Their latest tracker:

Clinton 35 (36)
Obama 33 (29)
Edwards 14 (13))
Richardson 5(5)
1/4-5

Obama is surging. Clinton stagnant. Edwards dead in the water at 20 points behind. What effect will the debate have? We'll see.

On the GOP side, Romney up 4 in this poll over McCain. Ron Paul in 3rd.

Former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has new and damning allegations against at least one senior Pentagon officials in the Bush Administration.

The unnamed official denies the allegations. Edmonds alleges cash bribes and payments regarding "Turks [who]had acquired nuclear secrets from the United States and shared the information with Pakistan and Israel. “

John Edwards was on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos this morning. The money quote:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've made such an issue on lobbyists, and we've talked about this in the past. But I have to press this a little bit. You're very careful. You say no corporate lobbyists in the White House, no lobbyists for foreign governments in the White House. Some of your biggest contributors are trial lawyers, and the Association of Trial Lawyers for America is the sixth largest lobbying group in the country, $6 million spent on lobbying. Six of your top fund-raisers are on the executive committee of that organization. Eighteen of your top fund-raisers are on their board of governors.
Will they be barred from the White House as well?
EDWARDS: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Really?
EDWARDS: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even though they have given you money? (CROSSTALK)
EDWARDS: There will be no lobbyist who's worked for the trial lawyers, no lobbyist who's worked for big corporations that will be working in my White House, period.

Is he saying it's okay to take the trial lawyers' money so long as after the election he doesn't hire their organization's lobbyists to work in the White House? Is that really the the issue?

One of the things that bothered me about last night's debate was Barack Obama's answer to the final question: "Tell me one thing you've said in those debates that you wish you hadn't said. And it's your chance to take it back."

He began with Hillary who said there were one or two things, didn't specify what they were and then went on to give a closing statement.

Edwards and Richardson answered with specific examples (Richardson wished he hadn't named Wizzer White as a great Supreme Court Justice and Edwards said he wished he hadn't criticized Hillary's jacket at an earlier debate.)

Obama, seizing on Hillary's refusal to name an error and give a closing statement instead, said "there have been all kinds of aspects to my debate performance that I'd love to correct or sharpen," and used the final seconds to give his closing statement.

Below is what Hillary said and what Obama said. Hillary's answer is issue-specific. Obama's is generalities and buzzwords. [More...]

Zogby, who is a charlatan imo, says:

Clinton 31 (32)
Obama 30 (28)
Edwards 20 (20)

Remember, Zogby is a charlatan imo. This is a 4 day tracker, so it includes January 2-5.

Update [2008-1-6 11:56:14 by Big Tent Democrat]: Rassmussen shows Obama up 12. Since Rass is doing a two day tracker, the overnights are easy to calculate. Obama pollled 41 Friday night and Saturday morning, and 37 Thursday night and Friday morning. Clinton was 27/27. Edwards was 17/19. Obama takes from Edwards at this point. He is toast. Especially after his idiotic performance last night.

That's the NYTimes spin on the debate:

Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards went after Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as never before in a televised debate here on Saturday night. . . . When it became clear that Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards, sitting side by side across from her, were teaming up, Mrs. Clinton sat up and pulled her coat tight as if preparing for battle. A few minutes later, though, she softened when one of the debate’s moderators took note of the fact that Mrs. Clinton was getting double-barreled criticism from her rivals. “You noticed?” she said with a smile.

Now for the life of me, I do not understand John Edwards' thinking here. In what scenario does he win the nomination by pumping up Barack Obama? Harold Meyerson said Edwards helped Obama and himself. How is that possible? There can be only one nominee! Obama is the frontrunner and will be a bigger one if he wins New Hampshire. And then Edwards runs as a change candidate against Obama? Okaaay.

I can reach only one conclusion - John Edwards is no longer running for President. He is merely a stalking horse for Barack Obama. Indeed, Ezra Klein wrote:

In the debate over health care mandates, rather than argue for his plan, or against Obama's, Edwards went after Hillary as a force "of the status quo" fighting those trying to bring about change. It backfired. Clinton had looked a little tired accusing Obama of flip-flopping, but Edwards riled her up enough to elicit a furious recitation of the change Hillary had actually fought for: S-CHIP and National Guard benefits and on and on. It was quite impressive, and impassioned in a way Hillary rarely is.

The answer Ezra is Edwards is merely running now to stop Hillary, not to win for himself or for his positions. Tonight was a nadir for Edwards imo.

It's all well and good for those of us around the nation and internet to weigh in on tonight's Democratic debate. But, what matters for Tuesday is what New Hampshire voters think...and what they will read in their morning papers.

• WMUR: Focus Group Reaction
• Concord Monitor: How the Candidates Did
• The Union Leader: Dems Talk Tough on Getting Bin Laden
• The Union Leader: Independent's Day

All of the Democratic candidates looked tired tonight. No wonder. Check out Hillary's day that appeared in the Concord Monitor(describing how she spent it giving up the stump speeches and instead answering questions from voters for hours.)

Here's Sunday's candidate schedule.

[Update: Debate transcript here.]

This is the moment of the debate. Hillary Clinton responds to John Edwards' defense of Barack Obama (and you are right to wonder if John Edwards is trying to win the nomination if he is spending his time in a debate defending Barack Obama) and his attack on Hillary Clinton (he even insinuated that Hillary should drop out of the race; talk about presmptuous).

Hillary responds with passion. It was reminiscent in style to Ronald Reagan's moment in the 1980 New Hampshire debate after he had lost to George H.W. Bush in Iowa:

I think Democratic partisans will love this moment for Hillary and wonder if John Edwards is still trying to win. I think people who dislike Hillary will call it shrill. Of course that response is sexist. Will the Media reveal its sexism again? I predict they will. I think that is less important than how Democratic partisans react to it.

Update (TL): My favorite clips were where she talked about how words aren't action and how her feelings were hurt when Gibson said she isn't likeable. Also memorable and moving: When she said having the first woman president would be change.

Also check out her Fact Hub for sourcing of her criticisms of Obama because the chair of his NH campaign is a drug company lobbyist and his flip-flopping on the Patriot Act extension and vote to fund the war in Iraq. It also has the details of her record in New Hampshire.

[Update (TL): Debate transcript here.]

[Update: Debate transcript here.]

The Democratic debate is over. Live thread one is here. This thread is for post-debate comments.

What did you think? Who won? Who scored points and who lost them?

Big Tent Democrat says: [More....]

The ABC News debate is on tape delay for Denver, an hour behind the East Coast. But, it's streaming live on WMUR, New Hampshire. So, I'll live blog -- please join in the comments.

8:45 pm: The Democratic candidates came out to do a meet and greet with the Republicans. Rudy and Hillary chatted friend-like, he put his arm on her arm. She and Huckabee also had a warm little moment, he whispered something in her ear. Edwards and McCain were very warm to each other.

9:05: What is this? The debate starts with an ABC news clip? It's on nuclear prolifieration. After watching the clip, the question is how aggressively would you go after al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan? Goes to Obama who justifies what he said at one of the first debates. He moves from the defensive to the offensive against Bush but Gibson says he sounds just like Bush.

More...

The Republicans have started. The Dems follow immediately after.

This is an Open Thread.

Wyoming held its Republican caucuses today. Mitt Romney won.

The former Massachusetts governor won eight delegates, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson got two and California Rep. Duncan Hunter won one, meaning no other candidate could beat Romney. Caucuses were still being held to decide all 12 delegates at stake.

Wyoming only gets 14 delegates at the national convention as a penalty for bumping up the date.

Wyoming Republicans also paid a price for jumping ahead. The Republican National Committee has slashed half of Wyoming's 28 national convention delegates. National party leaders similarly penalized Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina for moving up the dates of their nomination contests.

Romney's son owns a ranch in Wyoming and he and his sons visited the state, although Romney hasn't been there since November. McCain and Giuliani didn't bother to visit.