Maybe it's time CNN gives up this debate thing.

Last night's debate has been marred by the fact that the network allowed a Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter to ask a question through a YouTube video, and didn't disclose that fact.

Now Michelle Malkin has identified a number of other Democratic candidate supporters whom CNN selected to ask questions.

This follows by two weeks the last CNN Democratic debate, in which Wolf Blitzer utterly failed to pin down Clinton on her weeks-long flip-flop on driver's licenses for illegal aliens.

Months ago, someone suggested to me that CNN and MSNBC be allowed to handle the Democratic debates and FOX News Channel be allowed to handle the Republican debates, and we would all be better off. The thinking was, for primary voters, FOX knows what issues Republican voters want to hear about, while CNN and MSNBC are more in tune with Democratic voters.

The idea has some merit. The Republican debates on FOX have produced news, elicited differences among the candidates and generally managed to grab attention.

And MSNBC's most recent Democratic debate was the one in which Clinton began to have trouble with the driver's licenses question, under questioning by Tim Russert. Her slide in the polls can be traced back to that night.

In some ways, it's unfortunate for CNN. Last night's debate finally produced some fireworks between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, and now that will be overshadowed by the planted questions issue.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Is baking that bad?

Apparently it's something Republican men won't be caught dead doing, at least judging by the responses to Yankee Magazine's cookie primary. While many of the Democratic candidates took ownership of their entrees — "Senator Biden's Favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies," "Dodd Family Christmas Cookies" and "Bill and Barbara Richardson's Biscochitos" — none of the major Republicans admitted to having a cookie recipe.

Instead, each distanced himself by sticking the recipe in the name of his wife: "Jackie Tancredo's Frosted Chocolate Drops," "Mrs. Romney's Welsh Skillet Cakes," "Carol Paul's Apricot-Coconut Balls," "Cindy McCain's 3-Minute No-Bake Cookies," "Jeri Thompson's Grandmother's Sugar Cookies," and "Mrs. Huckabee's Snickerdoodles."

Rudy Giuliani doesn't have an entry, nor does Duncan Hunter.

On the Democratic side, it's worth knowing the sole female candidate submitted her own recipe for "Hillary Clinton's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies." But we can probably guess the recipe isn't hers, based on her infamous 1992 line that she is "not one to sit at home baking cookies."

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

While it may have been President Bush's shot that killed Trent Lott's bid to hold onto the Senate majority leadership post five years ago, following the Mississippi senator's comments about Sen. Strom Thurmond, the real critical move was from Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, and came a full week earlier, at a press conference with the Congressional Black Caucus.

Before that press conference, Democrats were inclined to give Lott a pass. But Waters' lecture to her party, delivered to a handful of reporters and cameras in the House press gallery studio, changed all of that, and within 10 days Lott had been forced to resign his post.

This is long, but I don't think it's ever been written, so let me explain the whole chain:

On Dec. 5, Lott made his infamous remarks at a 100th birthday celebration for Thurmond, saying he was proud Mississippi had voted for the then-segregationist Thurmond for president in 1948 and adding, "If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

That was a Thursday. The remark, broadcast live on C-SPAN, percolated a bit over the weekend, and by Monday morning had gained enough traction to have reporters asking about it on Capitol Hill. But the initial reactions from Democrats were that it was an innocent mistake that could be overlooked and Lott issued a statement saying his comments weren't meant as an endorsement of segregation, but of Thurmond himself.

Talking to reporters, Sen. Tom Daschle, Democrats' leader, said he didn't think Lott intended the comments to be racist and said "There are a lot of times when he and I go to the mike and would like to say things we meant to say differently, and I'm sure this is one of those cases for him as well."

I remember calling the press office for House Democrats' new leader, Nancy Pelosi, and asking if she had any reaction. I was told she didn't think it was that big a story, and that Senate Democrats were handling it. Democrats themselves were sucking the life out of the story.

Skip ahead several hours to a press conference held by the Congressional Black Caucus to announce its new leadership team for the 108th Congress. A reporter asked about Trent Lott, and the CBC's incoming leader, Rep. Elijah Cummings, said he was "shocked" but went no further. Outgoing chairwoman Juanita Millender-McDonald even said Lott called her to explain, and she seemed ready to accept his explanation:

"I did speak with Senator Lott on yesterday, and he indicated that if he had said anything that offended anyone that he was -- he made a mistake and he was sorry, that he was caught up in the moment and did not realize that it would be interpreted in that fashion. He was just attempting to give Senator Thurmond some praise for the number of years that he had served the public. And that he doesn't always agree with every member of the Senate; he didn't always agree with Senator Wellstone, but he said he had made comments there and thought much of him. He thanked me for calling, and he indicated that he would be issuing an apology, which I guess was in the paper today."

Several CBC members said that was enough on Lott, and told reporters to move to another topic.

But, at the end of the formal press conference, Maxine Waters stepped to the podium and lit the fire that would consume Lott.

"I simply want to say that I think that Mr. Daschle moved too quickly to explain Mr. Lott. I consider that this is a Democratic Party issue. And to the degree that the Democratic Party understands that it must relate to the concerns of African-Americans, they will pause and take into consideration what message this and other kinds of statements like this is sending to the African-American community. It is not enough to simply defend or to explain these kind of statements and then at election time talk about why black Americans should turn out in large numbers."

Within hours House Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, whose office said she didn't think it was a story, were at their own press conference blasting Lott. She even released a statement calling is "as astounding betrayal of what was on his mind," and saying she didn't think "any apology is adequate."

The feeding frenzy was on, Daschle had to reverse course and said he had thought about it more and conclude the remarks really were out of bounds, and the press then began a full-court press that didn't end until Bush had condemned the remarks and Republican senators began to attack rather than defend Lott. When Virginia's two senators announced they would support a challenger to Lott, it was clear to Lott he had lost his conference and had to resign his post.

-- Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Just for fun, here's President Bush's statement today on Trent Lott, who announced he will resign at the end of this year, and Bush's comments from 2002, when the president cut Lott's feet out from under him, effectively preventing him from becoming Senate majority leader.

Then:

"Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive, and it is wrong. Recent comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country. He has apologized, and rightly so. Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals. And the founding ideals of our nation and, in fact, the founding ideals of the political party I represent was, and remains today, the equal dignity and equal rights of every American."

Now:

"For more than three decades, Trent Lott has been an outstanding advocate in the United States Congress for the people of Mississippi. With service in the Republican leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, he has skillfully advanced legislation and effectively championed key principles of our party, including low taxes and a strong national defense.
…
Throughout his service, Trent has always been a leader — someone his colleagues have known they could count on to stay true to his principles while working cooperatively to achieve results for the American people. Trent enjoyed bipartisan respect because of his reverence for the institutions of Congress and because Republicans and Democrats knew they could count on him to keep his commitments and his word."

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Mike Huckabee has found himself on the defensive against charges that he was a tax-raiser during his 10 years as governor of Arkansas, but in a brutal review of his record, FactCheck.org says Huckabee's defense often rings hollow.

FactCheck — a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania — concludes that Huckabee "presided over a net tax increase" and was "misleading" in several of his defenses.

Specifically, they say he:

When Democrats won control of Congress many of the immigrant rights groups were certain they would get a better deal than they did under Republican control. For that matter, President Bush also thought he would get a better deal from Democrats.

They all turned out to be wrong — the Senate's bill failed, the victim of 15 Democrats and one liberal independent joining Republicans in opposition, and House Democratic leaders have refused to even try — and now the groups are starting to air their displeasure with Democrats.

In a new commentary "Under the bus," Immigration Daily, an online publication of immigration law publisher ILW.com, says it senses Democrats are actually turning into Republicans on the issue:

"Further, rumor on the Hill has it that the Democratic leadership is getting ready to support a Sensenbrenner-lite enforcement-only bill, thus proving that immigration is far from dead in DC, and that we may even have an immigration statute in an election year. A punitive act by Congress on immigration would, so the reasoning goes, defuse the immigration issue for the GOP, and thus help the Democratic Party strengthen in the House and the Senate and capture the Presidency next November. Those who expected better from a Democratic Congress have been disappointed. The Democratic leadership apparently does not want immigrants on the Democratic bus, but under it."

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Despite being the ultimate "purple" state in 2000, Florida appears to have solidly trended red since, at least in presidential elections. That's underscored by the latest round of surveys from the Fox 5-The Washington Times-Rasmussen Reports poll.

The Florida poll, taken Nov. 14 of 500 likely voters, found Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney would all defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton in a head-to-head match-up. McCain had the largest lead, at 10 percentage points, 48-38, while Giuliani had the smallest lead at 5 points, 46-41.

In 2004, President Bush beat Sen. John Kerry 52 percent to 47 percent to win Florida's 27 electoral votes — the fourth-largest total on the map.

In the Times-Rasmussen poll's favorability ratings, Giuliani led with 58 percent rating him very or somewhat favorable. Thompson scored 56 percent, Romney had 52 percent and McCain 51 percent. Clinton garnered 45 percent, with 40 percent rating her "very unfavorable."

A Mason-Dixon poll released this week also found Republicans beating Clinton, though their survey found Giuliani the best Republican match-up.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

I'm not sure how he did it, but Mike Huckabee appears to have met the campaign fundraising goal he set for himself. It was a pretty low bar — $1,034,487 million in online donations the first 20 days of November — and his campaign claimed victory about 30 minutes before midnight. According to his Web site tracking graph he's now more than $20,000 past that goal.

If accurate, that means they raised more than $250,000 yesterday, including nearly $200,000 in the last 11 hours alone.

The reason they chose $1,034,487 is that's the amount they raised for all of October. Hitting that in 20 days shows improvement, and it's a solid milestone for the campaign, which in the last week released its first video commercial and continued to rise in the polls in Iowa.

But given the difficulty in making the 20-day goal, it will be interesting to see if Huckabee can now hit his goal of more than $2 million for the entire month of November. It's also worth noting that nine months into his effort, he still lags far behind the rest of the major players in ability to fundraise. If he were to become the Republican nominee, that would be a major weakness, particularly when facing the incredible operations of either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Rudy Giuliani was the first campaign to react to the Supreme Court's decision today to hear the challenge to D.C.'s handgun ban.

The former New York mayor said the justices should side with the lower court ruling that struck down part of the D.C. law.

"I strongly believe that Judge Silberman's decision deserves to be upheld by the Supreme Court. The Parker decision is an excellent example of a judge looking to find the meaning of the words in the Constitution, not what he would like them to mean," Giuliani said.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out for Giuliani, who as mayor frequently found himself joining with the gun control advocates he now is opposing.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Mike Huckabee continues to add up the tough-guy endorsements with today's announcement that Ric Flair, a legend in the world of professional wrestling, is backing his campaign.

"His authentic conservative qualifications and level of executive leadership experience are unmatched by his opponents. And like I always say, to be the man, you've got to beat the man, and Mike Huckabee is the man," Flair said in a statement released by the campaign.

This follows the endorsements of Ted Nugent and Chuck Norris. Which begs the question, who could possibly be next?

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

A new Rasmussen Reports survey gives Rudy Giuliani a decent-sized lead in Florida's Republican primary, but also shows the contest to be a real race that could be won by several candidates.

First, here are the numbers:

That's an increase of 8 percentage points for Romney and a drop of seven points for Thompson since September.

And compare the numbers to the Democrats': Hillary Rodham Clinton has 42 percent, Barack Obama 17 percent and John Edwards 16 percent.

Mike Gravel is a surprising fourth place, at 6 percent; Dennis Kucinich polls 4 percent; and Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd each have 3 percent or less.

The 15 percentage-point difference between Clinton and Giuliani is telling — particularly since the second- and third-place candidates in both parties are about the same. It confirms the conventional wisdom that Republican voters are less settled in their choices, but also that they have more distinct choices for voters to decide on.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

The University of Mississippi, Belmont University and Hofstra University will each host presidential debates next year, the commission on debates announced today.

That doesn't mean all three debates will necessarily happen. In the past, candidates have threatened not to go to some of the debates. But thanks to the early notice, at least those campaigns can't claim scheduling conflicts if they do ditch.

Here's the schedule, including the vice presidential debate:

First presidential debate:
Friday, September 26
University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

Vice presidential debate:
Thursday, October 2
Washington University in St. Louis, MO

Second presidential debate:
Tuesday, October 7
Belmont University, Nashville, TN

Third presidential debate:
Wednesday, October 15
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

--- Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Mike Huckabee has been named one of Outdoor Life's 25 most influential people in hunting and fishing for his work in driving a dedicated funding source for the Arkansas agencies that oversee conservation and outdoor recreation.

In 1996, soon after being sworn in as governor, Huckabee and his wife took a trip down the Arkansas River in their bass boat to promote the constitutional amendment that designated the new funding.

Outdoor Life claims 5.5 million readers and their mention of the governor fits in wonderfully with the rest of Huckabee's non-traditional campaign.

Huckabee appears in Outdoor Life's list alongside the likes of rock musician and hunting advocate Ted Nugent, fishing lure experts Keith Jones and John Prochnow, and Michael McGinley, who invented truly waterproof sportswear.

Unfortunately for Mr. Huckabee, in the online poll Outdoor Life is running to determine a Reader's Choice among the top 25, he trailed Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat and the only other major office-holder on the list. Conrad made the list for sponsoring a bill that would encourage private land owners to open their property up to outdoor recreation.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

The DNC's Mitt Romney Flip Flop kit petered out pretty badly.

Just 14 bidders submitted a total of 28 bids, and oftentimes they were topping their own winning bid. In the end, the winner forked over $338 for a few bumper stickers, two pair of flip flops and a lot of DNC talking points about Romney.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Sen. John McCain, whose temper is famous in political circles, is turning the tables and telling voters he should be elected exactly because he makes others angry:

"I made defense contractors angry when I blew the whistle on a $30 billion boondoggle and the culprits were sent to jail.

"I upset the special interests and Washington lobbyists when I fought for ethics reform and to stop union bosses and corporations from writing million dollar checks to political campaigns.

"I made the Pentagon angry when I called for the resignation of Don Rumsfeld; said we needed a different strategy in Iraq; and a bigger military so that ours sons and daughters didn't have to serve four and five tours in combat zones.

"I displeased a lot of the media when I said we couldn't afford to fail in Iraq, and stood by the changes in our strategy that are now showing success.

"I made some folks mad when I worked to cut harmful greenhouse emissions because I believe climate change is a real and needs to be addressed now.

"I made politicians angry when I called for earmark reform and spending cuts; for government to do its job, not your job; to do it better and with less of your money. I said no to bridges to nowhere and 74 million dollars for peanut storage in a defense spending bill."

It's a fairly complete list, but only a few of those items play well in Republican primaries — at least outside of staes in the Northeast, such as New Hampshire.

And McCain left out a few other folks he's angered, including:

* Much of his own party, when he told them they had to legitmize illegal aliens in order to get better border security.

* The NRA and many gun owners, when he and Sen. Joe Lieberman proposed a bill that the opponents said could amount to the end of gun shows.

* Religious conservative leaders during the 2000 campaign, when he called Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance."

Even one of the anger incidents McCain cites in his speech may be hurting more than helping.

He takes credit for upsetting "the special interests," but it turns out those interests are everyday Republican voters who belong to the NRA, National Right to Life, the National Federation of Independent Business and other groups who opposed the McCain-Feingold bill.

And over the last five years, those groups have regularly reminded their supporters, in letters and e-mails, of how damaging McCain-Feingold has been.

That's why it's no surprise when I talk to conservative voters about McCain, they often bring up McCain-Feingold. And the language is never complimentary.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Rudy Giuliani is finally running his first television commercial of the Republican presidential campaign, and he leads off with his best asset: himself.

The ad, which can be seen below and at his Web site, is an explanation of his successes in two terms as mayor of New York. His argument is that he's "been tested" and voters can judge the results themselves.

He also repeats the most important endorsement he's gotten to date: Columnist George Will's declaration that Giuliani demonstrated the best example of conservative governance in the last 50 years.

Like much of the rest of Giuliani's campaign output, it could be lifted directly from the Republican primary and run unaltered in the general election as well.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Ron Paul's supporters are preparing for a Tea Party — the campaign's next major fundraising event.

Scheduled for the Dec. 16 anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, it aims to raise $10 million in one day for Paul's campaign.

Their goal is to have 100,000 donors contribute $100 each. So far they claim pledges from 7,148 persons.

That follows last week's "money bomb," which raised $4.3 million in 24 hours.

Paul's campaign already has crossed the $8 million mark for this current quarter, putting him well on his way to his $12 million goal — the amount his campaign says he needs to raise to buy radio and television ads they believe he will need to compete.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

A new Rasmussen poll finds that voters see Mitt Romney as a conservative candidate more than Fred Thompson — the first time Thompson has not led on that measure.

In the last month the number of Republicans viewing Romney as conservative has jumped 10 points, to 46 percent, while Thompson has fallen 11 points, to 40 percent.

The conservative label holds obvious importance for a Republican primary.

Mike Huckabee is moving up fast on the scale, with 38 percent seeing him as conservative. Scott Rasmussen, the pollster, said Huckabee is being held back more by name recognition than anything else. While nearly 80 percent of voters had an opinion of Romney's leanings and more than 90 percent had a sense for Rudy Giuliani, only 64 percent had an opinion on Huckabee's politics.

Here's the conservative rating for the top six Republican candidates:

Romney 46 percent

Thompson 40 percent

Huckabee 38 percent

McCain 28 percent

Giuliani 21 percent

Paul 16 percent

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

After Mitt Romney this week asked supporters to auction off their used junk and donate the proceeds as campaign contributions, the Democrats decided they would get into the act by auctioning off a Romney Flip-Flop kit on eBay.

Now I'm big on political memorabilia. Some of my odd ones include a "Foreign Leaders for John Kerry" pin and the "Help Tom DeLay clean up his act" bars of soap demonstrators were giving back in May 2005 on the night conservatives were celebrating the then-majority leader.

So what does the DNC offer? Well, mostly a bunch of junk. Flash cards to study Romney's changing positions? What is this, high school Spanish? And the snowman, which is supposed to be a replica of the famous snowman from Democrats YouTube debate doesn't look like much of a replica at all. For that matter, we should wonder about the social skills of anyone who actually pops the Romney flip-flop DVD into a player.

In fact, the best part of the whole package didn't even come from the Democrats. It's the "collectors edition foam flip-flop distributed at campaign events by a rival candidate."

So go ahead and bid (it started at $1 this morning, but was already at $45 just an hour later) but beware. As those who use eBay know, you can see how reliable the source is by looking at the seller's reputation. Unfortunately for the DNC, their eBay reputation is blank.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Yesterday's elections will prove costly to Republicans for years.

These were the first elections that will have a direct effect on congressional redistricting, which will take place in 2011, and Republicans' loss of the Virginia Senate means Democrats will at least have a veto over that state's redistricting plans.

In the last round of redistricting, in 2001, Virginia's Republicans controlled the entire process and were able to carve out eight of the state's 11 congressional seats for their own party.

With Democrats drawing at least part of the next map, Republicans' seats should drop at least by one, and could drop even more.

The good news for voters is it could make the 2012 elections a lot more interesting.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Rudy Giuliani today received the endorsement of religious leader Pat Robertson.

"We need a leader with a bold vision who is not afraid to tackle the challenges ahead," Robertson said at the endorsement announcement in Washington this morning.

Robertson, a former presidential candidate himself, will help Giuliani counter some of the momentum Mitt Romney had been gaining with the endorsements of other religious right leaders such as Bob Jones III, and with social conservative leaders such as Paul Weyrich.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Sen. Sam Brownback today endorsed fellow Sen. John McCain in the presidential race, which should be good for a lot of ink, though it's unclear how many voters Brownback actually can deliver.

In hindsight it's probably a natural fit for Brownback: He and McCain both are part of the exclusive Senate club; both have long, pro-life voting records; and both were early leaders in trying to push a legalization immigration bill, to the detriment of both of their campaigns.

But for Brownback, there will be some questions. Though McCain has opposed abortion, he has voted to overturn President Bush's stem-cell funding policy — something that is anathema to Brownback and many others in the pro-life movement, particularly among Catholics.

And for McCain, the benefits are murky. The candidates all sought Brownback's endorsement, and McCain will certainly get some needed press attention from this.

But while Brownback had a loyal following, it was never particularly large. And he was unable to raise much money or prove he could draw supporters out to vote, running third in Iowa's straw poll in August.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Women working in Republican presidential campaigns said they think Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign miscalculated by blaming her poor debate performance last week on bullying by men.

"Either she's tough enough to take on the terrorists or she's not tough enough to take on Barack Obama," Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for Republican candidate Fred Thompson, said at a panel discussion about women and the Republican presidential candidates.

Organized by National Review, the panel featured women from four top Republican campaigns — Katie Levinson from Rudy Giuliani's campaign, Jill Hazelbaker from John McCain's campaign and Barbara Comstock from Mitt Romney's campaign, in addition to Hanretty.

They were asked how their candidates would handle a campaign against Clinton, who could become the first female nominee of one of the two major political parties.

Each of the Republicans said they don't expect their candidate to let Clinton deflect criticism by pointing to her gender.

And Levinson said she doesn't think voters will give Clinton a pass this time, contrasting it to the way New York voters did in 2000, when Clinton portrayed her opponent Rick Lazio as a bully.

After Clinton stumbled in last week's debate, her adviser, Mark Penn, in a conference call with supporters, seemed to accuse the candidates of ganging up on her and blamed moderator Tim Russert for picking on her.

Hanretty, the Thompson campaign spokeswoman, said that was the sort of defense only a man would make for a woman.

"Probably if Mark Penn had been a woman, he wouldn't have said that," she said.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Ron Paul's record-breaking fundraising day ended with a total of $4.3 raised in 24 hours, and as of 9:15 a.m. today, he was at $7.3 million raised for the fourth quarter.

That means his supporters gave him in 24 hours a third of his $12 million goal for the current three months.

By contrast, today's story in The Washington Times noted fellow Republican Mike Huckabee's more modest goal.

Now Duncan Hunter, another candidate, has announced a campaign to raise $250,000 for the entire month of November online. Here's his plea:

"You are cordially invited to attend The Duncan Hunter for President Online Fundraiser

DATE: November 1 - 30, 2007

TIME: Anytime

WHERE: Where ever you are

ATTIRE: After-midnight P.J.'s with Duncan Hunter Button, Duncan Hunter T-Shirt with Cut-offs, Duncan Hunter Cap, Sipping coffee from a Duncan Hunter coffee mug

NOTE: Our goal is to raise $250,000 but if the average donation is only $50 we will raise over $1.5 million dollars for the campaign. So dig deep, have a garage sale, turn off the lights a couple hours early every night, walk, ride your bike or take the bus and save the gas money, give up Starbucks for a month - do whatever you need to do to help the best candidate!"

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

It turns out that Chuck Norris's endorsement of Mike Huckabee in the Republican presidential primary may be more valuable than we'd imagined.

Not only does it boost Huckabee's coolness factor immeasurably, but Norris is actually going further to actively defend Huckabee from attacks.

In a post on WorldNetDaily.com, Norris takes a look at the attacks on Huckabee's record on immigration and concludes that Huckabee represented both the law-and-order and Christian positions at the same time.

It should be noted that Norris doesn't address one critical complaint about Huckabee's immigration record: The former governor still supports a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens, which is exactly how many conservatives define "amnesty."

Still, when a guy this tough is taking punches for you and hitting back, you've got to feel like you're in good shape.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Ron Paul, the maverick Republican presidential candidate, continues to rake in the cash, bringing in $656,350.68 between 9:22 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. today.

Paul is in the middle of a giant push for cash in this final fundraising quarter before the primaries and caucuses, and has been on a tear today.

His campaign said his 12-hour total was $1.9 million — what they said was the most successful online fundraising day of any candidate in either party this year, and the most successful of any GOP candidate ever. (John Kerry holds the one-day record, raising $5.6 million on July 29, 2004, during the Democratic nomination convention.)

At this point, Paul's ability to raise money is not in question. But his skill in translating that sizable campaign treasury into voters at the caucuses and primaries still is.

Rasmussen Reports' seven-day tracking poll ending Nov. 4 shows Paul garnering 3 percent of likely Republican voters, the same as fellow Rep. Tom Tancredo. Paul's campaign says polls are a poor predictor of his voters' support.

With Iowa's caucuses less than two months away, we'll know soon enough.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Following on his analysis of next year's general election, John McCain's campaign has released this poll showing how he stacks up with Rudy Giuliani in a hypothetical general election race against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Unlike his fake election article predicting victory over Clinton, his campaign's own map shows him trailing her in enough key states to lose the election. But McCain's argument is that he can compete with her better than Giuliani, winning in Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky and running closer in Minnesota, Michigan and Missouri.

The only two states where Giuliani bests McCain in a head-to-head with Clinton are New York and California, and in both of those states Clinton beats both of them easily.

If Giuliani can't make a close race in those two major states or win other "swing" states like Minnesota, it would puncture his major appeal to many Republicans — his claim that he can carry the Republican brand to states where it hasn't been popular for years.

Still, it's an incomplete picture McCain provides. It leaves out states such as New Jersey, where Giuliani's popularity probably makes him a far better candidate than McCain.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Though his campaign trails those of the top Republican candidates in polls and money, John McCain is declaring victory a year early.

Here's part of his campaign's view of how it plays out, which they wrote in the style of a news article dated Nov. 5, 2008:

"Republican Senator John McCain was elected president last evening, defeating Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic nominee. McCain's victory came by winning the 'red' states that supported President Bush in 2004, while also winning independents to capture the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota."

The "story" goes on to say McCain focused on national security and cutting spending, and predicts voters will reject Clinton's health care plan. It also says that only McCain can appeal to swing voters in Midwestern states — a claim Rudy Giuliani would certainly challenge.

Of course, the "story" leaves out McCain's bigger challenge: winning the Republican nomination. And absent from McCain's keys to victory is immigration — the issue the other top-tier Republican candidates are driving at Democrats right now.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times