Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* A WaPo/ABC poll of New Hampshire Dems shows the race in the Granite State closer than ever. At this point, Hillary Clinton leads with 35%, followed by Barack Obama with 29%, and John Edwards with 17%. For Obama fans, the poll is good news, because the six-point margin is the smallest to date in New Hampshire. For Clinton fans, the poll is good news because the internals show her solidifying her support among her backers.
* Speaking of polls, new Iowa data from Strategic Vision, a Republican pollster, shows Mike Huckabee leading Mitt Romney in Iowa, 27% to 24%. Giuliani is third with 13%, followed by Fred Thompson at 11%. Among Dems, Strategic Vision shows Obama with a seven-point lead over Clinton, 32% to 25%. Edwards is tied with Clinton in this poll.
* And in still more poll news, a Marist poll in New Hampshire shows Clinton leading Obama by 14 points, 37% to 23%, while on the other side of the aisle, Romney leads McCain and Giuliani, 29% to 17% to 17%.
* Obama unveiled his national-service plan yesterday at Cornell College in Iowa, after picking up the endorsement of former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford, who helped form the Peace Corps during his time in the Kennedy administration. Obama’s plan includes a major expansion of AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots to 250,000 slots, and the creation of five new “corps,” including: Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps and Homeland Security Corps. Moreover, the policy would create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to ensure the first $4,000 of a college education is free for Americans willing to complete 100 hours of public service a year.
* Clinton tackled the mortgage crisis in a speech at Nasdaq’s NYC headquarters yesterday, pushing Wall Street to acknowledge its significant role in the problem and do its part to help fix it. “Wall Street shifted risk away from people who knew what was going on, onto people who did not,” she said. The WSJ added, “She urged investors to adhere to her plan to impose a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and freeze mortgage rates for at least five years to prevent families from immediately losing their homes.”
* Mike Huckabee struggled to explain his ignorance on the National Intelligence Estimate yesterday, telling Wolf Blitzer he’s been too busy to keep up on current events: “There are going to be times out there on the campaign trail, Wolf — you’ve been on the trail, you know — that candidates are literally driven from one event to the next. And it would have been nice had someone been able to first say here’s some things that are going on, that are taking place. That didn’t happen.”
* Fred Thompson is catching flack from Confederate flag-waving protestors for his comments at a debate last week. Asked about the flag, Thompson said that, “as far as a public place is concerned, I am glad that people have made the decision not to display it as a prominent flag, symbolic of something, at a state capital.” Jim Hanks, chairman of the South Carolina League of the South, said, “He’s masquerading as a good ole boy.” CNN’s report added, “One man was carrying a sign calling Thompson a ‘carpetbagger,’ but when he realized Thompson is from Tennessee, he put it away.”
* Harvard University’s Institute of Politics polled likely voters between the ages of 18 and 24, and found that among Dems, Obama enjoys a narrow lead over Clinton, 38% to 33%. Among Republicans, young people prefer Giuliani to McCain, 26% to 15%, though undecideds outnumbered any GOP candidate.
* The Hill: “After losing a lawsuit filed against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for stripping Florida’s delegates from the national convention, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said Wednesday that he would not pursue further legal action against the DNC. ‘I disagree, but the judge’s decision stands,’ Nelson said during a conference call. ‘I respect the decision. It is time to move on.'”
* I guess Oprah is popular in South Carolina: “Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign announced Wednesday afternoon that because of overwhelming demand, their rally on Sunday with Oprah Winfrey will be moved to the 80,000-seat [Williams-Brice] college football stadium in Columbia…. The campaign had been scheduled to hold the rally at the Colonial Center in downtown Columbia, which seats 18,000 people, but on Tuesday Obama’s state director Stacey Brayboy announced that ‘overwhelming excitement’ had caused a run on free tickets.”
* Wesley Clark has a new Clinton TV ad, dismissing criticism from other Democratic candidates: “I see that Hillary’s opponents have started to attack her. That’s politics. What this country needs is leadership.” Markos responded, “Of course it’s ‘politics.’ It’s called a presidential campaign. Clark’s ad itself is ‘politics.'”