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Making News Today…

9/11 panel co-chair to back McCain

(CNN) — CNN has learned that former New Jersey governor Tom Kean, who also served as co-chairman of the 9/11 commission, plans to endorse John McCain for president.

Two Republican sources with knowledge of the decision spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity. The event is planned for Monday in Boston. The campaign scheduled what it would only describe as a major national security related endorsement.  Full Story

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CNN Nevada debate: Video streams and downloads

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) — Seven Democratic presidential hopefuls sparred during their debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday, November 15. Click on the following links to watch or download video of the debate.   Full Story

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The Best Political Team wants you

CNN is looking for an associate political editor with strong editing and reporting skills to help the network cover the historic 2008 elections. Primary responsibilities will be to edit and write for the CNN Political Ticker, as well as serve as an off-air reporter. Previous television experience is not required, but strong newswriting ability and experience covering politics are a must.   Full Story

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Political Hot Topics
(Today's top political stories from news organizations across the country)

Compiled by Lindsey Pope
CNN Washington Bureau

New York Times: McCain Takes On Clinton, With an Eye to Civility
Senator John McCain tried Sunday night to make the case that he was best positioned to defeat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in a general election, outlining a series of contrasts with her on issues including national security and health care.  

Washington Post: Giuliani Hoping NASCAR Fans May Provide an Edge in the Race
Now, Rudolph W. Giuliani says, he "really" is a NASCAR fan. The Republican presidential candidate is better known as a New Yorker, of course, one who as the city's mayor pursued quintessentially New York passions — for attending the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, and pulling unambiguously for the Yankees.

The Hill: SMART Union Endorses Clinton
The Sheet Metal, Air Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) union announced Saturday that it would back the presidential campaign of Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

USA Today: Huckabee: Abortion Not States' Call
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rejects letting states decide whether to allow abortions, claiming the right to life is a moral issue not subject to multiple interpretations.

The Hill: Mccain Attacks Dems In New Hampshire
Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) berated Democrats for espousing what he believes is a defeatist mindset on the war in Iraq this weekend as he swung through this pivotal battleground state.

New Hampshire Union-Leader: Mccain Would Allow Canadian Drugs Into U.S.
Senator John McCain on Saturday said he won't follow his rivals' lead in taking personal shots at Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, and that voters seeking candidate who will do that should look elsewhere.

Roll Call: McCain Leads in Missed Votes
Though most of them flew cross-country last week to cast key votes on Iraq, the Senators doubling as White House hopefuls haven’t spent much time in Congress lately — and the chamber is poised to be an even less familiar place to them come December.

New Hampshire Union-Leader: McCain: Not Shying From Fight
Making people mad is a good thing, presidential hopeful John McCain said yesterday in a speech aimed at playing up the Arizona senator's outsider reputation.

LA Times: Obama's Campaign Has A New Wrinkle
Barack Obama may be the darling of the college set, but the Medicare crowd is another story. While young Democratic voters have gravitated to his presidential campaign, seniors have stampeded to Hillary Rodham Clinton's.

San Francisco Chronicle: Obama Accuses Clinton Campaign Of Mud-Slinging With Novak Column
The Democratic presidential race burst into its angriest brawl yet Saturday when Barack Obama charged Hillary Rodham Clinton with mud-slinging "swift boat" politics and intimidation - an accusation the New York senator sharply denied and said dramatized Obama's unreadiness for the nation's top office.

Boston Globe: Edwards, Thompson Offer Different Fixes For Social Security
Presidential candidates John Edwards and Fred Thompson said that the United States is facing a potential crisis in the Social Security system, but they disagreed on whether raising taxes will be necessary to head it off.

AP: Edwards Criticizes Clinton Over Iraq
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton over her unwillingness to set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, saying her position is tantamount to "continuing the war."

NY Sun: Sikhs Seethe Over a Snub by Clintons
The Clinton campaign's abrupt cancellation of scheduled appearances here is leaving members of the Sikh community dismayed and demanding an explanation.

Des Moines Register: Candidates Sign On For Forum Aimed At Minority Concerns
The Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum planned for Dec. 1 will press for answers from Democratic presidential candidates on issues important to the black and Latino communities, organizers said Thursday in announcing details of the event.

Wall Street Journal: Immigration Is the Question
Barack Obama had just ended his stump speech before a friendly audience in this tiny southern Iowa town when Stephen Scott's hand shot up with a question. Would Mr. Obama, as president, have signed last summer's failed "amnesty bill" for illegal immigrants, Mr. Scott, a local landscape painter, asked testily.

Des Moines Register: Women For Biden Kickoff Draws 100 People
Today’s campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was about women, for women. But somehow, a man managed to steal the show. And it wasn’t the Delaware senator.

Reuters: White House Hopefuls Get Creative In Donation Pitches
U.S. presidential candidates are trying to come up with new ways to raise money now to get them through the New Hampshire and Iowa nominating contests.

Des Moines Register: Once-Optimistic GOP Moderates Now Feel Slighted
Moderate Republicans in Iowa, eclipsed for years by the party's social conservatives, were looking forward to the 2008 caucuses. After all, they had a candidate — Rudy Giuliani — who said early in his campaign that he could win in Iowa…So far, it hasn't worked out that way, according to once-loyal Republicans who have felt pushed aside by the party's right wing.

NY Daily News: Rudy Giuliani Jets To Campaign Stops Using Casino Kingpin's Plane
Rudy Giuliani is jetting around the country wooing Bible-thumping conservatives, but his plane is often provided by a king of Sin City.

USA Today: Kucinich Protests Fort Benning School
Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich said Sunday the thinking that went into producing an Army school blamed for human rights abuses in Latin America was the same that led the U.S. to war in Iraq and could cause it to raid Iran.

DC Examiner's Yeas and Nays: Flynt Gets Behind Dennis Kucinich
While porn mogul Larry Flynt says he's still about to blow the lid off a couple of more sex scandals involving Republicans, he's lined up behind one of the Democrats in the race for President. .

Boston Globe: New Concerns Crack Unity Of Religious Right
On Main Street of this Civil War-vintage city, known in recent years as the birthplace of the religious right, the only political sign bears the name of Ron Paul, the antiwar libertarian who is running for the Republican nomination.

LA Times: Still Time For N.H. To Set Primary Date
With Michigan's plan for a Jan. 15 presidential primary in limbo, New Hampshire's secretary of state says he still has plenty of time to set a date that en-sures his state maintains its first-in-the-nation primary tradition.

New York Times: Democrats Say They Won’t Back Down on War
Democrats in Congress failed once again Friday to shift President Bush’s war strategy in Iraq, but insisted that they would not let up. Their explanation for their latest foiled effort seemed to boil down to a simple question: “What else are we supposed to do?”

Roll Call: FBI Probes Continuing
The FBI this summer examined the personal financial records of two House Republican appropriators in ongoing probes into their earmarking activities.

AP: Congressman Is Accused in New Claim of Bribery
Prosecutors have accused Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, of soliciting bribes in two suspected schemes that are separate from the bribery charges he already faces, according to a published report.

USA Today: States To Workers: Eat, Drink And Be Back To Work
For the first time in at least three decades, New Jersey will be one of 18 states open for business on the Friday after Thanksgiving, while state workers in Louisiana are under executive order to take a four-day weekend.

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On the Trail:

Compiled by Katy Byron and Lauren Kornreich
CNN Washington Bureau

* Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, will attend a house party in Iowa City, Iowa.

* Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, will deliver a speech in Knoxville, Iowa in the morning. The New York senator will then attend a “School House to the White House” initiative event at Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence in Waterloo. Clinton will make stops for Organizing for Change events at Tilford Elementary School in Vinton and the Bluegrass Café in Tama.

* Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, will be the featured guest at the Cookies and Conversation with the Candidate event at Drake University, which is co-sponsored by IowaPolitics.com and Drake University.

* Former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, will hold community meetings with special performances by Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne at campaign stops at schools in Davenport, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

* Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will hold a press conference in McAllen, Texas in the morning.

* Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, will hold a press conference announcing his endorsement by 9/11 Commission co-chairman Tom Kean in Boston in the afternoon after addressing the Nashua Rotary Club in Nashua, New Hampshire in the morning. From Boston, McCain will travel to Philadelphia for an event at Esperanza Academy Charter High School. McCain will take a moment to talk with reporters there, before heading to a town hall event held by the UPenn College Republicans at the University of Pennsylvania.

* Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, will hold a meet the candidate event at Clarion-Goldfield Elementary School in Clarion, Iowa. Obama will then hold a town hall meeting at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge to end the day.

* Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, will visit with local Republicans at Bob Rudd Community Center in Pahrump, Nevada. The event will be hosted by the Nye County Republican Central Committee and the Pahrump Valley Republican Women.

* New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will make campaign stops in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

*Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will attend fundraisers in Boise, Idaho and Seattle, Washington. Romney will take questions from the press in both cities between the fundraising events.

* Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson begins his day in Kenner, Louisiana where he will attend a rally for his campaign at the Hilton New Orleans Airport. The Republican running for president will then make a Mississippi state leadership announcement in Jackson. Thompson will then attend the Mississippi Republican Elected Officials tribute dinner at Hilton Jackson Hotel, also in Jackson.

* The Senate Radio-Television Correspondents' Gallery Daybook  

* The House Radio-Television Correspondents' Gallery Daybook