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Iowa: Edwards surges, Huckabees bubble bursts — DES MOINES, Iowa — John Edwards has clawed his way into contention to win Iowa's caucuses on Thursday in the first vote for the Democratic presidential nomination, gaining strength even as rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have lost ground, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll.
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Reuters, The Politico, All Spin Zone, New York Observer, CALIFORNIA YANKEE, Political Machine, TalkLeft, PoliBlog (TM), THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, American Street, Talking Points Memo, Captain's Quarters, The Newshoggers, Taegan Goddard's …, New York Daily News Blogs, rubber hose, Stop The ACLU, race42008.com, Pollster.com, PoliGazette, TPM Election Central and CANNONFIRE
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Mike Huckabee (R) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) — MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday, this is it, the Iowa caucuses just four days away. Democrats Clinton, Edwards and Obama locked in a tight battle; Republicans Huckabee and Romney fighting for victory.


Huckabee stands by “Christ” comment — DES MOINES, Iowa - Mike Huckabee, a Republican relying on support from religious conservatives in Thursday's hard-fought presidential caucuses, on Sunday stood by a decade-old comment in which he said, “I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.”

Candidates Step Up Attacks in Iowa — BOONE, Iowa — The presidential candidates spent the last Sunday before the Iowa caucuses attending church services and staging big rallies to make last-minutes appeals as new polls suggested tightening races in both the Democratic and Republican fields.

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Clinton Leads Dems; GOP Deadlocked — Race is close on both sides of the aisle, as Obama challenges Clinton and Romney challenges Huckabee — UTICA, New York - Democrat Hillary Clinton leads narrowly among likely caucus-goers in Iowa, while the race …

Giuliani steers clear of political fray
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Captain's Quarters

Leader of Christian Iowa Group Gives Romney His Vote
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race42008.com

Huckabee: 'I Don't Know' If People Are ‘Born’ Gay, But It's A ‘Choice’ To Act Gay — On NBC's Meet The Press this morning, host Tim Russert asked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee if he believed “people are born gay or choose to be gay?" “I don't know whether people are born that way …
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NO SEX FOR YOU....I had the same read on Mike Huckabee's “Meet the Press” appearance this morning as ThinkProgress: … I see. So, Huckabee doesn't actually care if someone is gay, he cares whether or not gays are celibate. — And here I thought his years of bizarre criticism of the gay community were a sign of intolerance.
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Shakespeare's Sister

Times defends hiring conservative Kristol — The New York Times' hiring of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to write for its op-ed page caused a frenzy in the liberal blogosphere Friday night, with threats of canceling subscriptions and claims that the Gray Lady had been hijacked by neo-cons
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General Petraeus: man with a message of hope — The critics said it couldn't be done, but the vision and determination of General David Petraeus have brought greater security and cause for optimism to the people of Iraq. He is The Sunday Telegraph's Person of the Year.

Ron Beats Rudy? — New Hampshire could surprise a lot of people. — MANCHESTER, N.H.—For several hours last Sunday, more than a dozen Ron Paul volunteers stood in snowdrifts in the rain outside the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester waving at last-minute Christmas shoppers and handing out hundreds of yards signs.
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The Moderate Voice, Outside The Beltway, Nolan Chart, Stop The ACLU, TownHall Blog and NewsBusters.org


Bhutto's Successor — Benazir Bhutto's son has been anointed her successor, the slain former prime minister's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) confirmed today. A senior PPP official had told TIME late Saturday that Bhutto's 19-year-old son, Bilawal, would likely be named as her political heir and the new party leader on Sunday.
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New York Times, The Moderate Voice, The Democratic Daily, Gateway Pundit, Tammy Bruce and The Heretik
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A Family Affair? — Exclusive: Benazir Bhutto's will names …
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Patterico's Pontifications

The great fall of China — Revised GDP calculations show that Beijing isn't the giant we thought it was. — The most important story to come out of Washington recently had nothing to do with the endless presidential campaign. And although the media largely ignored it, the story changes the world.

The Best-Laid Five-Minute Plans of Bill Richardson. — It's tempting to rerun my column on Pakistan from a month ago. Not because I predicted the assassination of Benazir Bhutto or offered any other great insight, but rather for the opposite reason: “Everyone's an expert on Pakistan …

PROJECTION FROM THE FEVER SWAMP....Andrew Sullivan posted this email from a Republican reader today: … Whatever else you think about the Clinton vs. Obama question, this is almost certainly wrong. Among the activist liberal base — the people who are the loudest and angriest about what George Bush …

The Muslim smear, version 2.0 — Keep an eye on this one, because if Obama's the nominee, this Front Page magazine piece by the conservative writer Daniel Pipes is likely to be the template for a faux-legitimate assault on Obama's religion. — It opens with a line that a cynical observer predicted …