By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

CONCORD, NH -- Taking Tim Russert's lead, Barack Obama has begun using Bill Clinton's words against his wife.

Taking a folded piece of paper out of his pocket at a Saturday-morning rally at a public park here, Obama read the words of another presidential candidate: "'The same old experience isn't relevant. You can have the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience.'"

"That candidate was Bill Clinton," he said.

But Obama didn't seem terribly nostalgic for the eight years that followed candidate Clinton's successful redefinition of "experience."

"You need someone who will tell the truth -- not be slick, not triangulate, not maneuver," Obama said later in the speech.

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick today called his predecessor, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, "shameless'' for criticizing a federally funded children's health care program while touting his own Massachusetts health care plan.

Like many Republicans, Romney opposes expanding the national SCHIP program to provide insurance to children in lower-income families. Congress has voted to expand the program, which is funded in part by the states, but President Bush is expected to veto it. Democrats and some moderate Republicans say the SCHIP program provides critical coverage to children in low-and moderate-income families, but conservative Republicans call the idea the first step toward socialized medicine.

But Patrick said SCHIP is a crucial element to expanding and maintaining coverage in Massachusetts, where Patrick estimated health care costs are likely to take up half the state budget within the next ten years.

"Without SCHIP, then health reform, which he;s been bragging about, fails. It's the same to me - the same behavior -- as signing the bill and vetoing the funding for it, which is what he did before he left office,'' Patrick said in an interview with Globe reporters and editors. He was referring to a tax provision of the Massachusetts health care plan Romney excised with a line-item veto.

"He's a nice fellow. But a shameless candidate,'' Patrick said of Romney.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said Patrick's "name-calling'' was "useless.''

"This is a disagreement over policy. Deval Patrick, like many liberal Democrats, unfortunately favors an expansion of government spending and government control over healthcare. That's bad policy,'' Madden said.

The SCHIP program, which is up for renewal this year, is meant to help needy families obtain health insurance for their children. The program is targeted at families earning twice the poverty level or less -- a little over $40,000 for a family of four -- but the law also allows states to apply to the federal government to cover more families. That provision is intended to help states where the cost of living is higher.

Massachusetts allows families earning three times the poverty level to obtain SCHIP coverage, providing help to 90,500 children in the state, according to statistics culled by the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and an architect of the original program.

Some 112,000 children in Massachusetts currently have no insurance, Kennedy's office said. The bill approved by Congress and headed for a presidential veto would allow the Bay State to add 27,400 more children to the program over the next four years.

Opponents of expanding the program don't like the fact that it relies on an increase in the cigarette tax to pay for it; some Republicans believe Democrats will suffer at the polls for voting for a tax increase.

The House does not have enough votes to override a Bush veto, but Democrats have vowed to bring the bill up again and again -- putting some moderate Republicans in an awkward position as they head into their 2008 re-election campaigns.

"We will be back tomorrow, and the next day, and for however long it takes to see this bipartisan bill become law. The President has broken his promise to America’s children,'' Kennedy said.

It was only a matter of time before this happened: Bill Clinton has joined his wife and begun spinning the Barack Obama-lacks-experience narrative. The former president, in an interview with Bloomberg Television set to air this weekend, says that he was far more experienced as a 46-year-old in 1992 when he first won the White House. Obama is 46 now.

"There is a difference," Clinton says, according to Bloomberg. "I was the senior governor in America. I had been head of any number of national organizations that were related to the major issue of the day, which is how to restore America's economic strength.''

In the Bloomberg interview, Clinton compares Obama's level of experience today to his own in 1988, when he chose not to run for president. "I came within a day of announcing, because most of the governors were for me and I had been a governor for six years,'' he says. "And I really didn't think I knew enough and had served enough and done enough to run."

Bill Clinton has so far largely avoided being critical of his wife's opponents, saying that the candidates are good enough that voters didn't have to be "against" any of them. Does this signal a shift?

Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded by telling Bloomberg News that Obama has more than 20 years of "the experience America needs.'' "He can change the divisive politics of Washington because he's the one candidate who's spent his career bringing people of differing views together,'' Burton is quoted as saying.

By Sasha Issenberg

Is John Edwards running against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama or the '04 version of himself?

"We don't need the world's next great politician as president," Edwards told a crowd packed into the community house in Littleton, New Hampshire, today when asked by a voter there to identify a trait that distinguished him from his rivals. " We need someone we can trust."

Of course, when Edwards ran for president four years ago, the campaign press corps all but welcomed him into the race with a "World's Next Great Politician" mug. When reporters weren't lauding his raw skills -- his ability to deliver a speech, his energy and charisma, which were all likened to Bill Clinton's -- they were often suggesting that Edwards's talents masked an underlying shallowness.

This year, the mug was transferred to Obama, and Edwards -- who aides say will use his decision to accept federal matching finds as a way to redefine himself as a scrappy underdog -- seems pleased to pass it off. For obvious reasons, Edwards is trying to define himself as far
as possible from anything Clintonian, including the superlatives that were once tossed his way. Now the last great "next great politician" is claiming that those skills are necessarily intertwined with venality.

"We're not looking for the most cunning, manipulative and artful politician," he said in Littleton. "Every day in the White House, the personal political interest of the president will come in conflict with the interests of America. You've got to have a president who will choose America over their personal interest."

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama talks with Howard University Chairwoman Emerita Dr. Floretta Dukes McKensie after delivering a convocation address and receiving an honorary law degree. (AP photo)

Barack Obama today welcomed first-year students to Howard University, the historically black college in Washington, urging them to continue the civil rights work their forebears have started.

Obama connected civil rights struggles of the present -- including the "Jena 6" case involving six black teenagers in Jena, La. -- with civil rights struggles of the past, like the integration of Little Rock Central High School a half-century ago. He used the biblical story of Moses and Joshua to make his point -- Moses led his people toward the Promised Land, but Joshua had to finish the job.

"Be strong and have courage in the face of injustice," Obama said, according to prepared remarks. "Be strong and have courage in the face of prejudice and hatred. Be strong and have courage in the face of joblessness and helplessness and hopelessness. Be strong and have courage, in the face of our doubts and fears, in the face of skepticism, in the face of cynicism, in the face of a mighty river."

Obama, who received an honorary Howard degree, used his speech to lay out civil rights policies he would pursue as president, including directing his Department of Justice to prosecute civil rights violations, employment discrimination, and hate crimes, as well as violations of voting rights; recruiting more public defenders through loan forgiveness; bringing the penalties for crack and cocaine into more appropriate alignment; and directing some non-violent drug offenders into rehab programs instead of jail. Read Obama's full plan here.

Last night, Obama spoke at a huge rally in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Who said New York was Hillary Clinton country? Watch the Obama campaign's video of his appearance here.

Two other pieces worth reading today: this story in The Washington Post about Obama hiring Moses Mercado, a former Dick Gephardt adviser and lobbyist, as a senior adviser; and this story in today's New York Times about a Kenyan parliamentary candidate trying to capitalize on his self-described ties to Obama.

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- It's not unusual to hear a presidential candidate speak passionately about the need to do better diplomacy, to make military action a last-ditch option, and talk with hostile or undemocratic nations.

It's a little less common to hear those words spoken by a Republican contender, as former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee did today.

In a well-received address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Huckabee bemoaned the lack of dialogue and knowledge of foreign nations that he said has accelerated the foreign policy troubles the United States faces.

``We haven't had diplomatic relations with Iran for almost 30 years ... and a lot of good it's done,'' Huckabee said. In Iraq, the former governor noted, US officials were out of touch with what was happening on the ground, and were instead relying on flawed information from Iraqi exiles before making the historic decision to go to war. Instead, the United States needs to shore up its diplomatic efforts and intelligence-gathering, he said.

``Before we put boots on the ground in the future, we better have wing-tips there first,'' Huckabee said.

The GOP candidate did stick to the view of nearly all of his fellow Republican primary opponents in saying the United States should not yet leave Iraq, saying a departure now would cause ``chaos'' in the country.

But future military conflicts could be avoided, Huckabee said, if the United States encourages moderate Islamic forces and helps build health and educations systems in the Islamic and Arab world so impoverished young people will not be lured into terrorist organizations.

``If we don't do the right thing and make life better in the Islamic world, then terrorists will step in and do the wrong thing,'' Huckabee said.

Huckabee had harsh words for Pakistan, which he called ``the corporate headquarters'' of al-Qaeda. In an interview after his address, Huckabee said he would not close off the possibility of taking unilateral action against terrorist cells in Pakistan if it was necessary to protect the American people from al-Qaeda. Further, Huckabee said his administration would meet with rogue leaders to keep a dialogue going.

That issue has been a point of contentions between Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, with Obama pledging to be open to the possibility of such meetings, and Clinton saying she did not want to be used as a ``propaganda'' tool by troublesome foreign leaders.

It's ``bullheaded to say we're not going to have any conversations with these people,'' Huckabee said.

John Edwards reversed course today on accepting public money for his presidential campaign, becoming the first of the major Democratic candidates to make the move.

With the third quarter of fund-raising ending on Sunday, he insisted in an interview with CNN that he did not make the decision because he is short of cash.

Instead, he is trying to frame the move as his latest attempt to reduce the influence of special interests, following on his stand to not take donations from Washington lobbyists. He challenged his Democratic rivals -- front-runner Hillary Clinton in particular -- to join him in the public financing system.

"You can't buy your way to the Democratic nomination," Edwards campaign manager David Bonior said in a statement the campaign issued this afternoon. "This is the most expensive presidential campaign in history, by far. And the simple fact is that the influence of money in politics -- and the focus on raising money in this election – has gotten out of control. It's time to get back to focusing on the issues that matter to the American people. That's why John Edwards has decided to play by the rules that were designed to ensure fairness in the election process by capping his campaign spending and seeking public financing."

Still, in February, Edwards declared that he would not seek public money, saying that he expected that the other major contenders to raise unlimited private money and he had to do the same to be competitive.

As of June 30, Edwards had raised $23 million, but that was far behind Clinton's $63 million and Barack Obama's $59 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Under the public financing system, federal money will match up to $250 of an individual’s contributions. To become eligible, a candidate must raise more than $5,000 of matchable contributions in each of at least 20 states. In return, a candidate must also agree to: limit campaign spending for all primary elections; limit campaign spending in each state; and limit spending from personal funds to $50,000.

And the winner is....

"Ready for Action," created by Ryan Whitaker, a 23-year-old college student from Provo, Utah, was picked today by Mitt Romney's camp to be the first amateur-produced TV ad to be aired by a presidential campaign.

The 60-second spot shows Romney speaking with a montage of accompanying images and emphasizes the campaign's themes of strength, innovation, and experience. "I can't wait to get my hands on Washington," Romney says near the ad's close.

It will air once a day in five media markets in Iowa and New Hampshire in the week starting next Wednesday, the Romney campaign announced this afternoon. Romney will introduce it at a rally tomorrow.

There were 129 submissions, the nine finalists were unveiled Tuesday, and online voting ended at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The campaign said Whitaker's ad was the clear favorite, getting 47 percent of the vote.

Except for one obviously homemade submission in which an entrant praised Romney's stewardship of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the finalists shared much in common -- in large measure because as part of the contest, entrants used 372 photos, 44 video clips, and 36 audio files provided by the campaign.

"Ryan's ad is the first, but it certainly won't be the last," Alex Castellanos, senior adviser and media strategist to Romney, said in a statement issued by the campaign. "This revolutionary use of user-generated content empowers our grassroots supporters and their efforts immeasurably strengthen our campaign."

Per the AP, Mitt Romney told a crowd in Long Beach, Calif. yesterday that his personal contributions to his own campaign -- $9 million so far -- mean he will be less beholden to special interests.

"I don't like the fact that money has such an impact on politics, but this to me is a reason I'm investing at least as much as everybody else — probably a little more," Romney said.

This explanation might have worked a bit better if Dutko Worldwide, a Washington-based lobbying firm, were not holding a fundraiser for him today, the AP story notes. On its website, the firm describes itself as consistently ranked among Fortune magazine's top 10 lobbying firms.

Ron Kaufman, the Massachusetts Republican National Committeeman and one of Romney's top advisers, is chairman of the firm's executive committee.

John Edwards, the first presidential hopeful to take part in a dialogue hosted by MTV and MySpace, used the opportunity today to unveil a 10-point agenda designed to appeal to young voters.

The agenda includes restoring American moral leadership on the world stage by ending the war in Iraq, addressing global warming, tackling the genocide in Darfur, and fighting poverty. The plan also calls for giving students more college aid, providing universal healthcare, raising the minimum wage, and fighting credit card debt and abuse.

"You hear all the time from political pundits that young people don't care about politics – but it’s a lie," Edwards said in a statement issued by his campaign. "Young people all over the country care about America and are engaged in bringing change to their communities."

Edwards was at the University of New Hampshire to answer questions submitted to Edwards's MySpace page and by websurfers on MTV and MySpace.

Besides all the questions about Iraq and Iran and Social Security, the Democrats also faced some more offbeat queries as presidential debates go.

During the 30-second lightning round at Dartmouth College, moderator Tim Russert of NBC News asked the candidates about their favorite Bible verse.

And Alison King of NECN, warning them that it might be their most important answer of the night, asked whether they would support the Red Sox or Yankees.

For those of you who didn't stay awake to the bitter end Wednesday night, here's a quick rundown:

• Joe Biden: Christ's warning about the Pharisees from the gospel according to John; Yankees.
  
• Hillary Clinton: The golden rule from the gospel according to Luke; Yankees.
  
• Chris Dodd: The parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke; Sox.
  
• John Edwards: Christ's admonition to help the least among us from the gospel according to Matthew; Sox.
  
• Mike Gravel: Love as the most important value, apparently from Paul's letter to the Corinthians; Sox.
  
• Dennis Kucinich: St. Francis's prayer to make us instruments of peace; Cleveland Indians.
  
• Barack Obama: Sermon on the Mount from the gospel according to Matthew; White Sox.
  
• Bill Richardson: Sermon on the Mount from Matthew; Sox.
  

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

When a Republican National Committee "research briefing" came out earlier this week titled "Razzle Dazzle: Chicago Star Obama Continues His All Show, No Substance Campaign With Event On Broadway," some cried racism. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo cited the RNC's claim that Obama was "intellectually lazy" as an "allusion to generations of stereotypes
about black men."

When a charge of intellectual laziness is lodged against a black man who is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law and former member of the University of Chicago faculty, it may not only be racially allusive but evidence of an odd lack of confidence in the institutions of American meritocracy. But buried beneath is a suggestion of a new line of Republican attack against Obama: that he is from Chicago.

Obama has been generally masterful at introducing himself to the country as a man from Illinois, with a halo of Midwestern common sense. Chicago, where Obama relocated after law school and represented a state senate district on the city's South Side, carries different connotations in the American mind -- big-city corruption, big-city crime, big-city identity politics -- that, too, carry racial associations of their own. Ronald Reagan was fond of citing a fictitious "Chicago welfare queen" when he wanted to paint a picture of lazy, urban entitlement. In the vernacular of Democratic primary politics, Illinois is Paul Simon and Chicago is Jesse Jackson.

One of Obama's greatest coups in the campaign came in eschewing the habit of announcing a candidacy from one's hometown and instead doing it in the city where he built his political career -- Springfield, the downstate capital of Illinois, a landscape that suggested the placeless prairie moderation Obama has tried to make his defining characteristic in the campaign.

The RNC, in embracing a code word that would tag Obama as just another big-city black pol, may have signaled that it would prefer to remind general-election voters of the head-fake non-announcement of candidacy Obama pulled off two months before the Springfield speech.

Last December, to kick off an installment of "Monday Night Football," Obama put on a Bears hat and, looking straight into the camera, laughed. By next November, Obama may wish he had stocked up on Fighting Illini merchandise instead.

John McCain, whose campaign appears to be resurging, announced this morning that he will put up his first TV ads in New Hampshire starting this weekend.

A 30-second TV spot, titled "Live Free," praises McCain's judgment and trust and promises that he will restore trust in the federal government. "New Hampshire, you know who he is," the narrator says, reminding viewers that McCain won the first-in-the-nation primary in 2000.

A 60-second TV ad, titled "One Man," shows an extended clip of McCain being interviewed in a hospital bed as a prisoner-of-war after his Navy plane was shot down over North Vietnam. The narrator says "one man" sacrificed for his nation, a not-so-veiled reference to the fact that none of his main rivals served in the military.

And a 60-second radio spot, titled "Courage," also includes the POW interview and says McCain will be a leader, not a follower.

The ads follow up on a speech this morning to the conservative Hudson Institute in New York, where he suggested that rivals Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, lack the foreign policy experience to be commander-in-chief.

The Arizona senator argued that the next president needs "tested experience, political courage and strategic clarity to make sound and difficult decisions," according to the Associated Press. "Tough talk or managerial successes in the private sector aren't adequate assurance that their authors have the experience or qualities necessary for such a singular responsibility," he said.

In a conference call with reporters, campaign manager Rick Davis said while McCain does not try to elevate military service over other ways to serve the country, McCain's military service is "an obvious contrast" and the knowledge and experience he gained would be invaluable to a president in "the time of crisis and time of war we exist in now."

"I do think people's credentials are going to be debated in this election, and this is a very important one in this time of war," Davis said.

McCain, whose campaign went through staff and financial wobbles earlier this year, is trying to capitalize on a burst of momentum, tied in large measure to his support for the so-called surge of US troops in Iraq. This month, he took his "No Surrender" bus tour to Iowa and New Hampshire.

In the latest New Hampshire poll, McCain rose to 17 percent support among likely GOP primary voters, up from 12 percent in July. That puts him within striking distance of the leaders, Romney with 23 percent and Giuliani with 22 percent, according to the CNN/WMUR survey released Wednesday.

"We think this is significant because of the campaign John McCain has waged there recently," Davis said of the poll.

Campaign officials said that the ads will air statewide for at least the next two weeks and are designed to remind voters of heroic McCain's life story and to lock in the progress McCain seems to be making.

McCain also plans to be in New Hampshire this weekend for several events.

The pundocracy is dissecting the Democratic debate Wednesday night and something of a consensus is emerging.

John Edwards, by pointedly and directly drawing differences with front-runner Hillary Clinton, boosted his prospects to be the liberal alternative to the former first lady.

Barack Obama, by passing up another chance to go after Clinton, did not help himself. At times, he even appeared listless.
Clinton, by parrying her rivals' critiques and avoiding saying anything incendiary, emerged unscathed for the most part. At times, though, she acted too much like she already has the nomination sewn up and refused to answer questions on Social Security and Iran, among other issues.

And while some had their moments, none of the other five contenders broke out of the pack.

The bottom line: While it's still three months until the first caucuses and primaries, Clinton is well ahead and the nomination is hers to lose.

Interestingly, a couple of different groups at Dartmouth College, which hosted the debate, came to different conclusions about the debate.

A focus group of 16 students, organized by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Social Sciences, thought that Obama turned in a very weak performance.

But in an online poll by open-vote.com, Obama finished second. Of the 600 respondents, 31 percent said they thought Clinton won, 25 percent said Obama, and 19 percent said Edwards.

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

Candidates are about to release their fundraising numbers for July, August and September. Every quarter, campaigns play an expectations game where they downplay what they'll bring in and inflate what they expect from their rivals.

Nothing new about that. Still, we couldn't get over the enormous clipart illustration that appeared today at the top of a Clinton campaign news website, HillaryHub.com, along with a headline that screamed "Fundraising Projections: Obama Leads Again."

The picture is down now, although the link to a Newday article remains. Did someone think that maybe it was a little too much?

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop today in Peterborough, N.H. (AP Photo)

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. -- Barack Obama woke up today with a bad head cold and a bad headline: A new University of New Hampshire poll shows Hillary Clinton way ahead of him (43 percent to 20 percent) among Granite State Democrats.

But at least he got lucky with the weather. About 1,000 people (according to the campaign's count) came out for a pre-debate rally this morning under unrelenting sunshine in bucolic Peterborough, in the southwest part of the state.

Notable -- other than the unseasonably warm temperature -- was Obama's sharper critique of the ways of Washington, and, obliquely, of Clinton herself. Will we see more of this when the Democrats meet tonight at Dartmouth College?

Obama began with his standard stump speech, but he added some new attacks on the Beltway that left little doubt about whom he was referring to.

"George Bush and Dick Cheney may have perfected the art of special-interest driven partisan politics, but they didn't invent it," Obama said. "It was there before they came into office, and if we're not careful it will be there after they leave. That's what's at stake in this election."

Translation: The Clintons, too, are purveyors of partisan politics, and a Clinton White House would be more of the same.

Obama continued: "Now there are those in this race who tout their experience working the system as is. And what I have to remind them of is that the system has not been working for us. There are those who say we just need somebody who can play the game better in Washington. And what I'm saying is that we need to put an end to the game-playing."

Translation: Don't believe the hype from Clinton supporters that I have too few years in Washington; that's an asset.

Obama then went on to note that "we [read: Clinton] have been talking about our health care crisis for decades now, through Democratic and Republican administrations. And yet year after year after year after year, nothing seems to change."

UPDATE: The Obama campaign takes issue with the characterization of today's attacks on Washington as "new." They contend Obama has said much the same thing for three weeks.

A new WMUR/CNN poll released this afternoon shows that among likely primary voters, frontrunner Mitt Romney has dropped 10 percentage points, from 33 percent to 23 percent, since July. The survey shows his rivals gaining ground, with Rudy Giuliani creeping up to 22 percent, from 18 percent in July, and John McCain rising to 17 percent from 12 percent. Fred Thompson, meanwhile, who officially joined the race earlier this month, barely moved: The poll shows him at 12 percent, compared with 13 percent in July. The sampling error was plus or minus 5.4 percentage points. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they were still trying to decide whom to vote for. Only 13 percent said they had definitely decided. "There is absolutely no clear frontrunner in this race," Andrew Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center, which conducted the poll, told WMUR. Giuliani has the best favorability rating, with 71 percent viewing him favorably and 22 percent viewing him unfavorably. They also rate Giuliani as the most likeable candidate and the one with the best chance of defeating the Democratic nominee. But Romney's attempts to portray himself as the candidate who represents change in Washington -- the main emphasis of his recent TV ads and a key speech in Michigan last weekend -- appears to sinking in. Twenty-five percent said Romney was the candidate who could "bring needed change," compared with 18 percent for Giuliani and 13 percent for McCain. McCain got the highest ratings for having the "right experience" to be president, followed by Romney and then Giuliani.

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

Hillary Clinton is coming to Boston for another fundraiser aimed at the common man, woman or college student.

Traditional fundraisers cost hundreds or thousands of dollars a head, but campaigns are also trying to pump up their number of donors -- and the level of enthusiasm for their candidate -- with so-called "low dollar" events. Barack Obama has been particular good at that, even counting t-shirt sales as donations. Clinton did a low-cost event this summer at the Tabernacle on Martha's Vineyard.

This time, the Clinton campaign is expecting to pack up to 2,800 people into Symphony Hall on Oct. 10, for $20 a ticket, to see Clinton as well as actress Mary Steenburgen and Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe. Cohosts include local student groups that are backing Clinton as well as local politicians and some of the big name donors like Barbara Lee and Elaine Schuster.

"The drive to raise money is off the charts," said Jon Patsavos, Clinton's New England finance director. "But there's also a demand from college students, young professionals and people on a fixed income to open the doors."

Even this long before the first nominating contests, candidates' schedules tend to blur together -- another town hall meeting, one more house party, the latest fund-raiser.

So it's understandable that John Edwards, for one, is trying to spice things up a bit.

On his latest swing through New Hampshire, the Democratic hopeful will on Thursday become the first candidate to take part in a dialogue hosted by MTV and MySpace. Questions will come from visitors to Edwards's MySpace page and websurfers on MTV and MySpace, and Edwards will be at the University of New Hampshire to answer them.

Later Thursday and on Friday, Edwards plans a series of "economic fairness" town hall meetings that are combined with bluegrass concerts featuring The Bluegrass Brothers, Ralph Stanley II, and former Congressman Ben "Cooter" Jones.

And his eldest daughter Cate will bring a celebrity with her while campaigning in Iowa this weekend. James Denton, who plays one of the put-upon men in "Desperate Housewives," will join her at events on college campuses and elsewhere, including tailgating Saturday before the Iowa Hawkeyes football game. Cate Edwards, a Harvard Law student, is a board member of Generation Engage, a new nonpartisan youth voter initiative.

Dartmouth College students will provide some immediate feedback about how the Democratic presidential contenders perform in tonight's much-anticipated debate on campus.

More than 450 students have registered to vote in online polls on an independent website, open-vote.com, created by two graduate students.

"Students deserve to have their voice heard, but traditional polling relies on home phones and leaves college students out entirely," one of the founders, Colin Van Ostern, said in a statement. "It is amazing that with all the new technology and increased internet access in recent years, up until now there still has been no good way to see what a college campus thinks."

Students will be able to say who they believe won the debate, and also which candidate they plan to support in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.

With Hillary Clinton extending her lead in the latest New Hampshire poll, the buzz in the blogosphere today is that Barack Obama and John Edwards might more aggressively go after her in the two-hour face-off, which will be aired live on MSNBC, NECN, and New Hampshire Public Radio starting at 9 p.m.

Presidential campaigns try to capitalize on the news. But sometimes the news just won't cooperate.

Just ask John Edwards. He planned to march the picket line with striking United Auto Workers members in Buffalo, on the way to the Democratic debate at Dartmouth College tonight.

The appearance with Local 774 outside the General Motors powertrain plant would have been a sure-fire photo opportunity and TV moment (and maybe footage for a campaign ad) for someone who has been fighting for unions for years and who is counting on labor support to boost his candidacy. The strike would have been a perfect talking point during the debate, especially to press his case that the Clinton administration -- including frontrunner Hillary Clinton -- hurt workers with free trade agreements.

But then GM and the UAW announced they had reached a tentative settlement covering 73,000 workers.

After cancelling the picket-line appearance, Edwards tried to make the best of the situation.

"I honor the strength and solidarity shown by 73,000 UAW members who walked the line to get a deal that protects their jobs and honors the standards they have created over decades," he said in a statement issued by his campaign. "This process illustrates that collective bargaining works, and I am happy that both sides are satisfied with today's outcome.

"This settlement highlights the significance of two issues that every worker in America is concerned about -- health care and job security. I am encouraged that UAW members have won promises of job security in an era where our government's trade policies are undercutting and exporting jobs that pay living wages. I believe that unionized American autoworkers, if given the chance, can compete with workers from anywhere to produce the most modern and energy efficient vehicles in the world."

On the eve of the Democrats debating Wednesday at Dartmouth College, a new poll out today shows Hillary Clinton apparently widening her lead in New Hampshire, home of the first primary.

Clinton, the national frontrunner, has the support of 43 percent of Granite State Democrats, according to the CNN/WMUR poll, compared to 20 percent for Barack Obama. In a similar poll in July, Clinton led Obama by a narrower margin, 36 percent to 27 percent.

In the poll, 54 percent of those surveyed also said that Clinton has the best chance among the Democratic contenders to beat the Republican nominee, up from 37 percent in July.

Also encouraging for Clinton, 36 percent said she was likeliest to bring needed change, compared to 24 percent who said Obama, who has made change a key theme of his campaign.

John Edwards has moved up to third place, with 12 percent, up from 9 percent in July. Bill Richardson has dropped to fourth at 6 percent, down from 11 percent.

But only 17 percent of respondents said they have definitely decided on a candidate.

The poll, conducted Sept. 17-24 by the University of New Hampshire, surveyed 307 New Hampshire residents who said they plan to vote in the Democratic primary. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.

Rest assured, this entry won't win. And not just because it goes way over the time limit.

The creative folks at Slate.com came up with a spoof for Mitt Romney's contest for supporters to put together a TV ad for his presidential campaign. The spot, titled "Five Brothers," borrows from "Band of Brothers," the highly acclaimed series about World War II, to skewer Romney over a comment he made on the campaign trail.

Asked last month by an antiwar activist in Iowa why Romney's five sons -- who are in their mid-20s to mid-30s -- had not enlisted in the military, Romney replied, "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."

The Slate ad, first spotted by Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic, shows the sons playing golf, riding a campaign bus across Iowa, and ruminating about fireflies.

On the other hand, the nine authorized finalists, unveiled today, are full of soaring music, Americana scenes, and flattering photos of Romney.

Many of the same speech snippets and scenes appear since, as part of the contest, entrants used 372 photos, 44 video clips, and 36 audio files provided by the campaign. And some entries crib liberally from ads that have already aired.

Voting continues through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. To prevent electronic ballot stuffing, voters must provide an email address.

"The winner will become the first amateur ever to have his or her work used as an official television advertisement for a presidential campaign," Romney's camp said. "This contest demonstrates Romney for President’s commitment to using cutting-edge technology to engage voters online and harness the extraordinary enthusiasm of its grassroots supporters."

Just in time for tomorrow night's Democratic presidential debate at Dartmouth College, Bill Richardson is going up with a new TV ad in New Hampshire that takes aim at the party's leading candidates for proposing leaving some residual forces in Iraq. The ad features three liberal bloggers advocating Richardson's position that the United States should pull all troops out of Iraq. "Bill Richardson is the only one who would actually end the war," says one blogger, Christina Siun O'Connell of firedoglake.com.

Left unsaid: It's debatable whether it would even be feasible to get troops out of Iraq as fast as Richardson wants to, and whether it's realistic to leave no American troops in the country at all. See Richardson's Iraq plan here.

Barack Obama, meanwhile, is trying to capitalize on his early opposition to the war, which he made clear in a speech on Oct. 2, 2002 in Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago. On Oct. 2 of this year, Obama's campaign is hosting events around the country designed to remind voters that, unlike John Edwards or Hillary Clinton, he opposed the war from the start.

In the talk-tough-on-Iran contest within the Republican primary, Mitt Romney keeps upping the rhetoric.

Romney repeatedly and vociferously condemned Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, before and now during his visit to New York this week. In a radio ad running in Iowa and South Carolina, he bragged that while Massachusetts governor, he refused to provide a State Police escort to former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami when he spoke at Harvard last year.

Today, in an opinion piece published in National Review Online, he says that failing to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions would dishonor the Greatest Generation and Sept. 11 victims.

"The world is looking to our leaders to meet the challenge of a rogue nation, bent on obtaining nuclear weapons," Romney writes. "Failure to do so would diminish the legacy of those who fought and died in World War II and of all victims of genocide and terror."

He calls for diplomatic isolation, stricter economic sanctions, and help from Arab countries to thwart any Iranian nuclear program. And he says Iran should be warned that if any nuclear weapons material it produces is used by terrorists, the world will exact a heavy price on Iran.

Ahmadinejad, during his visit, has repeated Iran's position that it is only pursuing civilian nuclear power.

"The response from the world would be directed not only at the terrorists, but also at the nation that supplied the fissile material," Romney writes. "And the response would be devastating."

The presidential candidates continued today to brag about endorsements, even though some of the backers are people without high national profiles and even though their significance is questionable.

Mitt Romney boasted of an endorsement from Congresswoman Kay Granger of Texas, and Rudy Giuliani of backing from former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan.

Hillary Clinton announced the support of a bigger name, former Congressman William H. Gray III of Philadelphia, who is also a former head of the United Negro College Fund.

But the big endorsement -- especially for John Edwards -- isn't coming today.

The Service Employees International Union, which claims 1.8 million members and says it is the fastest-growing union, is postponing a decision until next month. The SEIU endorsement is cherished because the union can help its favored candidate with millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers.

Edwards and the two other Democratic finalists for the nod -- Clinton and Barack Obama -- are scheduled to speak today to members of the SEIU and other unions that are part of the Change To Win coalition.

With a major United Auto Workers strike as a backdrop, Democratic presidential candidates continued to pick up union endorsements today.

Barack Obama won the backing of one of the country's biggest jail unions, the New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, which boasts 9,000 members. "Barack Obama is the one candidate who will put an end to the divisiveness in this country so that we can finally achieve greater economic prosperity for the working class and health care coverage for all Americans," president Norman Seabrook told the Associated Press.

But rival Hillary Clinton won the endorsement of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, which claims to represent 100,000 workers. "Hillary Clinton has the strength and experience to deliver the change America needs," union president John J. Flynn told the AP. "After years of an administration that has turned its back on working families, we need a president whose priorities are our priorities."

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

In a recent column for Townhall.com, James Bopp, Jr. -- an adviser to Mitt Romney and free-speech activist -- unveiled a new line of attack against Fred Thompson: reminding voters of his support for campaign-finance reform by attaching the fomer Tennessee senator's name to a signature piece of legislation, referring to it as "McCain-Feingold-Thompson."

The bill, which was initially introduced in 1995 and signed into law in 2002, has been unpopular among conservative interest groups galled by its restrictions on election-time advertising. Thompson's role as a key early supporter -- one of a handful of Senate Republicans who joined McCain and an overwhelming majority of Democrats in the chamber -- is an issue where Romney could have an opening to turn the tables on Thompson and accuse him of insufficient right-wing orthodoxy.

In 2000, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran informed McCain he would vote for the bill -- overshadowing Thompson as the most prominent conservative Southerner on the team. In early 2001, Thompson jokingly complained to McCain about the new references to "McCain-Feingold-Cochran," according to "Citizen McCain," Elizabeth Drew's book-length account of the legislative campaign told from the Arizonan's perspective.

"I think I was the third person to sign onto this bill," Thomson told McCain. "Now that it's achieved such popularity, John, I'd like my name mentioned more often."

"It will be referred to as 'the Thompson bill' from now on," McCain replied.

Now that Thompson has achieved more popularity than McCain among Republican primary voters, it seems likely Romney will be referring to it as "the Thompson bill," as well.

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

Today, Hillary Clinton is netting her second endorsement from a former 2008 rival, this time Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana. Bayh has won election to both the Senate and the governor's office -- two terms each -- in a heavily red state, so his endorsement helps the Clinton campaign make the case that she is electable despite the distaste for her among many moderate and conservative-leaning voters.

Bayh, who put aside his own presidential ambitions last December, is also seen as a potential vice presidential nominee.

The first former 2008 contender to get behind Clinton, and another vice presidential possibility, is former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who endorsed her in March. Vilsack has been campaigning energetically for Clinton, although last week he caused her a big headache when he lashed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the New York 1 cable channel.

“I can’t even get into the number of marriages and the fact that his children -- the relationship he has with his children -- and what kind of circumstance New York was in before September the 11th," Vilsack said.

Clinton distanced herself from the comments and told George Stephanopoulos on ABC yesterday, "We are not running a campaign that goes down that road."

General Wesley Clark, who ran for president in 2004, endorsed Clinton last weekend.

Clinton's campaign also announced today that she has been endorsed by the 100,000-strong International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers.

Mitt Romney continues to make political hay out of the visit to New York by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, now airing a radio ad highlighting Romney's long record of opposing visits by Iranian leaders to the United States.

"On the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Harvard University invited former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Boston," says the announcer in the ad, which begins running in Iowa and South Carolina today, and then in Florida later this week.

"The same Mohammad Khatami who has supported the terrorist group Hezbollah, advocates destruction of Israel and stood by while Jews and Christians were persecuted. The Iranian wanted VIP treatment at taxpayer expense.

"But Governor Mitt Romney said, 'No.' Governor Romney called the invitation a 'disgrace' and refused to grant Khatami a police escort.

"Now another Iranian President is visiting America, coming to New York, and Governor Mitt Romney is leading the opposition."

Romney's press shop also announced today that Romney sent a letter to protesters at today's National Rally to End the Threat across the street from the United Nations, where Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly tomorrow.

"At Israel's Herzliya Conference in January, I called for the world's leaders to speak three truths: Iran's dangerous actions must be stopped, they can be stopped and they will be stopped," he wrote in the letter.

"If the principles of the UN's founders and the harsh lessons from past genocide have any meaning, our leaders must act now to confront the Iranian regime's terrorist, genocidal and nuclear ambitions. Failure to act now would diminish the legacy of those who fought and died in World War II and of all victims of genocide and terror."

A story by Sasha Issenberg in today's Globe shows how the presidential candidates in both parties are using Ahmadinejad's visit as a "test case for their differing approaches to dealing with hostile nations."

Barack Obama continues to turn up the pressure in Iowa, announcing the endorsement today of Gordon R. Fischer, a lawyer in Des Moines and a well-connected former chairman of the state Democratic Party. Fischer's endorsement comes on the heels of Obama's two new TV ads in Iowa.

Fischer told reporters in a conference call this morning that after weighing the campaigns of all the major Democratic candidates, he believed Obama was the most electable, the candidate best-equipped to change the country, and the one with the most inspired policies.

"I am absolutely convinced that Senator Obama is the true change agent who can get elected and has the right policies at this time to move our country forward," Fischer said.

Fischer, a long-time activist in the Democratic Party, reiterated what Obama's campaign -- which has 31 offices across the state and a formidable base of grass-roots support there -- has long believed: that Iowa will be won on the ground. "I think ultimately, my value is, frankly, knowing a lot of people and being able to hopefully bring some of those people along."

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, added, "We marry that grass-roots enthusiasm with leaders who have their own relationships ... We think that's a pretty potent combination."

Obama, meanwhile, will beginning running his 60-second ad "Believe" in New Hampshire tomorrow, the first time he will be on air in the Granite State. Watch the ad here.

Mitt Romney is challenging fellow Republicans in an open letter to get their own house in order so they can change Washington and retake the White House.

Following up on a new TV spot this week with a similar theme, the letter will run as a full-page ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader on Sunday and on Monday in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper. The letter will also be sent to Republican National Committee members and supporters, Romney's campaign said this afternoon.

In the letter, Romney writes that "at this extraordinary moment in our nation's history, our government is failing us. Washington is busy pointing fingers, assigning blame, and spending too much money. There is too much talk and too little action.

"The blame, we must admit, does not belong to just one party," he continues. "If we're going to change Washington, Republicans have to put our own house in order."

He then goes on to mention spending, immigration, and ethics. The ad and letter represent the fine line Romney is trying to walk between talking tough about his party's mistakes, yet embracing core GOP tenets in his presidential bid.

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Was Rudy being a little, well, rude, or was he just overwhelmed with loyalty to his wife?

Midway through an important speech to the National Rifle Association -- one of the country's most powerful lobbies, and one whose members aren't too pleased with the former New York mayor's record on gun control -- Giuliani's cell phone rang.

The former mayor, in the midst of explaining his position on a gun law case, glanced at the phone. It was his third wife, Judith, he said -- then answered it.

"I'm giving a speech to the NRA. Would you like to say hello?'' he asked.

Apparently not. Giuliani merely chuckled, then said, "I love you and I'll give you a call as soon as I'm home. Have a safe trip. Talk to you later, dear. I love you.''

Giuliani's personal life -- he went through a messy public divorce of his second wife, Donna Hanover, and soon afterward married Judith Nathan -- has not sat well with Christian conservatives, who are looking for a candidate they see as solidly pro-marriage and commitment-minded.

The NRA crowd, however, was more interested in gun-talk than relationship chat. They sat quietly as Giuliani finished his call, and chuckled politely as the former mayor commented on the blessings and curses of modern technology.

Technology, one assumes, that would allow Giuliani to put his mobile phone on "vibrate'' when he's asking for votes.

Mitt Romney, who has taken some hits on his record on gun control and gun owner rights, did not show up in person today for a National Rifle Association forum attended by other Republican presidential contenders.

But via a video, Romney did pledge to protect the rights of gun owners and to appoint judges who would oppose "back door" attempts to ban guns through lawsuits against gun manufacturers. He also said he would ask Congress to repeal a campaign finance law that he says unfairly limits the rights of the NRA and other groups to participate in politics.

"Let me speak very directly and candidly about where I stand: I support the Second Amendment as one of the most basic and fundamental rights of every American," he said in the video. "It's essential to our functioning as a free society, as are all the liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights."

"I've been proud to have the support of pro-Second Amendment and sportsmen's groups in my previous runs for public office. I'd be proud to have your support again as I campaign for President."

During the presidential campaign, Romney has portrayed himself as a longtime gun-lover, a sportsman, and strong defender of the Second Amendment. But he has acknowledged that he didn't join the NRA until August 2006, that he didn't personally own guns, and that he had only hunted one summer as a teenager, then just once in recent years.

And he has in the past supported some gun control measures opposed by the NRA. During his 1994 US Senate run, for instance, he said he backed a five-day waiting period for gun purchases and a ban on certain assault weapons.

To support his record of supporting gun owner rights, the Romney campaign points to several bills he signed into law in Massachusetts that streamlined regulations for hunters, sport shooters, and makers of target pistols.

The campaign also says that assault weapons law included provisions sought by hunters and gun owners, including lengthening firearm licenses from four to six years and reinstating a 90-day grace period for renewing licenses.

John Edwards wants to take successful education reforms in his native North Carolina across the country as president.

At a middle school in Des Moines, Iowa, this morning, the Democratic presidential contender unveiled an education plan that includes creating a national version of the "Smart Start" early childhood education program in North Carolina. It also calls for a "School Success Fund," also used in North Carolina, to put teams of experienced teachers into struggling schools.

"Education is an issue that’s very personal for me," Edwards said in a statement issued by his campaign. "I grew up in a small, rural town and my parents didn’t have a lot of money. But I was lucky to have public school teachers who taught me to believe that somebody from a little town in North Carolina could do just about anything if he worked hard and played by the rules."

Other key provisions of the plan:

• A partnership to provide quality schooling to every 4-year-old.
  
• Higher pay of up to $15,000 a year for teachers who go into high-poverty schools.
  
• A National Teacher University to recruit and train 1,000 top college students a year.
  
• An overhaul of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
  
• A "Great Schools" initiative to build or expand 1,000 successful schools.
  

For the political junkie who just can't get close enough, Mitt Romney has an offer for you.

He announced a contest this morning for three supporters to spend time with him on the presidential trail. To apply, they have to write 100 words or less on why they want to tag along. And giving $100 or more wouldn't hurt either. The deadline to apply is midnight Sept. 30.

If this sounds familiar, Hillary Clinton already had two supporters tag along with her in Iowa, then posted video of the day.

Still, the contest is the latest attempt by the Romney campaign to get backers to participate directly in the campaign. It is also holding a contest to create a TV ad.

Barack Obama may be trying to make up for his decision not to participate in last night's AARP-sponsored debate in Davenport, Iowa, but he still awoke today to a headline he didn't want in The Des Moines Register.

David Yepsen, the dean of political journalism in Iowa, writes in his column today that Obama hurt himself by not taking part. "There wasn't a big winner of Thursday night's debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, but there was a clear loser - Barack Obama," Yepsen writes. Close followers of Iowa politics know that a candidate never wants his or her name and the word "loser" anywhere near each other in a Yepsen column.

Obama, meanwhile, is bringing on one of his closest friends, Chicago businesswoman Valerie Jarrett, to help advise him in the closing months of the primary race. Jarrett has known the family for years, and she served as Obama's finance chairwoman in his 2004 Senate campaign. Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, told the Associated Press that the addition of Jarrett was part of "all hands on deck time" as the primaries approach.

John McCain is the latest presidential candidate to use Iran's president as a punching bag, calling on Columbia University in New York to rescind its invitation for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak.

"A man who is directing the maiming and killing of Americans troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university," McCain said in a statement issued by his campaign today. "Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a terrorist-sponsoring regime, Columbia should be welcoming the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) back on campus to honor the men and women who put their lives on the line every day defending our freedom."

Columbia's president, Lee C. Bollinger, defended the invitation for Ahmadinejad to speak on Monday, saying it will be part of the annual World Leaders Forum, "intended to further Columbia's longstanding tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate, especially on global issues."

In a statement posted on Columbia's website Wednesday, Bollinger also says that the university insisted that Iran's leader divide his time equally between speaking and answering questions from the audience. Bollinger also said that in his introduction, he will cite some of the controversies surrounding Ahmadinejad, including that he has denied the Holocaust occurred and has called for the destruction of Israel.

"We must respect and defend the rights of our schools, our deans and our faculty to create programming for academic purposes," Bollinger's statement says. "Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most or even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason."

McCain's Republican rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney on Wednesday condemned the possibility of Ahmadinejad visiting Ground Zero while in New York to speak to the United Nations. The New York police later said they had rejected a request for Iran's leader to lay a wreath there and would oppose him visiting nearby for security reasons.

Is it or isn't it?

Mitt Romney insists that Hillary Clinton's universal healthcare plan is way different than the one he signed into law in Massachusetts last year.

He made his case again today on the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal, arguing that unlike the Bay State reform, the Clinton plan would require additional tax dollars and would expand government-run insurance.

But independent analysts dispute that the Massachusetts plan didn't require more tax money and say that Clinton's proposals share many other key aspects, most significantly in that requires individuals to obtain health insurance. The Romney campaign says that a state mandate is different than a national mandate because healthcare markets vary across the country.

Democrats are also bashing Romney for distancing himself from the Massachusetts plan, calling it the latest flip-flop of his presidential campaign. "The harder he tries to convince the voters to ignore his past positions and real record on everything from health care to gun control, the more obvious it becomes that Romney will say and do anything to secure the Republican nomination," Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera said in a statement.

On the campaign trail, Romney is emphasizing market-based programs and encouraging states to develop their own reform plans.

"I like the plan I put forward in Massachusetts," he writes in his Journal piece. "But even so, I wouldn't do what Sen. Clinton does -- impose my way on every other state. Other states may borrow from what we did. Some will surely improve on it. But let's keep faith in federalism, in private markets and in individual responsibility."

Rudy Giuliani raised campaign cash in London on Wednesday, and he's not the only presidential candidate looking abroad.

The first half of this year, overseas contributions totaled at least $471,500 -- nearly more than was brought in during the entire 2000 race and on pace to exceed the $900,000 raised in 2004, a campaign finance watchdog group reported today.

That trend will continue as more politically minded US expatriates work in foreign financial centers and as campaigns take advantage of online fundraising, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

Its report said that 60 percent of the money from expats this year went to Democrats, and that Barack Obama has reaped the most, with nearly $195,000. Giuliani is second with about $120,000, Democrat Hillary Clinton third with $51,450, and Republican Mitt Romney fourth with $43,700.

Among cities, London is the biggest source of campaign cash, with $270,700, more than twice as much as the next biggest source, Geneva. Other cities with lots of donors include Paris, Toronto, and Paris.

"These people tend to be wealthier than the average American because a lot of them are business people," Raymond La Raja, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, says in the report. "This is another constituency [the candidates] can tap into."

Another day, another new Iowa TV ad from Barack Obama. Today's installment, called "Mother," is a personal reflection on how his mom, Stanley Ann Dunham, struggled with cancer but was more worried about how she'd pay her health care bills. Dunham died in 1995.

With Hillary Clinton getting lots of attention this week for her second try at universal health care, Obama is trying to draw Iowa voters' attention to his own health care plan. “For 20 years Washington’s talked about health care reform and reformed nothing,” he says in the new ad, set to begin running tomorrow. “I’ve got a plan to cut costs and cover everyone. But unless we stop the bickering and the lobbyists, we’ll be in the same place 20 years from now.”

Yesterday, Obama unveiled another new TV ad to run in Iowa, in which he sells himself as the candidate who will bring true change to Washington.

As part of his big push in Iowa, Obama will also hold a town hall meeting for seniors tomorrow in Ames. And The The Quad City Times newspaper in eastern Iowa tomorrow will publish an op-ed Obama wrote about strengthening Social Security and opposing any effort to privatize it, according to Obama's campaign.

John Edwards this morning pledged to provide affordable healthcare and protect Social Security as part of what he calls a "Declaration of Independence for Older Americans."

He rolled out the proposal in advance of a forum of Democratic presidential candidates tonight in Davenport, Iowa, sponsored by the AARP and Iowa public television. He and other Democrats have signed a pledge with the AARP to safeguard seniors' healthcare and financial security.

"Americans are living longer than ever before -- but our social policies haven’t changed to reflect this shift," Edwards said in a statement. "Our housing policies too often force seniors to choose between isolation or institutionalization and our health care system is set up to treat the worst problems instead of promoting health and quality of life. We must fix the broken system in Washington that has not done more to address these issues."

Edwards also proposes to make prescription drugs more affordable through his universal healthcare plan, to protect pension plans, and to reform Medicare and Medicaid to let people elect home-based care in their communities.

The party conventions have become pro-forma, made-for-TV anointments of the presidential nominees.

But some political pundits are suggesting that this time could be different, at least on the Republican side, and that the GOP gathering in Minneapolis-St. Paul next September might actually pick the nominee.

John B. Judis makes the case for a brokered convention in the current issue of The New Republic. He points to the fact that the four leading Republican contenders are rather tightly bunched in the polls, argues that the accelerated primary schedule makes it easier for candidates to stay in the race, and after crunching the poll numbers in the early voting states says it's unlikely that one or two candidates will break out.

Rudy Giuliani is leading in the national polls, but is followed closely by Fred Thompson. John McCain appears to be resurging. And Mitt Romney, while fourth in most national surveys, is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is well ahead in the polls and could wrap up the nomination well before the Democratic convention next August in Denver.

So Judis says that if Republicans can't settle on their nominee until the convention, that could help Democrats, who would have a head start in coalescing around their standard-bearer.

"It's the Republicans, not the Democrats, who are looking at a political nightmare in 2008," he writes.

It's fair to say that Mitt Romney won't be sitting down for tea anytime soon with Iran's president.

The Republican presidential contender called earlier this week for the United Nations to revoke an invitation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak to the General Assembly next week. The Iranian president should be indicted instead, Romney said.

This afternoon, Romney's campaign was quick to fire off a missive responding to reports that Ahmadinejad might visit Ground Zero while in New York.

"Ahmadinejad's shockingly audacious request should be met with a vehement no," Romney said in a statement. "It's inconceivable that any consideration would be given to the idea of entertaining the leader of a state sponsor of terror at Ground Zero. This would deeply offend the sensibilities of Americans from all corners of our nation."

The Democratic National Committee, however, said Romney's tough talk on Iran is disingenuous, pointing to his investments in oil and other companies that do business with Iran.

Republican rival Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, added his voice to the outrage to a possible Ground Zero tour by the Iranian president.

"Under no circumstances should the NYPD or any other American authority assist President Ahmadinejad in visiting Ground Zero," Giuliani said in a statement issued by his campaign. "This is a man who has made threats against America and Israel, is harboring Bin Laden's son and other al-Qaeda leaders, is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. Assisting Ahmadinejad in touring Ground Zero -- hallowed ground for all Americans -- is outrageous."

All the protests, it turned out, were premature.

In an email late this afternoon, the New York Police Department said that the request from the Iranian UN mission for the Ground Zero visit had been rejected because of ongoing construction.

But the department added, "Requests for the Iranian president to visit the immediate area would also be opposed by the NYPD on security grounds."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared to backtrack today from criticism of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama for not being more vocal about the controversial case of six black teenagers charged in the beating of a classmate in Jena, La.

The State newspaper reported today that during a speech Tuesday at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., the civil rights leader said Obama was "acting like he's white" in his tepid response to the Jena case, which has inflamed racial tensions and which has drawn criticism that prosecutors are treating the teens too harshly. Critics have pointed out that some white students were only briefly suspended when three nooses were put on a treet at Jena High School.

But today, Jackson reaffirmed his endorsement of Obama, who is the son of a Kenyan father and white mother and is trying to appeal to African-American and white voters in pursuit of the nomination.

"He has remarkably transcended race, however the impact of [Hurricane] Katrina and Jena makes America's unresolved moral dilemma of race unavoidable," Jackson, who ran for president himself, said in a statement. "I think Jena is another defining moment of the issue of race and the criminal justice system. This issue requires direct and bold leadership. I commend Sen. Obama for speaking out and demanding fairness on this defining issue. Any attempt to dilute my support for Sen. Obama will not succeed."

Democratic rivals John Edwards and Chris Dodd have also expressed deep concern about the Jena case.

"As someone who grew up in the segregated South, I feel a special responsibility to speak out on racial intolerance," Edwards said in a statement. "To measure our progress in the fight against racism, today our nation looks to Jena, Louisiana. Americans of all races are traveling to Jena because they believe that how we respond to the racial tensions in Jena says everything about who we are as a nation."

Dodd said in a statement, "The events in Jena, Louisiana are a sobering reminder that while segregation was outlawed long ago, de facto segregation in many parts of this country is still very real. No reasonable person would call what these young men have received 'equal justice.' I sincerely hope that Governor Blanco intervenes in this case and grants immediate reprieves should any of the Jena 6 be convicted."

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign is going global.

In London today to address a conservative US-British think tank and raise campaign money from Americans abroad, the former New York City mayor picked up support from a pair of foreign policy advisers to former prime minister Margaret Thatcher -- Robert Conquest, a historian and expert on Russia; and Nile Gardiner, who was a foreign policy researcher for the "Iron Lady." Both will advise Giuliani's campaign for the Republican nomination, the campaign announced.

Giuliani was observing bipartisanship during the London trip, meeting with luminaries of both Thatcher's Conservative Party and the Labor Party, which has been in power for more than a decade.

After meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Giuliani said the close ties between the US and United Kingdom should and will continue.

"It is a special relationship that has been forged over many, many years of common objectives, common values," Giuliani said, in remarks provided by his campaign. "Tested by war. Tested by terrorism. And the two countries are as close as they’ve ever been and I think the prospect of their remaining even closer is what’ll be the future."

An Anglophile who counts Winston Churchill among his role models and in 2002 received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth for his exploits after the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Giuliani met early today with Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair. In the evening, Giuliani is scheduled to meet Thatcher and deliver the inaugural Margaret Thatcher Atlantic Bridge lecture before returning to the US.

Barack Obama is up with a new TV ad in Iowa today, "Believe," a stripped-down 60-second spot that has Obama speaking directly to voters -- no music, no frills, no raucous crowds, no nothing. Obama makes a personal appeal to viewers, asking them to believe that "we can actually change politics and bring an end to decades of division and deadlock."

"In twenty years of public service, I've brought Democrats and Republicans together to solve problems that touch the lives of everyday people," Obama says. "I've taken on the drug and insurance companies and won. I defied the politics of the moment, and opposed the war in Iraq before it began."

The theme is a familiar one, and it further underscores the Obama campaign's belief that next year's presidential election will be won by the candidate promising change, not, as rival Hillary Clinton contends, by the candidate with the most years in Washington. Clinton still leads in most state polls, but if Obama could eke out a win in the Iowa caucus, that might change everything.

Three nonpartisan groups this morning announced a series of presidential forums designed to keep healthcare front and center in the presidential campaign.

Organizers said all the major candidates have been invited and most have agreed to take part, except for Democrat Barack Obama, who is only attending forums and debates that are sanctioned by the Democratic Party.

Families USA and the Federation of American Hospitals, which have been on opposite sides of the issue, are sponsoring the forums, along with the Kaiser Family Foundation. They are scheduled for an hour each and will focus on coverage, cost, and quality.

While the candidates will appear separately, they will delve far more deeply into the issue than in typical debates. In a conference call with reporters, Matt James, a senior vice president at Kaiser, called it "a way to elevate the healthcare debate in presidential campaign."

Polls show that healthcare is atop the list of domestic issues for voters. In a CBS News poll released this week, 76 percent said that many Americans don't have health insurance is a very serious problem, 66 percent said they were dissatisfied with the quality of healthcare, and 81 percent dissatisfied with the cost.

Hillary Clinton, who failed at healthcare reform while First Lady in 1993 and 1994, unveiled her universal coverage plan this week. She and the other leading Democrats generally want to extend coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans with a mix of public and private insurance plans. The leading Republicans, in general, are offering less sweeping proposals that rely more on the private market.

Democrat John Edwards is scheduled to be first up, on Monday. Clinton is next, likely on Oct. 4, followed by Democrats Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich on Oct. 25, Republican John McCain on Oct. 31, and Democrat Chris Dodd on Nov. 1. Other leading candidates have not confirmed dates.

The candidates will make opening statements, then take questions from a panel of journalists. The forums will be webcast live.

Dick Morris would be proud.

Mitt Romney's newest TV ad takes a page out of the triangulation strategy of the former consultant for President Clinton, who steered between Democrats in Congress and Republicans.

Romney portrays himself as a Washington outsider who will bring change and presents voters with not-so-veiled criticisms of the Bush administration and fellow Republicans in Congress.

The spot, which begins airing in New Hampshire today and later this week in Iowa, faults Washington for not doing more to stem illegal immigration and criticizes Congress for not controlling federal spending and not being ethically sound.

"If we're going to change Washington, Republicans have to put our own house in order," Romney says in the ad.

He adds later, "When Republicans act like Democrats, America loses. It's time for Republicans to start acting like Republicans. It's time for a change and change begins with us."

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney continue to lead their respective fields in the latest poll of New Hampshire voters.

Clinton had the support of 36 percent of Democrats, well ahead of Barack Obama with 18 percent, John Edwards with 12 percent, and Bill Richardson with 10 percent, according to the poll conducted for Franklin Pierce University and WBZ.

Among Republicans, Romney drew backing from 30 percent, compared to 23 percent for Rudy Giuliani, 14 percent for John McCain and 8 percent for Fred Thompson.

New Hampshire will hold the nation's first presidential primary, sometime in early January. Secretary of State William M. Gardner will set the exact date after all the maneuvering by states trying to move up their nominating contests.

The telephone survey, conducted from Sept. 11 to 14 by RKM Research and Communication, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points both for the 400 Republican primary voters and the 403 Democrats surveyed.

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff

The decision by four top Republican presidential candidates to skip a long-planned forum next week on African-American issues has renewed a debate over whether some contenders are writing off many black voters, with some analysts suggesting the move could hurt the party's chances in 2008.

Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson have said they have fund-raising or other scheduling conflicts and will not attend the nationally televised forum in Baltimore on Sept. 27. But even some leading Republicans questioned whether the candidates are interested in addressing issues of special concern to African-Americans.

"I think it is a terrible mistake," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a telephone interview. "I did everything I could to convince them it was the right thing to do."

Radio talk show host Tavis Smiley, who is moderating the debate at historically black Morgan State University for the Public Broadcasting System, said in a telephone interview that he found it troubling that scheduling conflicts were given as the reason for not attending. He noted that the date for the forum was arranged in consultation with GOP officials and announced in February.

"No person, black, white or brown, Democrat or Republican, male or female, no person should be elected president in 2008 without speaking to communities of color," Smiley said.

Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are starting new radio ads in Iowa that try to press what their campaigns see as openings in the tightly fought caucus race.

Romney's ad, which begins airing Wednesday, brags about his support for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. It also reminds listeners that he was the first major candidate to condemn an Iowa judge's decision last month that allowed same-sex marriage.

"The court ruling in Iowa is just another example of an activist judge trying to find things in the Constitution that aren't there," Romney says in the spot. "As Republicans, we must oppose discrimination and defend traditional marriage: one man, one woman."

Giuliani's ad, meanwhile, tries to capitalize on the fight he picked with the antiwar group MoveOn.org, which is influential among Democrats, but anathema among Republicans.

After he excoriated the group for placing a newspaper ad last week questioning the honesty of General David H. Petraeus and placed an ad in reply, MoveOn.org's political action committee started a TV ad in Iowa this week accusing Giuliani of being AWOL from meetings of the Iraq Study Group.

In the radio ad that began airing today, the narrator says, "Why is MoveOn attacking Rudy Giuliani? Because he’s their worst nightmare. They know Rudy is a Republican who can beat the Democrats. And they know, no matter what they say, Rudy will never, ever back down."

As part of Barack Obama's drip-drip roll-out of his economic agenda, the Illinois senator today will propose a revamp of the nation's tax code that shifts more of the tax burden onto the wealthy.

Speaking at the Tax Policy Center in Washington this afternoon, Obama will propose an $80 billion to $85 billion tax cut for the middle class. Components include:

• A tax cut of up to $1,000 for 150 million people and their families
  
• A homeowner's tax credit for those who do not itemize deductions, a benefit to 10 million people, many of whom make less than $50,000, according to the campaign
  
• Eliminating the income tax for seniors who make less than $50,000, affecting about 7 million people
  
• Streamlining tax filings so many Americans could complete tax returns in less than five minutes
  

Obama says he would pay for his overhaul in part by closing corporate loopholes, cracking down on corporate overseas tax havens, and boosting the tax rate on dividends and capital gains for the top income bracket.

"When folks are hurting out there on Main Street, that's not good for Wall Street," Obama will say, according to prepared remarks. "When the changes in our economy are leaving too many people behind, the competitiveness of our country risks falling behind. When that dream of opportunity is denied to too many Americans, then ultimately that pain has a way of trickling up."

See Obama's full plan here.

Rival John Edwards recently came out with his own tax reform plan, in which he proposed some of the same fixes. See Edwards's plan here.

If you want to know Mitt Romney's vision for America, it's now as easy as a click of your mouse.

The Republican presidential contender's campaign this morning issued a compendium of his policy proposals and speeches, under the title "A Strategy for a Stronger America." It can be viewed or downloaded from Romney's website.

The sections of the document include "Confronting Radical Jihad," "Ending the Tide of Illegal Immigration," and "Winning the Global Economic Competition."

"Our future depends on our willingness to hold to the principles that have guided and built our nation," he writes in the introduction. "It depends on the character and sacrifices of the American people. And it depends on leadership to craft and implement a Strategy for a Stronger America."

Hillary Clinton is following up her much-anticipated unveiling Monday of her universal healthcare plan with a new TV spot that hits the high points.

The 30-second ad, which will air in the first two states in the nomination calendar -- Iowa and New Hampshire, emphasizes that her plan would not force people to give up coverage they have and is designed to offer more affordable choices to eventually cover all 47 million Americans without coverage. In key ways, it is similar to the ones proposed by Barack Obama and John Edwards, her major rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Her plan, which she plans to discuss in a live webcast tonight, explicitly tries to avoid the criticisms that doomed the reform she pushed as First Lady in 1993 and 1994 -- and that remains the biggest blot on her resume: that it would take away choice and that it would create a huge new government bureaucracy.

Speaking of "Hillarycare," the new ad frame it in an interesting, almost glowing way, saying it "changed our way of thinking" on healthcare.

A CBS News poll released Monday night suggested that Democratic primary voters in particular trust Clinton more on healthcare than her rivals. While 61 percent said they have confidence in her ability to make the right decisions about healthcare, 42 percent said they have confidence in Obama, and 39 percent in Edwards. On another survey question, 49 percent said Clinton would do a better job on healthcare than other Democrats.

The poll also suggests that voters don't hold the failed 1990s reform effort against Clinton. Sixty-six percent said the experience will help Clinton and only 5 percent said she was "mostly responsible" for the lack of reform.

Barack Obama addresses Democrats yesterday at Senator Tom Harkin's steak fry fund-raiser in Iowa.(AP)

One question after last week's Congressional hearings on progress in Iraq was whether the two leading Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, would commit to voting against any war funding bill that lacked a clear timetable for withdrawing American troops.

Obama answered that over the weekend in Iowa, saying he would not vote for any funding bill unless it contained such a schedule. "'We are going to bring an end to this war and I will fight now in the United States Senate to make sure that we don't pass any funding bill that does not have a deadline to start bringing our troops out," Obama said yesterday at the famous steak fry in Indianola hosted by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin.

Both Obama and Clinton voted against a funding bill earlier this year that did not have a timetable for withdrawal.

Mitt Romney reaped quite a bit of political mileage today by getting out there early to bash Hillary Clinton's healthcare plan.

But now he's in a bit of hot water for the venue he chose.

Romney held his press conference to deride Clinton's plan as "Hillarycare 2.0" just outside St. Vincents Hospital Manhattan in New York.

This afternoon, the hospital issued a statement chiding the Republican presidential contender for doing so without advance permission.

"As a non-profit organization, St. Vincent's Hospital does not become involved in political campaigns," the hospital's statement said. "We find it unfortunate that Mr. Romney misappropriated the image and good will of St. Vincent's Hospital to further a political agenda. While St. Vincent's believes that there needs to be real discussion about healthcare reform and finding ways to provide coverage to the now 47 million Americans without health insurance, it is inappropriate for the hospital to be used for political gain."

Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said the hospital's name was only used to identify a location for the press conference.

"It was a public sidewalk in front of the hospital and we did not use hospital property," he said in an email.

The hospital, it turns out, has a trauma center named for Romney's GOP rival, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who along with his wife Judy helped raise millions for the hospital. It has the only trauma center in Lower Manhattan and treated hundreds of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Republican Rudy Giuliani scored some political points last week by condemning an ad bought by MoveOn.org to attack the top US military commander in Iraq and by trying to tar Democrat Hillary Clinton with the controversy.

Today, the antiwar group, which claims 3.2 million members, hit back.

Its political action committee bought an ad that attacks the former New York mayor for skipping out on meetings of the Iraq Study Group, which called last December for sweeping changes in US strategy in Iraq.

The ad accuses of Giuliani of going "AWOL" and eventually quitting the study group when he had the chance to influence policy and instead making paid speeches. The spot will run in Iowa, site of the first caucus of the presidential nomination process. Giuliani's camp has said they would wear what they called MoveOn.org's character assassination tactics as "a badge of honor."

The study group, a bipartisan group of prominent leaders, recommended a change in the role of US forces from combat to training, a withdrawal and for a new diplomatic initiative with countries in the region. Democrats picked up on the report, but have been stymied by the Bush from turning it into policy.

President Bush, after the congressional testimony of General David H. Petraeus, said last week that he would accept the general's recommendations to draw down US forces by next July to about the same level as before the so-called surge this year added 30,000 troops.

MoveOn.org also started ads today accusing President Bush of a "betrayal of trust" for not withdrawing troops faster from Iraq.

Not content to let Hillary Clinton steal the spotlight with health care today, Barack Obama began laying out his economic agenda this morning in a speech at NASDAQ in New York. Obama invoked FDR's post-Depression leadership in calling for corporate reform, saying the mortgage lending crisis shows how the deck is stacked against American consumers.

Obama called for more disclosure and accountability in the housing market, including a federal definition of mortgage fraud, stiff penalties against lenders who "knowingly act in bad faith," and a "Home Score system" that would create a standard metric for home mortgages so consumers could easily compare various products. Obama also called for an immediate investigation of rating agencies, their relationships with clients, and their business practices. And he called for a credit card rating system so consumers know the level of risk involved in every credit card they sign up for.

"In recent years, we have seen a dangerous erosion of the rules and principles that have allowed our market to work and our economy to thrive," Obama said, according to his prepared remarks. "Instead of thinking about what's good for America or what's good for business, a mentality has crept into certain corners of Washington and the business world that says, 'what's good for me is good enough.'''

The speech kicked off what Obama's campaign says will be a multi-pronged prescription for the American economy. Tomorrow, Obama is set to unveil his plan to modernize and simplify the tax code. In future addresses, Obama will also address how to "ensure America's competitive edge in the 21st century" with education reforms, and strengthen the safety net for American workers hurt by free trade agreements.

For more on Obama's speech today, go here.

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

Hillary Clinton today became the latest Democratic presidential candidate to unveil a plan for universal health care, and in her case that means confronting the demons of her spectacular failure to remake the American health care system while First Lady in 1993 and 1994.

Her plan is far less radical this time, building on existing public and private insurance systems to extend coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans while trying to give those who have coverage more choices on health plans.

Like the landmark Massachusetts health reform, Clinton would require people to obtain insurance, while offering subsidies to those unable to afford it. Her plan would offer tax credits to working families and to small businesses. Clinton would require large businesses to provide insurance for employees or help pay for it and would raise taxes on the wealthy to help cover the cost for those less able to pay for it. She put the government's cost at $110 billion a year.

The plan is similar to proposals offered by other Democrats.

Still, Clinton's plan, even before she unveiled it during a speech in Iowa, came under attack from both Republican and Democratic presidential rivals.

Mitt Romney, who helped push through the Massachusetts plan, told reporters that Clinton was reprising "Hillarycare" and drawing inspiration from European socialized medicine.

"In her plan, we have government insurance instead of private insurance," he said. "In her plan, it's crafted by Washington; it should be crafted by the states. In her plan, we have government Washington managed health care. Instead, we should rely on the private markets to guide health care. And in her plan, you see increased taxes. The burden should not be raised on the American people."

Barack Obama issued a statement saying it was like the plan he rolled out earlier this year, but that his would go further in cutting costs and that no plan could be enacted without an open process -- a slap at the secretive one that Clinton led as First Lady.

Democrat Chris Dodd was even more direct.

"While she talks about the political scars she bears, the personal scars borne by the American people are far greater," he said in a statement. "The mismanagement of the effort in 1993 and 1994 has set back our ability to move toward universal health care immeasurably.

"We've known what the problems have been for nearly 15 years, and what the solutions could be. What's been missing is leadership that knows how to bring people together and get the job done. To ensure all Americans have affordable health care will take more than leadership that simply knows how to fight -- it will take leadership that knows how to bring people together and win."

Democrat John Edwards not only accused Clinton of copying key parts of his plan, but also tried to drive home again, as Obama has charged, that Clinton is too tied to Washington special interests to pass a health care plan.

"The cost of failure 14 years ago isn't anybody's scars or political fortune, it's the millions of Americans who have now gone without health care for more than 14 years and the millions more still crushed by the costs," Edwards said in a statement.

"So I'm glad that, today, the architect of the 1993 plan has another care proposal -- and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I'm flattered. But unless Senator Clinton's willing to acknowledge the truth about our broken government and the cost of health care reform, I'm afraid flattery will get us nowhere."

If Mitt Romney had his way, Iran's president, instead of being welcomed by the United Nations, would be served with an indictment for war crimes.

Romney released a letter this morning urging UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to revoke an invitation for Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak to the General Assembly next week.

"The only way he should be greeted in the United States is with an indictment under the Genocide Convention," Romney wrote.

"The Iranian regime under President Ahmadinejad has spoken openly about wiping Israel off the map, has fueled Hezbollah's terror campaign in the region and around the world, and defied the world community in its pursuit of nuclear weapons – capabilities that make these threats even more ominous. As General Petraeus testified last week, Iran is also supporting Shia militia extremists and violence that is taking the lives of American soldiers and undermining the Iraqi government.

A failure by the United Nations to take a strong stand against Iran's President Ahmadinejad would be especially disturbing given the United Nations' record of failure to prevent genocide in other circumstances and the failure of the United Nations Human Rights Council to confront the Iranian regime and others among the world's worst human rights abusers."

If the UN doesn't comply, Romney said, the US should reconsider its financial support to the international body.

The US and Europe are trying to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program through negotiations, backed with sanctions.

The former Massachusetts governor is trying to burnish his bona fides on foreign policy, an area where his experience pales in comparison to Republican rivals like Senator John McCain of Arizona.

Well, you could see this coming.

With the New England Patriots spying scandal and the Red Sox-Yankees series both making headlines, it was only a matter of time before the presidential candidates tried to piggyback.

Today -- the day after the NFL slapped the Pats and coach Bill Belichick for illegally videotaping New York Jets coaches giving signals -- Democrat Bill Richardson used the episode to bash President Bush over domestic spying.

"The President has been allowed to spy on Americans without a warrant,and our US Senate is letting it continue. You know something is wrong when the New England Patriots face stiffer penalties for spying on innocent Americans than Dick Cheney and George Bush," the New Mexico governor said in a statement issued while campaigning in Iowa.

His campaign spokesman Pahl Shipley elaborated, saying in an email, "The Governor used this opportunity, and a bit of irony, to make a serious point about the President and Vice President authorizing and supporting the government's use of domestic surveillance of Americans."

Also today, Democrat Chris Dodd, a big Red Sox fan and Connecticut senator, challenged Richardson to a bet over the Sox-Yankee series, which starts tonight and which could go a long way to deciding who wins the American League East.

"Nothing is more exciting than a Red Sox-Yankees series in September," Dodd said in a statement. "The Governor and I both dreamed about playing center field for our respective teams as children, and although that didn't happen, I know we will be both be watching this series closely, so why not have a little fun with it? I'm willing to wager some authentic New England Clam Chowder against an equitable wager from Governor Richardson, if he's confident enough in his team to accept my challenge."

But Richardson didn't take the bet -- and denied that he was a Yankees fan. A comment Richardson made about wanting to be Mickey Mantle, the legendary Yankees outfielder, was apparently misconstrued to mean he rooted for the pinstripes.

"Governor Richardson is a devoted Red Sox fan, and has been since his days playing ball in Massachusetts in high school, college, and in the Cape Cod League." Shipley said in a statement.

But wait, it gets curiouser.

The Dodd campaign points to an appearance that Richardson made on NBC's "Meet the Press" in May in which he says, "I'm a Red Sox fan," then quickly adds, "I'm also a Yankee fan."

" 'Devoted' Red Sox fans wouldn't be caught dead saying that they were "also a Yankee's fan,' " said Bryan DeAngelis, a Dodd campaign spokesman.

On "Meet the Press," Richardson tried to wriggle out of the rundown, telling host Tim Russert, "I mean, this is the thing about me, Tim. I can bring people together. I can unify people."

"Yankee fans and Red Sox fans?" Russert asked.

"Yes," Richardson replied.

"Not a chance," Russert said.

"Well, I bet you I can," Richardson said.

But he won't be betting on this weekend's games.

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

Republican Rudy Giuliani continues to seek maximum mileage out of the fallout from the progress report of General David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq.

In the battle of front-runners in the presidential polls, Giuliani this afternoon pummeled Democrat Hillary Clinton over her stands on the Iraq war and her questioning of Petraeus.

After having placed a full-page ad in The New York Times today defending General David H. Petraeus and accusing Clinton of a "character attack," Giuliani posted his first online ad on his campaign website with more of the same.

In the spot, he calls on Clinton to apologize for telling Petraeus during Senate hearings this week that his testimony about progress in Iraq required "the willing suspension of disbelief." The ad also challenges Clinton to condemn "a venomous ad" placed by the antiwar group MoveOn.org that charged Petraeus with "cooking the books for the White House."

The one-minute, 50-second ad, titled "She Changed," opens with footage of Clinton, in 2002, as she prepared to vote to authorize the Iraq war, describing the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, as a threat to use weapons of mass destruction. It charges that she has changed her position on the war.

"Just when our troops need all our support to finish the job, Hillary Clinton is turning her back on them," the ad's narrator intones. "General Petraeus and the brave men and women now serving under him deserve an apology. And our nation deserves better. Senator Clinton, do the right thing. Apologize for your comments and condemn the MoveOn.org ad."

Clinton's campaign has brushed aside the attacks, saying her focus will remain on ending the war. "It's hardly surprising that Mayor Giuliani is running the first negative ad of the '08 campaign, given his inability to justify his unqualified support for President Bush's failed Iraq strategy," Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer told the Associated Press.

The exchange could be a preview of the bare-knuckled campaign to come if Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Clinton, the New York senator, win their respective nominations.

The spot shows Clinton speaking before she voted in 2002 to authorize the war, and charges that she has changed her position. It also blasts her telling Petraeus during Senate hearings this week that his testimony about progress in Iraq required "the willing suspension of disbelief," and for not condemning an ad by the antiwar group MoveOn.org that charged Petraeus with "cooking the books for the White House."

"Just when our troops need all our support to finish the job, Hillary Clinton is turning her back on them," the ad's narrator intones. "General Petraeus and the brave men and women now serving under him deserve an apology. And our nation deserves better. Senator Clinton, do the right thing. Apologize for your comments and condemn the MoveOn.org ad."

In response to Giuliani's attacks, Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer told the Associated Press, "It's hardly surprising that Mayor Giuliani is running the first negative ad of the '08 campaign, given his inability to justify his unqualified support for President Bush's failed Iraq strategy."

It could be a preview of the bare-knuckled campaign to come if Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Clinton, the New York senator, win their respective nominations.

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

Senator John McCain, a longtime supporter of the Iraq war while remaining a fierce critic of its execution, said he now had full confidence in President Bush's management of the conflict and that he should be judged by its success. At the same time, McCain said, some of his rivals should be held to account for the war's failings.

"This is the strategy that I advocated the first six months of the conflict," McCain said in an interview today in Nashua, New Hampshire, twelve hours after Bush announced in a prime-time address that he would accept the recommendations of General David Petraeus to draw down forces in Iraq to their pre-"surge" levels. "I would hope that would incline [voters] to me favorably when they judge my qualifications -- the fact that I was correct in my assessment of the failures and correct in my assessment of what was needed to succeed."

In echoing arguments made by Senator Barack Obama against his Democratic rivals by insisting that his early position against the war should ratify voters' confidence in his judgment, McCain tried to distinguish himself from Republicans, including presidential candidates, who uncritically stood by the administration's war policy in its early years. "I don't think they understood it, otherwise I don't think they would have supported it," McCain said. "When we judge people's qualifications, I hope that is one of the measurements they'll make a judgment on."

McCain's two-day New Hampshire visit was part of a "No Surrender" tour designed to rally opposition to Democratic efforts to reduce troop the presence and to bring the debate under way on Capitol Hill to three early primary states.

"Democrats want to return to the failed policies of the past, which were obviously Republican policies -- or administration policies -- which are proven to be failures," McCain said. "Now they want to return to it. I don't get it."

In remarks later in the day at a VFW hall in Londonderry, McCain, flanked by fellow veterans and personnel from a local Army recruiting station, didn't address any issues other than Iraq. Yet in the interview, he insisted that the "No Surrender" tour -- embracing a slogan used most recently by John Kerry, who entered the 2004 Democratic National Convention to the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name -- was a matter of duty and not opportunity.

"It was not my plan, it was not my idea. I would much rather be debating other issues and let General Petraeus do his job rather than dragging back to Washington for a couple days of interrogation," McCain said. "It's the Democrats that think this issue is helping them and if you look at public opinion polls there might be something to it."

By Amy D. Farnsworth, Globe correspondent

Barack Obama has been embraced by Oprah Winfrey, but Hillary Clinton has some Magic in her corner.

As the top Democratic presidential contenders seek big-name support in the African-American community, basketball icon Earvin "Magic" Johnson is hosting a fundraiser for Clinton at his home in Beverly Hills today. Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones, both legends in the music business, are also scheduled to attend, according to the Clinton campaign.

Johnson is also scheduled to appear with Clinton at a community event at a Los Angeles magnet school.

He donated $2,300 to Obama's campaign in March, but in August, the Clinton campaign issued a statement in which he said, "Senator Hillary Clinton has a unique understanding of the domestic and international issues and has the experience and knowledge to help lead our country and get us to a better place. "We need a winner as our next President of the United States -- someone that can help realistically improve relations in the world, someone that will work to provide affordable and accessible healthcare and someone that is simply a strong leader. I know that's Hillary Clinton."

Last weekend, Winfrey showed her support for Obama by throwing a lavish fundraiser at her Santa Barbara estate that drew 1,500 guests, each paying $2,300 to attend. Winfrey, who has never endorsed a political candidate, also invited Obama on her daytime talk show and said glowing things about him on CNN's "Larry King Live."

MoveOn.org caused an uproar with its newspaper ad this week questioning the credibility and honesty of General David H. Petraeus on the eve of his testimony to Congress about the war in Iraq.

The antiwar group didn't flinch in the face of the criticism that the ad amounted to character assassination. And now MoveOn.org is moving to the airwaves with a TV spot accusing President Bush of betraying the country with his Iraq war policies.

The ad highlights the troop strength numbers showing that under Bush's plan, despite some drawdowns, there will be the same-size force next summer as there was before the so-called surge this year. The 30-second spot, set to start airing on Monday, ends with: "George Bush: A Betrayal of Trust."

The group, which claims a membership of 3.3 million, also made a similar charge against Petraeus, arguing that he had cooked the numbers on progress in Iraq in cahoots with the White House. "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" the ad asked.

Republican presidential candidates have vilified the ad and MoveOn.org, and it has caused heartburn for Democratic contenders.

Mitt Romney, already one of the more eager presidential candidates when it comes to working the web, plans his first online-only town meeting on Monday.

It will be held live at 7:30 p.m. via streaming video, giving people anywhere in the country a chance to ask Romney about issues and priorities. Web surfers will have to register by 7:15 p.m. Monday to take part, the Romney campaign said this morning.

Monday also happens to be the deadline to submit entries in a TV ad contest that Romney touts as the first time an amateur-produced spot will air on behalf of a presidential candidate.

Hillary Clinton plans to unveil the third, final, and perhaps thorniest part of her health care reform blueprint on Monday.

After having rolled out plans to lower health care spending and improve quality, she will detail proposals to ensure coverage for all Americans. She said the plan will, in part, dramatically rein in the influence of the insurance companies, because frankly I think that they have worked to the detriment of our economy and of our health-care system."

Her campaign said she will give her health care speech at a hospital in Des Moines in the first caucus state of Iowa.

"Obviously, I hope the headline is that, you know, Hillary is back, and we're going to get it done this time, because we tried and were not successful in '93-'94," Clinton said in interviews posted today for an online Democratic debate. "And as we all know, the problems of the uninsured and the underinsured, the pressures on doctors and nurses and hospitals, the loss of jobs with employers struggling to maintain health insurance is all much worse than it was when we were trying to do this before."

She said she has learned important lessons from the failure when, as First Lady, she was put in charge of a task force to come up with a reform plan.

"I learned, among other things, that we've got to build a consensus," she said on the "Democratic Candidates Mashup" sponsored by Yahoo!, HuffingtonPost.com, and Slate.com. "A plan is necessary but not sufficient. We've got to have a political consensus in order to withstand the enormous opposition from those interests that will have something to lose in a really reformed health-care system."

Rudy Giuliani jumped today on a brewing controversy over the rate charged MoveOn.org for a full-page ad in the New York Times that questioned the independence and integrity of the top US commander in Iraq.

The antiwar group has said it paid $65,000 for the ad, published Monday morning as General David H. Petraeus testified to Congress. That rate is about one-third of the regular charge.

A Times spokeswoman has denied the rate charged indicated a political bias and said it was the paper's policy not to disclose the rate paid by any advertiser.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor now seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said he plans to buy an ad supporting Petraeus in Friday's Times -- and he wants the same discount. (The Washington Post's political blog obtained a copy of the ad.)

"We call upon the New York Times to give us the same rate, the discount, heavily discounted rate they gave MoveOn.org for that abominable ad," Giuliani said during a campaign stop in Atlanta.

He described the MoveOn.org ad, which was headlined "General Petraeus or General Betray Us," as character assassination. Giuliani and other Republicans have demanded that Democrats condemn the ad and disavow the group. While Democrats have distanced themselves, they haven't acceded to those demands.

By Amy D. Farnsworth, Globe correspondent

Mitt Romney today tapped a former CIA official, who is now a top officer in a private security firm with widespread operations in Iraq, to head his counterterrorism policy advisory group.

Cofer Black, who also served as a top State Department counter-terrorism official, is now chairman of Total Intelligence Solutions and vice-chairman of Blackwater USA. That firm came to public attention in 2004, when four employees were ambushed, killed, and mutilated in Fallujah.

"The United States faces a new generation of global threats and challenges," Black said in a statement issued by the Romney campaign. "Governor Romney recognizes the threats before us and has already laid out the policies needed to give our men and women the tools they need to protect our country."

Others who will advise Romney on counterterrorism include businesspeople, a former military officer, former FBI officials, and former Foreign Service officials.

Representative Pete Hoekstra of Michigan will lead Romney's intelligence policy advisory group, the campaign said. Hoekstra is the senior Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Last year, Hoekstra criticized President Bush for not informing Congress about what he described as a major intelligence program, though he didn't identify it because it was classified.

"Governor Romney understands that a President must focus on both current and emerging threats to our nation and that an agile and aggressive intelligence community provides America's first line of defense against those threats," he said in a statement.

"We have made progress in securing our homeland since 9/11, but we still have much work to do," Romney said in a statement. "Critical to our security is effective intelligence-gathering and counter-terror efforts that can prevent further attacks. The individuals in these groups have had distinguished careers in our intelligence and counter-terror communities. I look forward to working with them to ensure that our government has the tools necessary to maintain America's security."

As the Iraq war drags on and US casualties mount, members of the military appear to be showing their discontent by donating more to Democrats, a campaign finance watchdog group said today.

Service members have traditionally supported the Republican Party, but there has been a dramatic shift since the war started in 2003 away from financial backing for GOP candidates for president and Congress, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics said.

So far this year and in the 2004 election, about 40 percent of contributions from donors identifiable as military members has gone to Democrats, compared to about one fourth in the 2000 and 2002 cycles, the center's study said. Service members gave about $1.8 million in the 2004 cycle and about $330,000 this year, the study said.

Democrat Barack Obama, who is calling for a troop withdrawal to start immediately, has received the most of any presidential candidate from uniformed service members -- about $27,000.

Ron Paul, the only Republican candidate who opposes the war, has brought in at least $19,250 -- more than Vietnam War hero John McCain, who supports the war and has raised $18,600 from military personnel.

The center's report quotes Lieutenant Colonel Joyce Griggs, an intelligence officer who contributed to Obama: "People are saying enough is enough. If you're a soldier, you're going to do your job, do what you're commanded to do. But that sentiment is wide and deep."

The first-of-its-kind Democratic Candidate Mashup is well underway, and of those web surfers who have taken part so far, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are tied at 31 percent.

The mashup allows voters to create their own video debate by mixing and matching answers from the eight contenders on issues including the war in Iraq, health care, and education. Moderator Charlie Rose asked the questions, and comedian Bill Maher asks his own queries.

It is a joint venture of Yahoo!, the HuffingtonPost.com blog, and the web magazine Slate.com. The debate site has an introduction with clips of some of the best-known moment from past traditional debates: John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale in 1984, and Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice presidential face-off.

If you take part in the mashup today and would be willing to talk to a reporter, please send an email to masspolitics@globe.com with your daytime phone number.

Mitt Romney didn't mince any words on the controversies of the day, and actually told a joke or two, during a chance today to address a key constituency for Republican presidential hopefuls -- FOX News viewers.

In a wide-ranging interview with Neil Cavuto that will air today and Thursday, Romney described as "juvenile" a short-lived website that attacked rival Fred Thompson by calling him a list of unflattering nicknames and questioning his personal life. "That sort of stuff doesn't have a place in politics," Romney said.

The Thompson campaign went ballistic and accused Romney of "gutter politics" and demanded an apology. The Romney campaign disavowed the website, which was created by an associate of its top consultant in South Carolina. "I've instructed that consultant not to let him work in our campaign," Romney said.

Romney also charged that Democrat Barack Obama has "disqualified" himself as a serious presidential candidate "in the minds of virtually everybody who's serious about this country" by calling today for a complete US withdrawal from Iraq by the end of next year and by making controversial remarks about unilaterally acting in Pakistan.

"This is a man who by virtue of politics and perhaps panic has suggested a course in Iraq that would have led to Al Qaeda having a new safe haven," Romney said, according to a transcript provided by FOX News Channel.

In the interview, the former Massachusetts governor also suggested that he might be best equipped, because of his experience turning around companies at Bain Capital, to be president if the economy went into a tailspin .

"You know, I'm sure that if there were a recession, people would be looking for a person who understands how the economy works, who understands how you create jobs, who understands how we could be more competitive with China and India," he said. "And a guy who's spent his life in the private sector is going to know that a lot better than people who've been in politics all their life."

At the end of the interview, Cavuto asked, "Finally, on just a personal level, governor, a lot of people on the campaign trail have remarked at your energy and how you've been able to push through pretty long days in what is a campaign that just seems to get longer and longer every four years. Anything you're doing just to sort of keep yourself in check?"

Romney replied, "You know, the best thing I could do is see Ann from time to time." "Ann," he said as he was interrupted by laughter, "is my source of stability."

Romney added, "At the end of the day, I find it actually hard to go to sleep if I've met with a lot of people. I get energy from the crowds I meet. I find myself having to read for an hour or so before I can fall asleep. And thanks to the Gideons, I've got good material."

Said Cavuto: "I would go for bakery products, governor, but that's just me."

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

Is Mitt Romney starting to feel the backlash over his quick dumping of Senator Larry Craig, one of his most prominent Capitol Hill supporters and co-chairman of his presidential campaign in the unimportant late-primary state of Idaho?

Now it's not just liberals who are calling Romney out, but Republican loyalists, too, for rushing to label Craig's actions
"disgusting," to compare him to Bill Clinton, and to relieve him of his campaign post all before Craig spoke publicly on the subject last month.

In Newsweek magazine, George Will devoted a column to accusing Romney of "seizing yet another opportunity to stroke social conservatives." Will said there is the "suspicion that there is something synthetic and excessively calculating about every move in his increasingly embarrassing courtship of those who are called 'values voters.' "

It's an argument that's getting picked up elsewhere. On the letters page of the Idaho Statesman, the newspaper that had confronted Craig about his sexuality even before his arrest in a Minneapolis airport bathroom during an undercover sex sting, Craig sympathizers have echoed Will's charges of opportunism against Romney.

Katherine Zuckerman of Boise questioned the former governor's "loyalty," writing, "As long as Larry Craig's influence could benefit his aspirations, Mitt Romney was only too happy to be linked with Sen. Craig."

Teri Blackburn, also of Boise, was even tougher: "By the way, Mr. Romney, you have enough respect for someone to let
them help run your campaign but you leave them high and dry at the first hint of a little trouble. Sounds a little squeaky clean to me, and I have no respect for you since this is the third time I have seen you pull this stunt. Hats off to the people who have said, 'Let's wait to see what all the facts are before we make any type of judgment.' "

Craig, meanwhile, plans to resign from the Senate but is trying to withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct charges.

Al Gore isn't volunteering to jump into the presidential race, so some Massachusetts Democrats want to draft him.

A new statewide group announced today that it will launch a petition drive on Sept. 18 to try to get the former vice president on the March 4 primary ballot.

It needs to collect at least 2,500 verified signatures of registered voters by Dec. 21, but the group's leaders said they want to collect many more to show the depth of support for Gore.

"This is that rarity in American politics -- a genuine draft movement organized by citizens who believe firmly that America needs a specific candidate to lead the country. Gore received more than 50 million votes when he ran for President in 2000 and most of those voters still believe that he won," Fred Koed of Cohasset, a member of the Massachusetts State Democratic Committee, and the chair of Draft Gore Massachusetts, said in a statement.

It took Barack Obama all of four paragraphs today to get in a dig at rival Hillary Clinton during his big speech on Iraq in, of all places, Clinton, Iowa.

Obama begins the speech, in which he lays out his specific strategy for bringing troops home right away, by reiterating his belief that the "misguided" war was never about the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, despite President Bush's claims otherwise.

And then Obama, according to prepared remarks, says this: "The case for war was built on exaggerated fears and empty evidence – so much so that Bob Graham, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, decided to vote against the war after he read the National Intelligence Estimate. "

Translation: Clinton was wrong when she voted to authorize the war in 2002, a vote she made despite not having actually read the NIE -- which was made available to senators.

Obama's remarks will only add to the charged political climate in Washington and on the campaign trail following the Congressional testimony of General David Petraeus, the Iraq war commander, and Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Iraq. In the past, Obama has noted that though he opposed the war from the beginning, he was not in the Senate at the time and therefore could not fully judge others' votes on the resolution. But with the primaries nearing, the candidates have sharpened their rhetoric on the dominant foreign policy issue of the campaign. (Dana Milbank's piece in The Washington Post today about the jockeying is a must-read.)

Another Democrat, Chris Dodd, hit both Obama and Clinton today for sidestepping the question of whether they will support continued funding for the war without a firm timetable for withdrawal. Dodd said in a statement: "I was disappointed that Senator Obama's thoughts on Iraq today didn't include a firm, enforceable deadline for redeployment, and dismayed that neither he nor Senator Clinton will give an unequivocal answer on whether they would support a measure if it didn't have such an enforceable deadline."

To see Obama's plan for Iraq in detail, go here.

UPDATE: On a conference call with reporters this afternoon, Obama was highly critical of Iraqi leaders, who he said have plainly not understood the "urgency" of reaching a political solution for their country.

"The whole premise of the surge was that we were going to be buying time [and] creating space for them to arrive at the political reconciliation," he said. "They have chosen not to utilize that time."

Obama went on to say that it was "not a function of whether they have the breathing room or space. It's a function of their lack of will to accomplish it."

Hillary Clinton snagged her fourth union endorsement when the National Association of Letter Carriers announced today that it will support her presidential bid.

But the endorsement she and her Democratic rivals are pointing towards will come next week, when the powerful, 1.9-million-member Service Employees International Union could announce its pick.

The letter carriers union claims 300,000 active and retired members. In a statement issued by the Clinton campaign, union President William H. Young said that Clinton was the runaway winner of a survey of union members and that she won support for being the first candidate to back legislation banning the contracting out of carrier jobs to low-wage private firms.

"There is nobody better prepared to take up the battle for universal health insurance, and there is no one I would trust more than Senator Clinton to strengthen Social Security in order to keep the promises we have made as a nation to our retirees, our disabled workers and to their survivors," Young said in the statement.

Clinton said, "These hardworking men and women are part of the fabric of every community in America, and they deserve an advocate in the White House."

She also has the support of the United Transportation Union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the Transportation Communication Union.

John McCain will make his support for the troops in Iraq a little more personal when his presidential campaign returns to New Hampshire on Thursday.

The Republican senator from Arizona and Vietnam War hero wants supporters to bring care packages filled with snacks, candy, toiletries, DVDs, phone cards, and handwritten letters of support. The items should be put in a shoebox or similar sized container, and will be sent to nonprofit groups aiding servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain's campaign said today.

He plans to be in East Rochester, Franklin, Concord, and Hudson on Thursday and in Londonderry on Friday, before moving on to South Carolina.

McCain, who has been rebounding in the polls since his performance in last week's debate in New Hampshire, launched his "No Surrender" tour (referring to his stand on Iraq, not his not-so-long-ago floundering campaign) Tuesday night in Iowa.

His campaign, meanwhile, added a feature to its website that chronicles McCain's various pronouncements on Iraq for the last four years.

MySpace and Facebook are so last month.

While nearly all the presidential candidates have pages on those social networking sites popular with the younger set, Barack Obama is the first to venture in LinkedIn, a networking site for older professionals.

"How can the next president better helps small business and entrepreneurs thrive?" the Illinois Democrat asks today on LinkedIn's homepage.

Obama and Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, are currently the only candidates who are members of LinkedIn, said spokeswoman Kay Luo.

If MySpace and Facebook are like a rowdy party or singles bar with members posting provocative snapshots or trashing Britney, LinkedIn is like a huge reception with everyone exchanging business cards to try make professional as well as personal connections.

"Your network consists of your connections, your connections' connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals," it brags.

Launched in 2003, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based site claims more than 14 million members worldwide, about half of them in the United States. Individuals can join for free with basic accounts, but LinkedIn charges corporations for the ability to contact members directly and post job offers.

It doesn't divulge how many connections people have on average, but Luo said in an email, "We encourage members to connect to people that they know well or do business with. Generally, you need at least 20 connections in order to get value from LinkedIn."

Mitt Romney is extending his TV ads to Florida, the fourth state where viewers will see him jogging near the family's summer home in New Hampshire and hear a narrator extol his political and business resume.

The 30-second spot began airing last week in Iowa and New Hampshire, where Romney has spent heavily and is leading in the polls among the Republican presidential hopefuls. It was also his first ad in South Carolina, where he is trailing in the polls.

The campaign said this morning that the ad will begin airing today in selected markets in Florida, where Republicans moved up their primary to Jan. 29, just behind the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire primary, and South Carolina primary. Michigan, where Romney grew up and is already well-known, also wants to shoehorn its primary into Jan. 15.

A new poll released today showed Romney running in third place among Florida Republicans with 11 percent support, behind Rudy Giuliani with 28 percent and Fred Thompson with 17 percent, and just ahead of John McCain with 10 percent.

Among Florida Democrats, Hillary Clinton led with 42 percent, well ahead of Barack Obama with 13 percent and John Edwards with 9 percent, according the Quinnipiac University Poll. The survey was conducted between Sept. 3 and Sept. 9 with 1,141 Florida voters. The margin of sampling error for both the 446 Democratic voters and the 438 Republican voters questioned was plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

The ad features Romney's wife Ann, showing her giving a speech in which she declares, "Every place that Mitt has gone, he has solved problems that people said were nearly impossible."

The narrator then says that Romney turned around failing companies at Bain Capital, saved the 20002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and balanced the budget as Massachusetts governor without tax hikes (though he and the Legislature raised numerous fees).

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign further distanced itself this morning from a website attacking rival Fred Thompson.

"The site had no direct affiliation to our campaign, and we had no knowledge of its development," said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for the Romney campaign.

The website, PhoneyFred.org, made unflattering characterizations of the new entrant into the Republican nomination race, calling him "Playboy Fred," "Trial Lawyer Fred," and "Moron Fred," among other monikers.

The site, which was taken down after reporters inquired about it on Monday, was linked to the political consulting firm of J. Warren Tompkins, a top consultant for Romney in South Carolina.

Madden said that the site was created by an employee at an Internet firm who placed it temporarily on a server of the Tompkins firm.

"We made it clear that we did not approve of the site and asked for immediate action to make sure it was again in no way affiliated with the campaign," Madden said in an emailed statement. "The person responsible is not an employee of ours, but we took immediate action to make sure it was clear the site was not affiliated with the campaign."

Madden did not directly address a call for a Thompson campaign spokesman to fire Tompkins and to issue an apology for what he called "high-tech gutter politics."

The Thompson campaign was not satisfied with Romney's response, and this afternoon reissued its demand for an apology and firings with some harsh words.

"Today's half-baked cover-up attempt by the Romney campaign does not even pass the laugh test," Todd Harris, a Thompson campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

"This latest episode only serves to prove what many voters are already figuring out: Mitt Romney will do anything, say anything, smear any opponent and flip flop on any position in order to win. The American people in general and the Republican Party in particular deserve better than this."

Elizabeth meet Rachael. Rachael meet Elizabeth.

In the latest foray of the presidential campaign into the world of TV talk shows, Elizabeth Edwards will appear Wednesday on Rachael Ray's daytime program.

Edwards will talk about her 30th wedding anniversary to John, the former North Carolina senator seeking the Democratic nomination, the lessons she has taught her children, and what she does to relax, the Edwards campaign said.

Ray, the celebrity cook and Dunkin' Donuts pitchwoman, will also join Elizabeth, John, and their children for a peek at life on the campaign trail in Iowa. Elizabeth Edwards will also discuss her battle with breast cancer.

In recent weeks, Democratic rival Barack Obama has appeared on Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton had guest shots with David Letterman and Ellen Degeneres. And Republican Fred Thompson officially launched his presidential bid on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

(New Hampshire Historical Society)

Neil Tillotson joins other New Hampshire historical figures with a bobblehead doll.

For the political junkie who has just about everything, here's something new to add to your collectible list.

A bobblehead doll of Neil Tillotson, who cast the first vote in the New Hampshire presidential primary every year from 1960 to 2000. The Dixville Notch resident passed away in 2001 at the age of 102.

The New Hampshire Historical Society is offering the trinket as the fifth in a series of bobbleheads of historical figures it started in January 2006. Limited quantities of the Tillotson bobblehead, which shows him voting as depicted in a 1988 photo, are available for $15.95 at the historical society's library and museum, both in Concord, as well as online at nhhistory.org.

"Neil Tillotson was an elder statesman, inventor, and visionary who brought jobs, tourists, and attention to the North Country," Bill Veillette, the society's executive director, said in a statement. "He will always be remembered as a part of New Hampshire's political fabric and our first-in-the-nation primary."

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

It's all 9/11 all the time today on the official website of presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

In a none-too-subtle reminder of who was mayor of New York City on that infamous day six years ago, if you click on joinrudy2008.com, up comes a sky-blue page that says "September 11, 2001/We will not forget."

Underneath is Giuliani's quote, in remarks to the United Nations that Oct. 1: "This massive attack was intended to break our spirit. It has not done that. It has made us stronger."

The site directs visitors to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum website. At the bottom of the page, is a reminder of what Rudy is doing these days. "Paid for by the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee Inc.," it says

There is no click through today to the campaign's main site and it will be inaccessible all day, according to the campaign.

It's Day Two of the highly charged Congressional testimony of Iraq war commander David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Do you know where your presidential candidate is?

With Petraeus's and Crocker's sober on-the-ground assessments setting in, White House hopefuls have begun to position themselves accordingly. Republicans generally used the testimony to argue against withdrawing troops too quickly. Democrats cited the stated failures, particularly the lack of political progress in Iraq, in reiterating support for diminishing the American presence there.

Tomorrow, Barack Obama is set to deliver what his campaign is calling a major address on the war, what it has cost the US, and his plan to end it. Obama, according to campaign aides, will outline new policy proposals on withdrawing troops, diplomacy in the region, and prescriptions for dealing with Iraq's humanitarian crisis. Obama will deliver his address in Clinton, Iowa tomorrow afternoon, part of a two-day swing through the eastern part of the state.

Mitt Romney this morning blasted the liberal political group MoveOn.org for questioning the independence of General David H. Petraeus on the eve of his much-anticipated testimony today to Congress on the Iraq war.

In a full-page ad in today's New York Times, the group asked in a headline, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" and accused the top US military commander in Iraq of "cooking the books for the White House."

Romney called the ad "outrageous," adding, "Like the men he commands, he is risking his life to protect our freedoms here at home. We should not prejudge him or his testimony, or give him anything less than the full respect he deserves."

In his presidential campaign, Romney has generally supported the Bush administration's policy in Iraq and has said the so-called surge of 30,000 additional US troops is working.

"Democrats must make a choice," Romney said in a statement. "Will they embrace these deplorable tactics or give General Petraeus a fair hearing? It should be the hope of all Americans that we give him a fair hearing. Certainly, he and our men and women in Iraq deserve it. In the coming days and weeks, there will be much debate about the future course in Iraq, but this debate should be free of the kind of shameful tactics MoveOn.org has shown today. It's time we heard from the generals, not Washington politicians and not ultra-liberal advocacy groups. All Americans should keep an open mind."

John McCain also condemned the ad, calling it a "McCarthyite attack on an American patriot."

"This is a man who has devoted his life in service to our nation and has defended America in many battles over many years," McCain said in a statement. "Now he is the target of a despicable attack in one our nation's most visible newspapers. No matter where you stand on the war, we should all agree on the character and decency of this exceptional American. I would hope that the Democratic Congressional leadership and Democratic presidential candidates would also join me in publicly condemning this kind of political attack ad and the organization responsible for it in the strongest terms possible."

This afternoon, MoveOn.org issued a statement standing by the ad and challenging critics to point out any factual misstatements.

"It should come as no surprise that General Petraeus' claims have come under critical scrutiny," Eli Pariser, executive director of the group's political action committee, said in the statement. "The facts all point in one direction -- the surge isn't working -- and General Petraeus and the White House are pointing in another."

It's not a caucus or primary. It's not even a straw poll.

But trying to make some hay out of what's at hand, the John Edwards campaign bragged this afternoon that it won what it called an "e-primary" conducted by the Texas Democratic Party.

In an online vote of more than 8,100 Democrats in the Lone Star state Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, Edwards won 38 percent, well ahead of Barack Obama with 21 percent and Hillary Clinton with 20 percent. That order is reversed from national polls.

"John's victory demonstrates that Texas Democrats see him as the candidate of real change," Elizabeth Edwards, who is campaigning today in Texas, said in a statement provided by the campaign. "They know that the system in Washington is broken and that the only way to get real change is to elect a president who will fight for change everyday, who has bold new solutions, and who will take on the entrenched interests, beat them and end the game. John Edwards is that candidate."

The official Texas primary is scheduled for March 4.

A new national poll out today suggests that Fred Thompson is gaining and Mitt Romney is losing ground in the Republican presidential nomination race.

Thompson, who benefited from a burst of publicity last week by formally jumping into the campaign, had the support of 22 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning independents, up from 19 percent last month, and cemented his second-place standing behind Rudy Giuliani, according to the USA Today/Gallup Poll.

Romney, who is leading in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, saw his support drop from 14 percent to 10 percent and fell to fourth nationally behind John McCain, whose backing rose to 15 percent from 11 percent last month.

The changes, however, are within the statistical margin of error.

Asked who they would prefer if the choice narrowed to Giuliani and Thompson, 53 percent picked the former New York mayor and 40 percent the former Tennessee senator. Between Giuliani and Romney, 68 percent picked Giuliani and 23 percent the former Massachusetts governor.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton continues to lead, with 45 percent compared to 24 percent for Barack Obama and 16 percent for John Edwards.

In a two-way race with Obama, Clinton leads the Illinois senator 63 percent to 32 percent, her biggest margin yet in the USA Today/Gallup Poll.

The poll surveyed 500 Democrats and 425 Republicans on Friday and Saturday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points within each group.

By Andrew Ryan and Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

The presidential campaign headquarters of Mitt Romney was burglarized overnight, a campaign spokesman said.

There was "forced entry" into the three-story waterfront building at 585 Commercial St. in the North End, and several computers and a television were stolen, said spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. The break-in, which occurred late Sunday or early today, did not appear to be politically motivated.

"By all appearances this is a routine burglary," Fehrnstrom said. "There were a number of items that were left untouched -- files and the like."

Fehrnstrom referred additional questions to Boston police. He declined to described how the burglar or burglars broke into the building.

A police source with direct knowledge of the case said someone at Romney's campaign headquarters reported the crime in a 911 call at 9:40 a.m. today, reporting that $20,000 worth of equipment was stolen.

Romney has private fund-raising events scheduled today in Boston and New York, and a spokesman said that Romney would not be available for comment.

What the Nixon administration originally described as a "two-bit burglary" at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office building on June 17, 1972, eventually led to a White House cover-up and the end of Richard M. Nixon's presidency.

Other presidential campaigns have also been victimized.

Last month, a burglar broke into the Hartford office of Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. A homeless man was accused of stealing a television and a computer and charged with larceny, burglary, and criminal mischief. Police do not believe that the break-in was politically motivated.

On July 6, thieves broke into Barack Obama's Iowa headquarters in Davenport. The Rocky Mountain News reported at the time that two laptop computers and campaign literature were taken.

Fred Thompson's long tease is finally over -- he formally launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday.

Michael Bloomberg is a different matter.

The New York mayor, who has created quite a bit of buzz as a possible independent candidate, keeps saying no. But his actions keep saying maybe.

The latest: Just like the official candidates, he now has his own pages on the popular social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. His MySpace page notes that he went to Harvard Business School, and as of this morning listed 48 friends.

Bloomberg started the speculation in June when he changed his voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated. Then last month, former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn acknowledged that he had talked to Bloomberg, as well as Unity '08, a group trying to field a bipartisan or independent ticket for president.

And then even his mother, who lives in Medford, stirred the pot. "The last time we talked about it, he said, 'I haven't made up my mind yet,' " Charlotte Bloomberg told Rich Barlow, who writes the Spiritual Life column in the Globe. "Personally, I don't think that he is interested."

In his latest statement, posted on his website Thursday, Bloomberg, himself, said, "As I've said before and I'll say again -- I am not running. But 'Are you running?' is the wrong question. The question should not be about politics, but about leadership. Not who is the best candidate, but who will be the best President."

Bloomberg continues, "For too long, the American people have been served up empty promises based on what politicians think we want to hear. It's time for something real. That's our challenge as a nation. That's what this upcoming campaign needs to be about. And these are the issues and challenges that I will continue to address."

Does Hillary Clinton have the star power of, say, rocker Rod Stewart, crooner Tony Bennett, or even rapper LL Cool J?

Well, something of an answer will emerge this afternoon at the annual AARP gathering, which has brought 25,000 attendees to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Clinton, a star in the political world and the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, is set to speak to the convention, called "Life@50+." Lots of other celebrities have appeared or are scheduled to appear, including basketball legend Bill Russell and father and son actors Kirk and Michael Douglas.

Among the presidential candidates, the only other one appearing is Republican Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor plans to be the first GOP candidate to sign a pledge card to support the Divided We Fail campaign.

A joint effort of the AARP, the Business Roundtable, and the SEIU union, the campaign calls for strengthening Social Security, making affordable health care available to all Americans, providing affordable prescription drugs, creating incentives to save for retirement, and expanding job opportunities for older people.

Huckabee's campaign issued a statement that "he recognizes that health and financial security are critical 21st century issues and he'll pledge to address them as President."

As Fred Thompson officially enters the presidential primary, he already has a leg up in some polls. It turns out, he also has an edge among his Republican competitors when it comes to web traffic.

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Thompson led the Republican field in July in unique visitors to his website, with 381,000. Rudy Giuliani came next, with 124,000, followed by Mitt Romney with 116,000, Ron Paul with 113,000, and John McCain with 104,000.

But Democrats led the field overall in terms of drawing people online. Barack Obama's website drew 717,000 unique visitors, followed by Hillary Clinton's with 437,000 and John Edwards' with 348,000.

Just as intriguing are Nielsen's calculations for the average time visitors spent in July on each campaign site. Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton's visitors spent the most time on average (eight minutes and 17 seconds), followed by Obama (seven minutes and 53 seconds) and Edwards (three minutes and 43 seconds).

Among Republicans, Giuliani fared best: Visitors to his website spent an average of seven minutes and 33 seconds. Paul came next (six minutes and 52 seconds), followed by McCain (one minute and 47 seconds) and Thompson' (one minute and 35 seconds). As for Mitt Romney's site? The average visitor stayed for 49 seconds.

(John Gress/Reuters)

Fred Thompson greets supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, at his first campaign event as a declared presidential candidate.

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Newly announced Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson took to the campaign trail for the first time this afternoon, appearing before a modest indoor crowd of a couple hundred people and dozens of media members in a carefully choreographed speech designed for wide television coverage.

"It all begins in Iowa," Thompson declared, as he launched into a speech about the need for conservative values, a limited role for the federal government, and support for the war in Iraq and against terrorism.

"We have the greatest young people in the world fighting for us and we have to match their commitment at home," Thompson said.

The speech followed his official announcement in an online appearance that was posted at 12:01 a..m today. After appearing last night on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Thompson flew to Iowa, which holds the first caucus of the presidential race.

While today's speech was similar to one he delivered in the online announcement, the event here featured a new wrinkle -- a video titled "The Hunt For Red November." It was a winking nod to one of Thompson's movie roles -- "The Hunt for Red October," in which he plays a rear admiral -- and a reference to his need to win "red" Republican states to become president.

The fast-paced video briefly told the story of Thompson's rise from being the son of a used-car dealer in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., to becoming a US senator and presidential candidate. Thompson joked that he liked the video so much he was tempted to play it again rather than speak to the crowd.

In the speech, Thompson said it was not his lifelong dream to become president and said he did not have all the answers to the nation's problems.

But he said he was worried about the choices facing the next president and concerned about his grandkids' future and believed he could offer strong leadership. His months of testing the waters across the country confirmed that view, Thompson said.

"I think the American people have opened up a door of opportunity," he said.

While Thompson has plans for plenty of closer-to-the-ground campaign events, such as a stop at a diner and a town hall meeting, the kickoff was notable for the decision to have a small, controlled event that didn't depend on many walk-up participants. The gathering might have been far larger if Thompson had begun his campaign in his home state, as some other candidates have done, but his campaign hoped that the impact of coming to Iowa first would gain more notice than the size of the crowd or the setting of the event.

"The preseason is over," he said. "Let's get on with it."

It's not quite winning a new car or getting free burgers for life for being the one millionth customer.

But Ron Wood seemed thrilled just the same to be the one millionth supporter to sign up on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign website.

His prize: He got to spend Labor Day in Des Moines with the former First Lady and with former President Bill Clinton.

"It's amazing because all of my friends say that you are the biggest Clinton supporter in the world," he told the camera operator recording the day.

The campaign released a web video today of the highlights: hugging the power couple as they got off the plane, devouring a hot dog at the fairgrounds, being introduced onstage, and putting the Clintons on the phone with his mother and sister.

"They're screaming like bobbysoxers," said Wood, a computer programmer from Georgia.

Another longtime supporter, Michelle Smith, a sixth-grade teacher from Michigan, tagged along. "I know I will be telling my grandchildren about this some day," she said in a campaign press release announcing the video.

And now, Clinton is offering lunch at her home in Washington as a new prize. The winner will be picked from people who contribute by midnight Friday.

"Let's do lunch," she says in her pitch. "Let's talk, you and me -- about whatever you'd like. Our hopes. Our goals. Our work. The weather. Maybe even politics."

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton jumped at the chance to take the microphone at an important Senate armed services committee hearing on Iraq this morning as her colleagues hurried off to take a vote on the Senate floor.

Junior senators -- even those who are running for president -- often have little chance to question witnesses or pontificate at important hearings, since they generally speak in order of seniority. But Clinton got to speak up while her colleagues were off voting, briefly leaving a distinguished military panel facing only the New York senator and a crescent of empty leather chairs.

General James Jones told the panel that Iraqi security forces are making major strides. Clinton pressed Jones on why Iraqi political leaders have not stepped up at the same time.

"If we take away deadlines, take away benchmarks, take away timelines, what is the urgency that will move them to act?" she said. "The administration and the Iraqi government keep moving the goalposts for success, and I am deeply concerned that we are not going to see any difference in 12 to 18 months.

"We'll see more American casualties and we'll see the opportunity costs of getting bogged down in Iraq," she continued, at the expense of tending to China, the Middle East, and other parts of the world.

Clinton also mentioned that she sent a letter Wednesday to President Bush asking him to answer 20 questions on Iraq. For the record, she then cut her questioning short to go get in her own vote.

Fred Thompson, who is officially launching his presidential bid today, leads in a new poll in South Carolina.

Thompson, the well-known actor and former Tennessee senator, received the support of 19 percent of Republicans surveyed in the Clemson University Palmetto Poll.

Rudy Giuliani, the national front-runner in most polls, was second with 18 percent, and John McCain was third with 15 percent.

Mitt Romney was fourth with 11 percent, but the August poll suggested he could grow his support -- he is much better known than a similar poll in October 2006 and is seen far more favorably as well.

Twenty percent of Republicans said they were still undecided. The South Carolina GOP primary has gained some prominence since party officials moved it up in the election calendar to Jan. 19.

Among S.C. Democrats, who are scheduled to go to the polls on Jan. 29, Hillary Clinton has a healthy lead over Barack Obama, 26 percent to 16 percent. Among African-American voters, who typically make up half the turnout, she leads 28 percent to 23 percent, according to the poll.

John Edwards, the former senator from neighboring North Carolina who won the South Carolina primary in 2004, was third with 10 percent. Of Democrats surveyed, 35 percent said they were undecided.

The post-debate punditry continues apace, and if there's any consensus so far, it's that John McCain might have righted the ship on his campaign with a strong performance, and that Mitt Romney took some shots as the front-runner in the early voting states.

The Republican presidential debate Wednesday night at the University of New Hampshire, which went slightly over its allotted 90 minutes on FOX News Channel, was the first of the post-Labor Day fall rush and was the feistiest of the campaign so far.

A focus group of New Hampshire Republicans hosted by pollster Frank Luntz for FOX gave high marks to McCain, whose campaign had been floundering, but used his foreign policy credentials and his Vietnam War hero bona fides to his advantage.

"A single strong debate performance can't, by itself, resurrect a candidacy," writes Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, a prominent opinion-setter among conservative Republicans. "But it can help by guaranteeing McCain more press coverage -- and more respectful treatment, at that -- and perhaps a bump in the polls that come out almost daily."

The McCain camp is certainly trying to foster that impression. "This evening, John McCain demonstrated why he is the only candidate with the proven national security experience vital to confronting the transcendent challenge facing our nation -- the struggle against radical Islamic extremism," said Rick Davis, his campaign manager, said in a post-debate statement. "McCain has demonstrated leadership and political courage by advocating an Iraq policy that would bring our troops home with honor -- by winning."

McCain also lectured Romney on not waiting until the top US commander in Iraq reports to Congress next week to declare that the so-called surge of American troops is working.

Romney, who is leading in the polls in New Hampshire and in Iowa, also sparred with national front-runner Rudy Giuliani over illegal immigration -- specifically over how much New York welcomed them while Giuliani was mayor.

While Romney appeared to score some points, on the First Read blog, the NBC News political team said that Romney was on the defensive all night and needs to figure out a way to turn attacks from other candidates into a positive.

John Edwards is picking up his fourth major union endorsement in New York this afternoon, this one from the Transport Workers Union of America.

That puts him in the lead for labor support among the Democratic presidential hopefuls. Edwards, who has aggressively and assiduously tried to position himself as the champion of the working class, also has the backing of the United Steelworkers, the United Mine Workers of America, and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

James C. Little, president of the 200,000-member Transport Workers, said the union chose Edwards of his steadfast support for labor and because it believes he has the best chance of any Democrat to prevail in November 2008.

"We think he can win," Little told the Associated Press.

(File)

Robert Duvall made famous the role of a gung-ho air cavalry commander in "Apocalypse Now."

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

Hollywood endorsements are a dime a dozen, but former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has bagged one that seems particularly suited to fit his hard-edged campaign for president.

Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall has starred in vivid roles as grizzled cowboys, a mad preacher, an overbearing Marine pilot, and consiglieri to a Mafia don. The most memorable, however, may be Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, the wild surf-loving air cavalry commander in "Apocalypse Now," Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 masterpiece set in the Vietnam War.

"Rudy has consistently proven he's ready to confront tough challenges," Duvall said in a statement issued today by the Giuliani campaign. "I don't normally get involved in politics, but I think the stakes are too high this election."

He and his wife, Luciana, will host a fundraiser for Giuliani later this month at their home in Virginia, the campaign said.

"As a fan and an admirer of Mr. Duvall's work for some time, I am honored to have Robert and his wife Luciana's support and help on our campaign," Giuliani said in the campaign press release.

Maybe Giuliani, who loves to imitate Marlon Brando's rendering of Vito Corleone, the don in another Coppola classic, "The Godfather," will add some memorable Duvall lines to his repertoire on the stump.

The most famous from "Apocalypse Now:" "You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff

DES MOINES, Iowa -- While the Republican presidential candidates prepared to debate tonight in New Hampshire, Fred Thompson was nowhere near the first-primary state. Instead, he was preparing to launch his campaign in an unusual style that will either go down in history as a brilliant strategic stroke or a classic blunder.

In short order today, Thompson taped an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, released a campaign advertisement that aired during the GOP debate, and prepared to release his official announcement in an online video available immediately after midnight on his campaign website . All of these moves are intended to set the stage for what will finally -- after months of speculation and indecision -- culminate in his formal announcement speech Thursday afternoon in Des Moines.

Thompson is gambling that his unorthodox announcement strategy, which has already upset the chairman of New Hampshire's Republican Party and Fox News, co-sponsors of the debate, will not hurt his chances in the New Hampshire primary. He plans to spend part of three days touring Iowa before arriving in New Hampshire on Saturday night. He then plans a bus tour of the Granite State on Sunday.

In the television advertisement that is slated to run during the debate, Thompson stands before an American flag and says, "the fate of millions across the world depends on the unity and resolve of the American people. I talk about this tomorrow on Fred08.com. I invite you to take a look and join us."

The strategy has created plenty of buzz, but also plenty of questions about his strength in the early caucus and primary states. After tonight, when he will formally be in the fray, the scrutiny of the actor-politician will be far greater.

Chris Dodd is the latest Democratic presidential hopeful to bash the Bush administration over the lengthening list of recalls of products made in China.

The Connecticut senator referenced Mattel's global recall of 848,000 drum sets, Barbie accessories, and other toys -- the toy giant's third because of dangerous levels of lead paint. Democrats in Congress have been calling for beefing up the Consumer Product Safety Commission's staffing and authority to stop the importation of dangerous products.

Dodd goes further, calling on Bush "to immediately suspend imports of all food and toys from China."

"This latest report is just the latest in a weeks-long string -- how many more American children are going to be put at risk while the President sits by idly?" Dodd asked in a statement released by his campaign. "This lax stance on China is one example of how President Bush's policies have made our nation far less secure and our children and families far less safe than they were six years ago. His inaction is simply unacceptable."

John Edwards also weighed in, issuing a statement that the federal government can no longer rely on voluntary recalls by companies and must act on its own.

"Rather than wait for a broken Washington system to act, the president must end his silence, stand up, and lead. President Bush must order Consumer Product Safety Commission inspectors to Mattel's warehouses and collect samples of its full product lines and test each and every one of them for lead paint," he said in the statement. "If necessary, the president should call on testing resources from the FDA and other agencies to manage this crisis that is threatening the very health of our children."

John Edwards said today that Congress, instead of arguing with the White House over whether benchmarks have been met for progress in Iraq, should force President Bush to change policy by setting the start of troop withdrawals in war funding bills.

"It's time for the Congress to stand its ground," he said on a conference call with reporters. "If there's no timetable, there should be no funding."

The Democratic presidential contender is calling for the immediate withdrawal of 40,000 to 50,000 US troops and the redeployment of the rest over about nine months. He said Congress faces a "critical moment" to do the will of the American people and resist what he called "an incredible PR campaign" by the White House to continue the current Iraq policy.

Congress and the White House are heading toward a showdown on the war, with conflicting reports on progress on the ground since the so-called surge of 30,000 additional US forces in and around Baghdad.

The Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday that of 18 benchmarks, the Iraqi government had met three, partly met four others, but had failed to meet 11. Army General David H. Petraeus is expected to deliver a more positive assessment to Congress on Monday. President Bush is seeking $50 billion more to fund the war.

"George Bush is stubborn," Edwards said. "...Congress needs to call him on this."

The Democratic-controlled Congress needs to force a change in policy through the power of the purse, and push Iraqi leaders to a comprehensive political solution, Edwards said. He said semi-autonomous regions for the Shia, Sunnis, and Kurds makes some sense, but that's a decision for Iraqis to make.

He wouldn't venture a guess what would happen after American forces leave. "I don't think anyone can predict with any confidence what will happen in Iraq," he said.

Precisely eight minutes after Hillary Clinton's announcement of her new TV ad arrived in our inbox, Barack Obama's campaign countered with a new ad of its own. This one, like Clinton's, is called "Change," and it will run in Iowa. (Clinton's is running in New Hampshire.) It touts Obama's work passing ethics reform in Illinois and requiring more transparency in the federal government. "We are going to take back our government; we are going to make a change," Obama says.

For a lighter take on the Obama-Clinton duel, this YouTube selection is worth a viewing. (Hat tip to Ben Smith at The Politico.)

Continuing her fall campaign push, Hillary Clinton will air her first TV ad in New Hampshire starting Thursday, her campaign said today.

The 30-second spot uses footage from Sunday rallies in Concord and Portsmouth to reinforce Clinton's argument that she has the experience and record to bring the change that Democratic voters want on health care, the war in Iraq, and other issues.

"If we have the will, she has the strength," the narrator says at the end of the ad, titled "Change." "If we have the conviction, she has the experience. If we're ready for change, she's ready to lead."

"I know that when she's president she'll bring the change that we need," Terie Norelli, co-chairwoman of Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, told reporters in a conference call. "She is the candidate who will be able to hit the ground running on the first day."

Norelli, the first Democratic speaker of the New Hampshire House, would not say how long the ad will run, but said it was "a significant buy."

She said the campaign decided to start TV ads now to capitalize on the momentum from the weekend fall kick-off rallies, which drew thousands.

"The ad continues the campaign's commitment to the first-in-the-nation primary," Norelli said. "We're not taking anything for granted."

Clinton, the New York senator and former First Lady, is leading the Democratic nomination polls nationally and in New Hampshire, but Illinois Senator Barack Obama and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards are chasing her aggressively.

While they are trying to cast her as a creature of Washington, tied to special interests, she is portraying herself as the candidate with the experience and moxie to bring change.

They say that a presidential campaign is more a marathon than a sprint. So Mitt Romney keeps running and running in his new TV ad -- the second in a row that shows him pounding the pavement near the family vacation home on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H.

The 30-second spot, which begins airing today in Iowa and New Hampshire, also features Ann Romney, the candidate's better half who is taking a more visible role in the campaign. It shows her giving a speech in which she declares, "Every place that Mitt has gone, he has solved problems that people said were nearly impossible."

The narrator then ticks off the high points of Romney's resume: turning around failing companies at Bain Capital, saving the 20002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and balancing the budget as governor without tax hikes (though he and the Legislature raised numerous fees).

The first running ad, which began airing last week, follows a similar script. The Romney campaign said today that it will expand its TV advertising and air both ads over the next two weeks in South Carolina, where Romney has spent less time and money and trails in the polls.

The spots seem to serve two purposes -- introducing Romney in a very favorable light to many voters who still don't know him very well, and portraying him as a very vigorous 60-year-old who has the energy to lead the country.

In case you missed it over the holiday weekend, here's a link to the in-depth analysis by Susan Milligan, national political reporter for the Boston Globe, of the business of politics. Milligan spent weeks calculating how much candidates have spent in the 2008 presidential race on professional consultants, and assessing the impact of this trend. The findings are sobering.

The article, on the front page of the Sunday Globe on Sept. 2, notes that "Hillary Clinton has already paid more than $1.3 million to 10 different types of professional political operatives to advise her on everything from media strategy to trip planning and Internet use. Her campaign hired more than 350 people during the first half of this year, making it a bigger employer than 96 percent of US businesses, according to the US Census Bureau."

Milligan argues that "in just a few election cycles, running for president of the United States has undergone a profound - and costly - change. Campaigns that once began as ideological missions driven by candidates and volunteers have been subsumed by a permanent class of professionals whose job is to keep the campaign on a carefully crafted script."

She writes:

"The 2008 race has already set new benchmarks for the use of political consultants, with two candidates - Republicans Mitt Romney and John McCain - having already spent more on consultants in six months than what the eventual 2004 nominees, John F. Kerry and George W. Bush, spent on professional advisers for their entire campaigns. But 2008 may ultimately be remembered for what all that money bought: A culture in which candidates are being instructed what to wear, what to say, where to travel, and what theme song best suits their message."

Milligan quotes Allan J. Lichtman, a presidential scholar at American University, as saying that that candidates are spending much less time thinking about "what to do in Iraq" and much more time spent thinking about "how to spin what we do in Iraq."

One candidate, Barack Obama, has already paid more than $2 million in payroll taxes alone - 50 percent more than what Bill Clinton spent on his entire campaign in 1991. And some candidates' war chests are earning significant income. "Collectively, the contenders earned more than $350,000 in bank interest on their campaign accounts for the first half of the year."

All the major Republican presidential hopefuls -- with the glaring exception of Fred Thompson -- will descend Wednesday night on the University of New Hampshire for the first big debate of the fall campaign.

The 90-minute debate, sponsored by the New Hampshire GOP, starts at 9 p.m. and will be broadcast live on FOX News Channel, on Fox News Radio, and on Foxnews.com.

Fox is going all out, sending its top personalities to moderate, pose questions to the eight candidates, and host programs both before and after the actual showdown. Queries will also come from voters at Young's Diner on Main Street in Durham and from those who send them by email at debate@foxnews.com.

Among the subplots that political observers will be watching:

-- Will Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, who have been going after each other on the stump and in ads on issues such as illegal immigration, continue their tussle face-to-face?

-- Can John McCain, who is returning to his war hero biography to try to revive his campaign, create some excitement?

-- Can Mike Huckabee, who finished a surprising second in the Iowa straw poll, pull himself up into the first tier of candidates?

-- How often will his rivals get in digs at Thompson, who is officially joining the race this week but decided to skip the debate (He will appear via a video ad)?

On a major theme of the Democratic presidential battle -- change versus experience -- voters come down decidedly on the side of change.

That's the reading, at least, from a new Gallup poll released today.

Asked which was more important in deciding their vote, 73 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents responded a candidate who would bring about change in Washington, while only 26 percent said they preferred a candidate with a lot of experience in Washington.

Of course, when not forced to choose, voters said they wanted it all -- 96 percent said the ability to bring change is desirable in a candidate, while 59 percent also said inside-the-Beltway experience is desirable.

On the surface, at least, the survey augurs well for Barack Obama, a first-term US senator, who is trying to turn his relative inexperience in the nation's capital to his advantage, by arguing that because he is not beholden to special interests and Washington insiders, he can change federal government. Former US senator John Edwards is also making the outsider case.

They are going after Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who spent eight years as First Lady and is in her second term in the US Senate. But in her new stump speech that she unveiled in New Hampshire and Iowa over Labor Day weekend, Clinton argues that she offers both change and experience: She has the experience, she says, to make change happen.

Gallup conducted the poll Aug. 23-26 among 500 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.

(AP photo)

Campaigning in Manchester, N.H. today, Barack Obama unveiled his plan to make the federal government more transparent, including national broadband town hall meetings -- he's calling them "21st Century Fireside Chats" -- that he says his Cabinet will hold with the American people.

Obama also proposed a new centralized database of lobbying reports, congressional ethics records, and campaign finance filings available on the internet; more sunlight on lobbyists seeking government contracts and presidential pardons; and establishing a "contracts and influence" database showing what federal contractors spend on lobbying, contract details, and contractor performance.

"The American people want to trust in our government again -- we just need a government that will trust in us," Obama said, according to his campaign. "And making government accountable to the people isn't just a cause of this campaign -- it's been a cause of my life for two decades."

Obama has been a leader on ethics reform in the Illinois Senate and in the US Senate, and he has trumpeted the fact that he doesn't take money from PACs and lobbyists. That hasn't always been the case, though, as the Globe recently reported.

Read Obama's full ethics proposal here.

Talk about not respecting your elders.

A student at Concord High School in New Hampshire today asked directly a question usually whispered about John McCain: Is he too old to be president?

According to the Associated Press, one student asked, "If elected, you'd be older than Ronald Reagan, making you the oldest president. Do you ever worry you might die in office or get Alzheimer's or some other disease that might affect your judgment?"

As the crowd groaned, the Republican presidential hopeful responded with humor, according to the AP account.

"Thanks for the question, you little jerk," replied McCain, who at 71 would, if elected, be the oldest person ever to start a term in the Oval Office. "You're drafted."

All but one of the presidential contenders could pick up some helpful life hints -- as well as address an important voting bloc. But so far only two of them have committed to an AARP event Friday in Boston.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mike Huckabee plan to speak to the "Life@50+" forum, which is expected to draw more than 25,000 AARP members, relatives, and friends to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The event is billed as part class reunion; part home, travel, health, and high-tech expo; and part summer concert weekend.

The AARP said today that all the major presidential candidates were invited, and others could accept this week. Of the hopefuls, only Democrat Barack Obama, at 46, is under 50 years old.

Now you can be Rudy's friend.

The Republican presidential hopeful and former New York mayor launched a new and improved version of his campaign website this morning, and it now features links to the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.

Besides the usual wrinkles, the Giuliani campaign will offer behind-the-scenes peeks from staffers. In a preview video, a staffer invites viewers to join a national series of house parties on Sept. 26.

The candidate, himself, is in Mississippi today. But on Wednesday night, he and the other Republicans (except Fred Thompson) will be at a major debate at the University of New Hampshire.