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:<\/p>\n
* The Democratic presidential race is starting to get very interesting in South Carolina. A new Clemson University Palmetto Poll shows Hillary Clinton holding onto her lead, but by a small margin<\/a> — she’s leading the field with 19%, followed by Barack Obama with 17%, and John Edwards with 12. “Undecided” still draws a majority.<\/p>\n * Mitt Romney is poised to get a very helpful endorsement<\/a> from American Conservative Union President David Keene. “Keene said he became ‘convinced that Mitt Romney represents our best hope for 2008’ and added that in the weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, 2008 he would work to persuade ‘my fellow conservatives that if we are serious about electing a conservative president in 2008, it’s time to unite behind his candidacy.'”<\/p>\n * Chris Dodd, who is the Senate Banking Chairman in addition to being a Democratic presidential hopeful, unveiled his bankruptcy reform plan<\/a> yesterday, which would, to his credit, correct some of the more obvious flaws from the 2005 bill passed by Congress. CQ noted that Dodd’s plan “will include language that would change the treatment of mortgage debt to help struggling property owners hold on to their homes.”<\/p>\n * The next debate for Democratic presidential candidates, scheduled for Dec. 10 in Los Angeles, has been cancelled<\/a> because of a potential writers strike at CBS News. “Due to the uncertainty created by the ongoing labor dispute between CBS and the Writers Guild of America, the DNC has canceled,” spokeswoman Karen Finney said. “There are no plans to reschedule.” Just as well; Katie Couric was scheduled to be the moderator.<\/p>\n * Joe Biden drew a provocative line<\/a> yesterday, announcing that he would drop out of the presidential race if he fell short in Iowa. “If I don’t come out of here in the top three, unless you’re bunched up, then I’m out of here,” he told Hawkeye State public television. Right now, Biden is running a distant fifth<\/a> in the state. * AP<\/a>: “A Republican group that backs abortion rights will start an ad campaign this weekend in Iowa and New Hampshire portraying Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper and drawing attention to a questionnaire he filled out in 2002 endorsing legal abortions. The ads by the Republican Majority for Choice suggest Romney’s current anti-abortion stance is politically motivated…. ‘He’s an opportunist,’ Jennifer Blei Stockman, national co-chair of Republican Majority for Choice, said in an interview. ‘It’s important for voters to know who they are voting for.'”<\/p>\n * Washington Wire<\/a>: “John Edwards launched a Web site today that takes a cloaked strike at front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton. Called ‘America Belongs to Us,’ the site is essentially a petition seeking one million voters who promise to withhold their vote for any candidate who “accepts campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists” and lobbyist political action committees. The target is clear: Of the three leading Democrats, Edwards, Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama only Clinton has refused to turn down special-interest money. In keeping with Edwards’s increasingly strident (some would say angry) stump rhetoric, the site includes an ‘outrage of the day.'” (via Ron Chusid<\/a>)<\/p>\n
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\n* ABC News<\/a>: “Barack Obama, D-Ill., scoffed Wednesday at former President Bill Clinton’s recent claim that he opposed the Iraq war from the very beginning. ‘Well if he did,’ Obama said on a conference call with reporters, ‘I don’t think most of us have heard about it.'”<\/p>\n