win a general election.

Now I've got more. A top Hillary adviser confirms this, telling me:

"Bill Richardson repeatedly promised he would not endorse Obama -- and the reason he gave was that Obama wasn't ready -- he couldn't be elected."

After the news broke yesterday that Bill Clinton grew angry in a meeting with California super-delegates, and asserted that Richardson had promised five times not to endorse Obama, a Richardson spokesperson denied that Richardson ever promised Hillary any endorsement.

But that isn't what is being reported. Rather, what's being reported is that Richardson promised he wouldn't endorse Obama. Shipley didn't return my call asking for comment on that.

Now a top Hillary adviser has asserted to me that this happened, and claims that Richardson said the reason for this was that he didn't think Obama could win.

We'll be reporting this out more today.

After reports that Hillary Clinton told Richardson that Barack Obama can't win, one Clinton source now says just the opposite happened — that it was Richardson who said Obama can't win, and now he's lying about it after he endorsed Obama, anyway.

One unnamed Clinton associate told Mark Halperin: "Bill Richardson is clearly embarrassed that he broke his promise to them. He should come out and tell the truth and admit that he told both Clintons that Obama wasn’t ready and can’t win."

During his appearance this morning on Fox News Sunday, Bill Richardson attempted to dial back the negativity in the Democratic race, rejecting the accusation by retired Air Force Gen. Tony McPeak that Bill Clinton was engaging in McCarthyism against Barack Obama.

"I don't believe President Clinton was implying that," the former Clinton cabinet member Richardson said of the allegation that Bill Clinton was questioning Obama's patriotism.

On the other hand, Richardson strongly responded to James Carville's comparison of Richardson endorsing Obama to Judas Iscariot selling out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. "I'm not going to get in the gutter like that," Richardson said. "And you know, that's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."

A couple quick Richardson updates.

First, here's an explanation from Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer of Mark Penn's suggestion yesterday that Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama was "not significant":

Everyone in the Clinton campaign has the utmost respect for Gov. Richardson and many of us know him well. Mark was referring to the fact that Gov. Richardson didn’t endorse prior to his state’s primary and certainly didn’t mean to imply anything else. The Clinton campaign continues to seek the support of all Latino voters and leaders in the remaining primaries and caucuses.

Meanwhile, Richardson offered some new comments clarifying whether he thinks Hillary should drop out of the race, as he seemed to suggest yesterday. Check out what Richardson said about this in a new interview:

“I’m not going to advise any other candidate when to get in and out of the race,” Mr. Richardson said after appearing in Portland with Mr. Obama. “Senator Clinton has a right to stay in the race, but eventually we don’t want to go into the Democratic convention bloodied. This was another reason for my getting in and endorsing, the need to perhaps send a message that we need unity.”

Richardson's stance seems to be that Hillary has a right to stay in for now, but just not too much longer, and certainly not all the way until the convention, lest it imperil the Democratic Party's chances in the fall.

Here's Bill Richardson's full endorsement speech from today...

Ben Smith notes this line from the speech:

It is time, however, for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we will face against John McCain in the Fall.

That's basically an implicit call for Hillary to concede, and it will be interesting to see if more Obama supporters start saying it now that the Florida and Michigan revotes are effectively dead.

Yesterday Bill Richardson gave an interview that has gotten a bunch of attention already, because in it he said that Dems should coalesce behind the candidate with the "clear lead" after tomorrow's voting.

"Whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be, in my judgment, the nominee," Richardson said.

But Richardson also offered up some other comments in that interview that have passed unnoticed: Specifically, he criticized Hillary's "red phone" ad, which Hillary pollster Mark Penn credits with shifting the race her way...

He was outspoken in his criticism of Clinton's new "ringing phone" ad, which suggests that Obama is not ready to become commander in chief.

"I happen to disagree with that ad that says that Senator Obama is not ready," he said. "He is ready. He has great judgment, an internationalist background."

That Richardson would directly fault Hillary's core closing argument, and endorse Obama's central claim to having sound judgment, seems telling -- another sign that Richardson may be laying the groundwork to endorse Obama, should tomorrow's results give him an opening to do so.

Pressure is starting to mount on Hillary Clinton — that if she doesn't win overwhelming victories on Tuesday, she should think about dropping out of the race. So said both Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), a Barack Obama supporter, and the neutral Bill Richardson.

"I hope ultimately she makes an honest appraisal of her chances," Durbin said. "I hope after Tuesday her decision is made on the basis of the unity of the party."

Meanwhile, Bill Richardson said on Face The Nation today that it's important for the party to unify behind a nominee soon, rather than continue to have a negative campaign that will further divide the party for the general election against John McCain.

"I just think the D-Day is Tuesday," said Richardson, who has declined to make an endorsement since his exit from the race. "We have to have a positive campaign after Tuesday. Whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday — a clear lead — should be in my judgment the nominee."

Bill Richardson's own presidential campaign might have failed to catch on, but he's become a key coveted endorsement for the remaining candidates. The Washington Post reports that in the last couple days alone he's been called by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, his former boss Bill Clinton, Hillary supporter Ed Rendell, and Obama supporter — and his old political mentor — Ted Kennedy.

Richardson is undecided on whether to endorse, but if he does he will do so by the end of the week. "If I do endorse, it's going to be a gut feeling. It's not going to be about statistics, about past ties," Richardson said. "I've been on the campaign trail with both of them. I feel that I know them."

Bill Richardson has formally dropped out of the presidential race, at a news conference in Santa Fe.

The Associated Press is reporting that Bill Richardson is dropping out of the race for president, and will make his announcement tomorrow. In yesterday's New Hampshire primary, Richardson only won 5% of the vote.

It remains to be seen what impact, if any, this will have on the Latino vote in next Saturday's Nevada caucuses, and also whether Richardson will endorse any of the three remaining major candidates.

The final Rasmussen tracking poll for the New Hampshire primary is out, and like all others it shows Barack Obama on the cusp of defeating Hillary Clinton. Here are the numbers, compared to yesterday's:

Obama 37% (-1)
Clinton 30% (+2)
Edwards 19% (+1)
Richardson 8% (+0)

The new Fox News poll in New Hampshire puts Barack Obama ahead of Hillary Clinton, but by a smaller margin than most other polls out there. Here are the numbers, compared to their last New Hampshire poll from mid-December:

Obama 32% (+7)
Clinton 28% (-6)
Edwards 18% (+3)
Richardson 6% (+0)

The new Marist poll, conducted over the weekend, shows Barack Obama taking a good-sized lead in New Hampshire, after previously trailing by an even greater margin in December:

Obama 36% (+12)
Clinton 28% (-9)
Edwards 22% (+4)
Richardson 7% (-1)

Marist actually has Hillary ahead 36%-30% among core Democrats, but Obama mops the floors with her among independents: Obama 43%, Edwards 22%, Clinton 16%.

This morning's Zogby tracking poll in New Hampshire — the first one with a pure post-Iowa sample — shows Barack Obama jumping into a huge lead. Here are the numbers, compared to yesterday's three-day tracker:

Obama 39% (+9)
Clinton 29% (-2)
Edwards 19% (-1)
Richardson 6% (-1)

Key piece of info from John Zogby:

As in the closing days in Iowa, Clinton is slowly losing her support among women (she leads 37% to 33%), Democrats (Obama leads 36% to 32%), and Liberals (Obama leads 34% to 32%). Obama leads among Independents (47% to 22%), men (45% to 21% for Edwards and 18% for Clinton), and 18-29 year olds (47% to 22%). Obama also leads Clinton among all voters under age 65, Moderates (by a 45% to 25% margin), and among voters in union households (40% to 22%).

Earlier today there were reports that the Obama and Richardson camps had reached a deal where Richardson would throw his second-choice supporters to the Illinois Senator.

The Obama camp denied this today. But a little while ago, Obama adviser Samantha Power went on Fox and appeared to admit that such a deal had been reached, saying: "The fact that we got Richardson to basically say that his people should turn towards Obama ... "

But Richardson denied today that any such deal had been cut.

The Times political blog is quoting anonymous sources claiming that there's now a "deal" between Obama and Richardson in which the New Mexico governor will direct his supporters to caucus for Obama.

But the Richardson camp is adamantly denying the report:

Robert Becker, Iowa director of the Bill Richardson for President campaign, took particular offense with reports circulated this morning that his campaign was encouraging non-viable supporters to switch to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

"Here we are the day of caucus and there are all these rumors about deals being made," he said. "I'm just sick of it. We have not directed our supporters to caucus for anyone other than Bill Richardson."

The Obama camp is denying it, too.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that what could actually be going on here is that the Obama people are merely planning an all-out push to win over Richardson voters, which is a natural part of the caucus process.

A new Bill Richardson mailer in New Hampshire -- forwarded our way by a Dem operative -- attacks Hillary, Obama and Edwards by name on Iraq, claiming that he's the only candidate who will pull all our troops out of Iraq. "Clinton, Edwards, Obama: Tens of thousands left behind," the mailer warns.

Click on each image to enlarge:

With his new ad in Iowa, Bill Richardson attempts to break through the Hillary-Obama-Edwards press narrative by getting specific on just what he would do about Iraq:

Meanwhile, Joe Biden's new ad pitches him as the candidate with the experience to take on the challenges that the next president will face:

(Via Ben Smith)

Bill Richardson, who previously decried attacks against Hillary Clinton, is now going after her for saying she would withdraw nearly all American troops from Iraq within her first year as president. It's a big change from his previously friendly rhetoric, and might go a way in dispelling the idea that he's just angling for the VP slot.

"Senator Clinton's comments are a stunning flip-flop," Richardson told the New York Times. "She's been saying she would keep troops in Iraq for five years, until 2013, and now she comes up with an inconsistent, incredible turnaround."

Late Update: The Hillary campaign already has their rebuttal posted. Richardson is actually misquoting her by saying she called for all troops to be brought home. This is what she really said:

“I think we can bring home one to two combat brigades a month,” Hillary said. “I think we can bring nearly everybody home, you know, certainly within a year if we keep at it and do it very steadily.” This would still allow for a small residual force.

Check this out, from the Associated Press:

SANTA FE, N.M.—Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson has a Christmas wish for some of the state government employees in his administration: pack your bags and head to Iowa.

The two-term governor is asking governmental appointees and other state employees to volunteer to help his campaign by traveling to Iowa before the Jan. 3 leadoff presidential contest...

Last month, the governor and his presidential campaign manager, Dave Contarino, met with a group of state workers and other supporters at a Santa Fe hotel to appeal for campaign volunteers and update them on how Richardson is faring.

State employees were invited to the lunch hour meeting by the campaign with messages sent to private e-mail accounts and, in some cases, private cell phones.

Seems a bit odd to us. The story specifies that the state employees working for Richardson are taking unpaid leave. But still, a governor is asking state employees -- his employees -- to help his political campaign. Not easy to say no to your boss, obviously. This permissible under New Mexico law? What about the ethics here? Readers?

A new American Research Group poll of Nevada finds Hillary Clinton with a wide lead over the Democratic competition here. Meanwhile, the Republican race could be turning into a dogfight between Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee — so if Huckabee were to win Iowa, he might get a decent momentum bump here, too:

Democrats:
Clinton 45%
Obama 18%
Edwards 14%

Republicans:
Romney 29%
Huckabee 23%
Giuliani 17%
McCain 7%
Thompson 5%

Meanwhile, Bill Richardson is at a mere 2% support. Obviously, his hopes of winning Latino votes aren't panning out.