(CNN) – It’s a sprint to the finish for the presidential field in the final hours before New Hampshire’s Tuesday primary – and CNN will be there to provide complete coverage in the Granite State. If you missed CNN’s brand-new Ballot Bowl programming this weekend, you can still watch Sunday’s campaign trail highlights here:
Video: Edwards campaigns in N.H.
Video: Obama: 'In two days time'
Video: McCain on Iraq
Video: Huckabee campaigns in N.H.
Video: Romney: It's 'a critical time'
Video: Giuliani's philosophy
Video: Clinton: 'That's not change'
Video: Richardson: Race a 'marathon'
Video: New poll: the N.H. horse race
–CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart
A new CNN/WMUR poll shows Obama has a 10 point lead over Clinton. (Photo Credit: AP)
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) - MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) - Two days before New Hampshire's Democratic primary, Sen. Barack Obama has opened a double-digit lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton in that state, a new CNN-WMUR poll found Sunday.
Obama, the first-term senator from Illinois who won last week's Iowa caucuses, led the New York senator and former first lady 39 percent to 29 percent in a poll conducted Saturday and Sunday - a sharp change from a poll out Saturday that showed the Democratic front-runners tied at 33 percent.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina is at 16 percent in the new survey, down four points from Saturday. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico is in fourth place, with the support of 7 percent of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters, with Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio at 2 percent.
Related video: New poll sends shockwaves
Related video: Stakes high in New Hampshire
– CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser
(CNN) - In a CNN interview Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson denied reports that his Iowa supporters were told to support rival Barack Obama if the New Mexico governor fared poorly in the first round of caucus voting.
“That is totally untrue. I don't know where that came out of,” Richardson told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Iowa’s Democratic caucus rules allow supporters of candidates receiving less than 15 percent of the vote in each precinct – which means those names are eliminated from later consideration - to vote for any of the remaining presidential contenders.
Some Clinton supporters had claimed there was a deal that would send the governor’s supporters to back Obama in later voting rounds.
Barack Obama emerged as the clear winner of the Iowa’s Democratic caucuses Thursday night, garnering 38 percent of the vote. Sen. John Edwards took second with 30 percent, and Hillary Clinton came in third at 29 percent. Richardson rounded out the top four with 2 percent of the delegate vote.
On CNN’s Late Edition, the New Mexico governor dismissed claims of a deal with Obama, crediting first-time caucus voters with the Illinois senator’s win “He got a huge amount of voters participating that had never participated before. Hardly anyone anticipated that, at least the huge numbers that he brought forth. So that's why, you know, there are all of these rumors,” he said.
–CNN’s Peter Lanier and Jessica Rummel contributed to this report
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) - The National Right to Life Committee, which endorsed Fred Thompson in November, is sending out mailers in South Carolina urging "pro-lifers to unite" behind Thompson's candidacy.
The abortion mailer, which focuses on Thompson's Senate record, comes as his campaign is shoring up their South Carolina staff. The former Tennessee senator is hoping to make a comeback in a state where he's now slipped into a three-way tie for third place in most recent polls, behind Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.
"Vote for life in the South Carolina Republican Primary," the mailer says, noting that Thompson "is the only candidate endorsed by the National Right to Life PAC and South Carolina Citizens for Life PAC."
South Carolina Citizens for Life is the NRLC state affiliate that endorsed Thompson in December.
Thompson's campaign now hinges on the first-in-the-South Republican primary. Last week, Thompson was forced to deny reports he was planning to drop out of the race and support John McCain if he fared poorly in the Iowa caucuses voting. He finished third in Iowa and is running last in New Hampshire.
The Thompson campaign has begun to rotate staffers into the must-win state from their national headquarters in Virginia. This week, Thompson will avoid New Hampshire and head straight to the Palmetto State on Monday evening to prepare for a statewide bus tour and media push.
Thompson said on CNN's Late Edition Sunday that "it's all about South Carolina," and predicated his campaign will be resurgent if they win that primary on January 19.
He conceded the plan hinged on a fundraising boost to his cash-poor campaign.
"If we can raise the money sufficient to hold our own on television, we will win South Carolina and we will be in good shape," Thompson told Wolf Blitzer.
–CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby
Sen. John Edwards catches a pass as he shoots baskets in Lebanon, New Hampshire Saturday. (Photo Credit: AP)
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Democrat John Edwards said Sunday he will stay in the presidential race through the party's convention in late August, even if he fails to win any of the early presidential primary states.
"This is the call of my life, and I have no intention of stopping," Edwards said on ABC's This Week. "I'm in this through the convention and to the White House."
Asked specifically if he'd remain a candidate even if he failed to garner a win over the next month, Edwards said, "Absolutely."
The former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential candidate edged out rival Hillary Clinton for second place in the Iowa caucuses Thursday, and a new CNN/WMUR poll taken entirely after Iowa voters weighed in shows a slight bump for Edwards in the Granite State, though he remains in a distant third at 20 percent among like Democratic voters there. Barack Obama, the winner of the Iowa caucuses, and Clinton are tied at 33 percent.
Also Sunday, Edwards denied a formal alliance between himself and Obama against Clinton, but he continued to paint the New York Democrat as symbolic of the status-quo in Washington and called for a two-person debate between himself and Obama.
"Voters here in New Hampshire and in all the future states need an unfiltered debate between the two of us about who can best bring about change," he said.
Related video: Edwards campaigns in N.H.
Related: Poll: Clinton, Obama tied in New Hampshire
– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
EXETER, New Hampshire (CNN) – Barack Obama’s starting to talk about his fall campaign as a matter of when, not if – and so are some of his potential general election opponents.
Obama may be running neck-and-neck with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in most polls of New Hampshire’s Democratic voters, but "I know once I win this Democratic nomination that the folks on the other side will come after me with everything they've got,” he told an Exeter, New Hampshire crowd Saturday. “They will try to Swiftboat me," he said.
Obama was referring to the attacks faced by Sen. John Kerry after he captured the Democratic nomination in 2004.
Republican Mitt Romney, in a close race of his own in the Granite State’s GOP primary, is trying to use Obama’s momentum to make the case against rival John McCain. The former Massachusetts governor told voters this weekend that "It’s time for someone to stand up to Barack Obama, who I think has a good chance of becoming the nominee. He's running against two long serving senators who talk about their experience, and he blows them away.
"Are we going to do the same and put up another long serving senator as our nominee?"
Romney’s had one eye on his rivals, and another on Obama, for a while now - his campaign sent out press releases targeting the Illinois senator on taxes before he won Iowa’s Democratic caucuses.
–CNN's Jessica Yellin and Peter Hamby
(CNN) - Republican Fred Thompson defended his campaign strategy of conceding early voting contests to focus on southern states in a CNN Late Edition interview Sunday - but conceded the plan hinged on a fundraising boost to his cash-poor campaign.
“If we can raise the money sufficient to hold our own on television…we will win South Carolina and we will be in good shape,” Thompson told Wolf Blitzer. His campaign has struggled to stay competitive on the airwaves in recent weeks, and briefly went dark in Iowa in the days leading up to the state’s January 3 caucuses.
The former Tennessee senator is statistically tied for third, along with Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in most recent surveys of South Carolina GOP primary voters. Iowa winner and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is leading most polls, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
South Carolina is turning into a must-win for Thompson, who finished third in Iowa and is running last in New Hampshire. Last week, he was forced to deny reports he was planning to drop out of the race and support John McCain if he fared poorly in Hawkeye State voting.
”Everybody said that Rudy was inevitable, then Mitt was inevitable, now they are on to McCain, you know, everybody I would come in fourth in Iowa,” Thompson said Sunday. “I didn't, I came in third. So steadily…we are getting to be exactly where we wanted to be at this point.”
South Carolina's Republicans head to the polls January 19.
–CNN’s Jessica Rummel and Rebecca Sinderbrand
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) - Senator John McCain picked up the endorsement of one of Michigan's largest newspapers Sunday, just a little over a week before that state holds its Republican primary.
In an editorial published Sunday, the Detroit Free Press wrote that while the paper "differs with McCain on a number of issues, the Arizona senator is a smarter, more tested pragmatic leader who has shown since 2000 that he knows how to build bipartisan alliances around issues ... He would be a formidable candidate for a party that needs one."
The Free Press endorsed McCain during his bid for the White House in 2000. The Detroit News also recently backed the Arizona senator.
The Michigan endorsements are unwelcome news for rival Mitt Romney, whose history with the state runs deep. He was born and raised there, his father was once Michigan's governor and he kicked off his campaign there last February.
But the paper was cool to his presidential ambitions Sunday. "Michigan-born former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has morphed into what he seems to believe is the perfect conservative Republican in pursuit of the presidential nomination," The Free Press wrote.
"Romney has been a capable manager of every challenge he has ever faced, and his Michigan roots might help a state that surely needs more friends in Washington, but who knows what Romney might morph into in the White House?"
Polls taken before the Iowa caucuses showed an unsettled Republican race in Michigan.
As part of it's ongoing extensive political coverage, CNN is airing uninterrupted coverage of Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on the campaign trail Sunday. Watch some of the live events happening now on CNN.com:
Watch: Hillary Clinton in Nashua
NASHUA, New Hampshire (CNN) - Rudy Giuliani told reporters Sunday that his relatively lackluster showing in recent New Hampshire polls is no surprise, but that rival Mitt Romney might be taken aback by his own Granite State difficulties.
"Mitt has his own struggle," Giuliani said of the former Massachusetts governor. "Where we are now is not unexpected to us. It may be in Mitt's case."
A recent CNN/WMUR poll places Arizona Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney at the top of the Republican field, with Giuliani and McCain in a distant statistical tie for third.
The former New York mayor’s campaign strategy has focused on later-voting states, like California, Illinois, New Jersey, and particularly Florida, whose voters head to the polls at the end of the month. Aides have described that state as his “firewall.”
"I have not been here [in New Hampshire] nearly as much as John McCain or Mitt Romney because they had much more of a focused strategy. I don't want to speak for other candidates. I think Romney's strategy was Iowa and New Hampshire and McCain's strategy has been New Hampshire. Our strategy has been proportionate."
"Frankly, I don't know why you're so surprised," he added. "My candidacy is an unconventional candidacy….We are running an unconventional strategy, we are comfortable with that strategy and we think this is an unconventional election."
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Recent Comments