The Best Political Team on TV will be covering the country's reaction to Sen. Clinton's universal health care plan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – It's the second time around for New York Senator and White House hopeful Hillary Clinton when it comes to universal health care in the U.S. The first time Clinton was the first lady. This time she's running for president. Watch Bill Schneider's and John King's look at the politics of Clinton's second attempt to provide health care coverage to every American.

Watch CNN's Tom Foreman report on the question of Sen. John McCain's religious denomination.

LEXINGTON, South Carolina (CNN) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain told reporters at an American Legion Hall here Monday that he is a Christian, and that questions about his specific religious denomination are beside the point.

"There's been some talk about my religious persuasion," said the Arizona Senator, referring to a weekend report by the Associated Press that McCain said he was a Baptist although he has long identified himself as an Episcopalian.

"I was raised in the Episcopal Church and attended high school, it was a high school called Episcopal High School. I have attended North Phoenix Baptist Church for many years, and the most important thing is that I'm a Christian, and I don't have anything else to say about the issue," McCain said.

— CNN South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby

Watch CNN's Candy Crowley report on Sen. Clinton's health care plan.

(CNN) — White House hopeful and former first lady Hillary Clinton announced her plan to provide health insurance coverage to every American in a speech on Monday. Clinton's rivals were quick to respond as Clinton attempts to complete a project she first began during her husband's presidency. CNN's Candy Crowley reports.

Romney took heat from the hospital outside of which he made a statement on health care.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The hospital that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney used as a backdrop Monday to pan Sen. Hillary Clinton’s, D-New York, healthcare plan is criticizing Romney for using the facility as a prop for his news conference.

“We find it unfortunate that Mr. Romney misappropriated the image and good will of St. Vincent’s Hospital to further a political agenda,” the hospital said in a statement after Romney’s appearance. The hospital also noted in the statement that as a non-profit, it does not get involved in political campaigns and that Romney held his press conference in front of the hospital “without the knowledge or consent” of St. Vincent’s.

During his news conference, Romney told reporters he purposely chose the location because the issue was about healthcare.

“I chose a place where there was a sidewalk and part of a hospital to underscore that this was about health care and of course I’m in New York today,” Romney said. “I’m happy to do it right here, this is obviously an important institution,” Romney explained.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden also told CNN that the press conference location “was a public sidewalk in front of the hospital and we did not use hospital property.”

– CNN’s Candy Crowley and Alta Spells contributed to this report

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — At a press briefing after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's health care rollout Monday, senior policy advisers said the New York senator's plan does not currently include any details on whether illegal immigrants will be covered.

Senior policy adviser Laurie Rubiner–while acknowledging that undocumented immigrants are a "huge issue" in this country–said, "That's one we're going to have to think through a little bit."

"We have not dealt with every single detail with this plan," Rubiner continued.

When asked if it would be safe to assume that the Democratic frontrunner, at this point, has no position on coverage for illegal immigrants advisers answered "yes" and said the plan does not "at this point" deal with that issue.

Related: Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan

-CNN Iowa Producer Chris Welch

Richardson called the SEIU by the wrong name Monday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Note to presidential candidates: When seeking a union's endorsement it helps to get its name right.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended an address to the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Political Action Conference in Washington Monday by saying "Thank You AFSCME.”

AFSCME is the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

But it's easy to see why Richardson may have been confused. Both unions are roughly the same size (between 1.3 and 1.4 million) and are very important for Democrats who are seeking their party’s presidential nomination.

– CNN's Xuan Thai and Alexander Mooney

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Federal authorities filed a criminal complaint in New Jersey on Monday against three men who have donated money to both Democratic and Republican candidates — the latest big-time campaign donors to have a brush with the law.

Singh Sabharwal, Upinderpal Sabharwal and Jaipreet Sabharwal have been charged with mortgage fraud in a complaint filed in federal court. Singh Sabharwal is the father of Upinderpal and Jaipreet Sabharwal.

The online political Web site The Politico reports the two sons were arrested in August and are currently being held without bail. The father is believed to be in India, but is not considered a fugitive.

In June, Upinderpal Sabharwal gave the legal maximum — $4,600 — to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

Sen. Clinton recently returned $850,000 raised by prominent Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu after it was determined he was charged with investment fraud in the 1990s.

Giuliani criticized Clinton's health care plan Monday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani weighed in on Sen. Hillary Clinton's, D-New York, proposed universal health care plan Monday, criticizing its "government command and control."

"Let’s not have HillaryCare – Hillary in charge of our health care," he told reporters in Florida. "Let’s put people in charge of our health care. And the reality is the only thing that brings down cost and increases quality is a large consumer market, not government command and control."

"Government command and control only increases costs and decreases quality," he added.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) — Just a few days after Jeanne Shaheen stepped down as head of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, the university announced Monday that former Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, has accepted an offer to be the institute's new director.

Leach takes over for Shaheen, a former New Hampshire governor, who will challenge Sen. John Sununu, R-New Hampshire, in 2008. Leach has agreed to lead the institute for the next year until a permanent director is identified. The Iowa Republican was defeated in 2006 by Democratic challenger Dave Loebsack.

– CNN New Hampshire Producer Sareena Dalla

Watch Vice President Cheney's reaction to MoveOn.org's Petraeus 'betray us' ad.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) — Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday waded into the week-old controversy over a newspaper advertisement that criticized the top U.S. commander in Iraq, using a speech at a Republican fund-raiser to call the ad "an outrage."

Republicans have blasted the full-page New York Times ad by the anti-war activist group MoveOn.org, which questioned whether Gen. David Petraeus was "cooking the books" in his report to Congress last week. GOP lawmakers have demanded that Democrats disavow the Sept. 11 ad, which was titled "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" (Related video: Strategy Session: Was MoveOn out of line?)

"Like most Americans I admire the integrity and the candor that General Petraeus showed in his hearings before Congress," Cheney said during a fund-raiser for Missouri Republican congressman Sam Graves. "The attacks on him by MoveOn.org in ad space provided at subsidized rates in the New York Times last week were an outrage."

The Times said last week that MoveOn.org paid $65,000 for the page — the normal rate for an advocacy ad from a non-profit group, according to newspaper spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. The newspaper had no additional comment Monday.

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Will college football impact the primary votes of South Carolinians?

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — If there's one thing that rivals presidential politics in South Carolina in the fall, it's college football. In fact, between the two, college football probably triumphs.

So what happens when a presidential candidate's college football allegiances conflict with those of football-crazy voters in early primary states?

It's a question that former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson was faced with on his recent trip to Florida, which currently has its primary scheduled for January 29th.

According to The Politico, when Thompson was asked by a football fan whether he supports the Florida Gators or the Tennessee Volunteers, who played each other last weekend, Thompson said: "I'm too old to change now, I've been a Vol all my life … But, I'll tell you what, we can both do our best to beat the ole ballcoach."

The "ballcoach," of course, is Steve Spurrier, the former Florida head coach that followers of Southeastern Conference football love to hate.

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Fox and Bush, pictured in 2006, appeared to enjoy a warm relationship.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The two leaders shared a border for six years, but former Mexico President Vicente Fox gives a tough assessment on President Bush in a new book out next month, according to U.S. News and World Report.

In "Revolution of Hope," set to hit book stores October 4, Fox calls Bush "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life," and is sharply critical of the president's Iraq policy and his immigration stance, according to the magazine.

Though he describes warm relations with Bush, Fox in the book also calls the president's Spanish skills "grade-school" level and says, "I can't honestly say that I had ever seen George W. Bush getting to the White House."

In addition to Bush, Fox also sounds off on his "close but rocky relationships" with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuela President Hugo Chávez, according to the books Publisher, Penguin.

Fox served as Mexico's president from 2000-2006.

The autobiography is co-written by Robert Allyn, a Texas-based political consultant who has advised both Fox and Bush.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

McCain is finishing up the South Carolina leg of his "No Surrender Tour"

LEXINGTON, South Carolina (CNN) — Sen. John McCain, campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination here Monday, invoked the high-pitched battle over Hillary Clinton's 1993 health care plan when asked to comment on Sen. Clinton's new proposal.

"I haven't seen it, but if it's anything like the last time around where they wanted to have a complete government takeover of the health care system in America with a huge number of new bureaucracies being invented for government, I will oppose it vigorously," McCain told reporters.

Sen. Clinton unveiled her health care plan in Des Moines Monday. It would require all Americans to have health insurance, and she estimated it would cost $110 billion a year in government funds.

— CNN South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby

Watch Mitt Romney's response to Sen. Hillary Clinton's universal health care plan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney blasted Sen. Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan Monday, calling it “bad medicine.”

“You’ll see that version 2.0 is not likely to have any more success than 1.0,” said Romney, referring to Sen. Clinton’s first attempt to reform the healthcare system in 1993. “'Hillary Care’ continues to be bad medicine.”

Romney, who implemented comprehensive healthcare reform during his term as governor of Massachusetts, said Clinton’s plan relied too much on the federal government and not enough on states or the private market.

“In her plan, it's crafted by Washington; it should be crafted by the states. In her plan, we have government Washington managed health care. Instead, we should rely on the private markets to guide health care,” Romney said during a press conference.

Like the plan passed in Massachusetts during Romney's time in office, Clinton's plan would require individuals to have some form of health care insurance.

But Romney emphatically said the plan implement in Massachusetts was “entirely different” from Sen. Clinton’s.

“Her plan is crafted by Washington. Mine is crafted by individual states,” Romney explained. “Her plan has government insurance. Mine has private insurance. Her plan raises taxes. Mine does not raise tax.”

Related: Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan

– CNN Ticker Producer Xuan Thai

Watch part of John Edwards's speech.

(CNN) — Just hours before White House rival Hillary Clinton unveiled her massive universal health care plan Monday, three hundred miles east of Des Moines, in Chicago, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was making a dramatic promise of his own: As president, he would cut off health coverage to top government officials until his health care plan is passed into law.

"To show Congress just how serious I am, on the first day of my administration, I will submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 – unless we have passed universal health care reform," Edwards said in a speech to the Laborers Leadership Convention.

Edwards, who was the first presidential candidate to unveil the details of a proposed health care reform plan earlier this year, noted Clinton's plan shares many similarities with his. But Edwards suggested that the New York Democrat is too entrenched in the Washington "system" to successfully bring about reform.

"If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I’m flattered," Edwards said. "But unless Sen. Clinton’s willing to acknowledge the truth about our broken government, and the cost of health care reform, I’m afraid flattery will get us nowhere"

"Actually bringing change starts with telling the truth," he added. "And the truth is: the system in Washington has been hijacked for the benefit of corporate profits and the very wealthiest."

“The lesson Sen. Clinton seems to have learned from her experience with health care is, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,’” he continued.

Clinton’s health care reform plan has an estimated $110 billion price tag and would require all Americans to have health insurance. Edwards has estimated his plan will cost between $90 and 120 billion.

Related: Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan

– CNN's Alexander Mooney and K.D. Fabian

Obama had some frank words for Wall Street Monday.

NEW YORK (CNN) – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, had a message for Wall Street on Monday while speaking from the NASDAQ Marketsite in Times Square:

Taking a page out of a Franklin Delano Roosevelt speech, he called for a "reappraisal of values," saying that several people on Wall Street have been too focused on their own gains at the expense of struggling Americans.

While addressing members of New York's Executive Council, Obama pointed the finger at Wall Street for being wasteful and for using what he called unethical anti-market practices.

He cited examples of CEOs getting robust severance packages while company employees lose their jobs and pensions, and he spoke of corporate boards that set the price of company stock options, ensuring their own personal gains regardless of how well the company does.

The senator from Illinois also had a comment on the Bush administration saying, "It's bad for competition when you have an administration that's willing to approve merger after merger with barely any scrutiny. Such an approach stifles innovation, it robs consumers of choice, it means higher prices and we have to guard against it."

Obama asked Wall Street to join him in "ushering in a new era of mutual responsibility in American."

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Listen to the latest Race to '08 podcast.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In the latest edition of Race to '08, CNN's Lisa Goddard talks to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards about the issues that are important to him and how he likes his chances in Iowa.

Clinton unveiled her universal healthcare plan Monday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton announced a $110 billion health care reform plan Monday that would require all Americans to have health insurance.

Clinton unveiled her plan during a high-profile speech at a hospital in the key campaign state of Iowa, surrounded by supporters, American flags and campaign banners.

"Here in America people are dying because they couldn't get the care they needed when they were sick."

"I'm here today because I believe it is long past time that this nation had an answer," Clinton said. "I believe America is ready for change."

"It's time to provide quality affordable health care for every American," Clinton said. "And I intend to be the president who accomplishes that goal finally for our country."

Full story

President Bush with Michael Mukasey in the White House Rose Garden Monday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush announced Monday morning that he has chosen a former federal judge, Michael Mukasey, as attorney general.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mukasey will replace Alberto Gonzales.

Bush touted Mukasey's record in a Rose Garden announcement.

"Judge Mukasey was widely admired for his brilliance and his integrity" while on the bench, Bush said.

Full story

Giuliani speaks with NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Kenny Wallace Sunday before the start of the Sylvania 300 auto race at the New Hampshire International Speedway.

LOUDON, New Hampshire (CNN) — Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani Sunday continued his defense of Gen. David Petraeus and explained to reporters why he launched his Web advertisement criticizing Sen. Hillary Clinton for not denouncing a MoveOn.org ad attacking him.

"[My] motivation was to stand up to her and to stand up for a very, very good general," the former mayor of New York City said. "What she did was just plain wrong. Sometimes there are things that are just wrong. It was wrong for her to attack the integrity of a commanding general in a time of war. It's not the right thing to do."

Giuliani's Web advertisement attacked Clinton and portrayed her position on the Iraq war as inconsistent and her remarks as disrespectful toward Petraeus.

The advertisement also denounced the liberal group MoveOn.org for their advertisement against the general and called on Clinton to do the same.

When asked by CNN if his advertisement would introduce more mudslinging into the campaign, Giuliani responded, "How come you're not asking that about MoveOn.org? Why don't you ask that about Hillary Clinton?"

"I didn't attack an American general," he added. "I am raising a point about an American politician, not about an American general and I think I have every right to do that."

Rudy Giuliani spent Sunday at the New Hampshire International Speedway for the NASCAR Nextel Cup-Sylvania 300. This was the second time the presidential hopeful attended a NASCAR event.

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