The Note's Sneak Peek

July 12, 2007— -- Three '08er spouses -- a Bill, a babe, and a beer magnate -- are now front and center.

The most public, of course, is Bill Clinton who heads to the Granite State Friday to tell the people of New Hampshire that "the last dog is still barking." LINK

Bill Clinton's trip comes one day after an open mic caught his not-so-happy wife telling John Edwards, "Our guys should talk." LINK

Watch the video of Clinton and Edwards privately conferring: LINK

On Friday, the two Clintons attend a 9:30 am ET rally in Keene, a 3:00 pm ET rally at Daniel Webster College, and a 6:00 pm ET rally in Manchester.

The second key spouse is Ann Romney whose voice is on the airwaves of Iowa and New Hampshire saying of her husband, Mitt, "We met in high school at a party, and we've been going steady ever since."

"She's a babe," Mitt recently told "60 Minutes" of his wife. "I saw that when she was 15."

The third key spouse is Cindy McCain who will be out of sight -- but never far out of mind -- when her husband is in New Hampshire Friday.

With the McCain campaign set to report to the FEC on Sunday that it has a little more than $2 million in cash on hand (plus $1.7 million in debt), the Arizona senator needs his wife Cindy and a little creative lawyering more than ever. LINK

Per the Washington Post's Matthew Mosk, McCain is "barred from committing to the campaign a family fortune estimated to be worth as much as $53 million because the assets are held solely by his wife." LINK

And/but:

"Campaign finance lawyers," told the Washington Post that "McCain might be able to stretch a legal argument around" some of the restrictions that would otherwise face him since Arizona is a state that "views the holdings of married couples as community property." Mosk cautions, however, that this idea "has never been tested in a presidential campaign."On Friday, McCain heads to Concord, N.H., for a 1:00 pm ET speech on Iraq in which he plans to say, "Defeatism will not buy peace in our time." He also holds a media availability. As for Barack Obama, he attends a 4:00 pm ET house party in Las Vegas. The Illinois Democrat received a raucous reception at Thursday's NAACP forum.Edwards heads to Iowa for community meetings in Humbolt (9:45 am ET), Algona (11:30 am ET), Garner (1:30 pm ET), Iowa Falls (5:15 pm ET), and Wester City (7:00 pm ET).