SNEAK PEEK: Rudy Courts NASCAR Dads

November 16, 2007— -- The Thanksgiving holiday travel season begins this weekend and domestic airlines expect 27 million passengers to fly over the next 12 days.

Add to that number the presidential candidates who hit the campaign trail to squeeze out as many retail politics stops, town hall meetings and media availabilities as they can before voters in the early primary states and across the country tune them out for a few days of turkey, high school football, and shopping.

The bulk of the media attention this week focused on the Democratic candidates and their debate in Las Vegas but today it was push-polling in the Republican race that made headlines.

On Sunday, residents in New Hampshire and Iowa began receiving 20-minute phone calls slamming Mitt Romney, his Mormon faith and the Vietnam War-era military deferments he received while serving as a missionary in France, ABC News' Matt Stuart reports.

Friday Mitt Romney responded to reports of anti-Romney phone calls in New Hampshire and Iowa Friday, calling the attacks against him and his Mormon faith "un-American," Stuart reports.

"Asked about the calls by reporters after an event in Las Vegas, NV, Romney said he was 'very disappointed in the political process that someone is pursuing to use this kind of underhanded, un-American technique.'"

John McCain condemned the calls and said he has asked the New Hampshire Attorney General to look into it. Stuart notes that while Romney would not speculate on who was actually behind the attacks, he did go after the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, saying "the bill leaves an enormous, gaping loop hole," and "opens the pathway for this very kind of political technique."

On Sunday Rudy Giuliani looks to appeal to that once uber-trendy voting block of NASCAR dads with a stop at the Ford 400 NASCAR NEXTEL cup finale in Homestead, FL.

Per ABC News' Gary Langer, the latest group du jour that's said to hold the keys to the next election is single women "supposedly prowling around for the perfect candidate like a political alter-ego of Carrie Bradshaw on 'Sex and the City.'"

Edwards leaves the campaign trail briefly Friday to join striking writers on the picket lines in Burbank, California, ABC News' Raelyn Johnson reports. He is the first candidate to visit the union workers who have been on strike since Nov. 5.

"I'll be there to walk with them because this is an example why when a product is being produced and that product is creating a significant amount of revenue then we have to be fair to the workers and the creative forces that are producing," Edwards told ABC News before leaving Las Vegas to fly to California.

Edwards and Hillary Clinton discuss their plans to address global climate change and energy issues Saturday at the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy, sponsored by Grist in partnership with the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund at Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. Clinton is scheduled to speak at 6:00 pm ET and Edwards is up next at 6:30 pm ET

On the campaign trail…

Saturday November 17, 2007

RUDY GIULIANI

--No public schedule

MITT ROMNEY

--3:30 pm ET: Holds an economic town hall meeting, Henderson, NV

--5:00 pm ET: Meets with Las Vegas volunteers, Las Vegas, NV

--7:45 pm ET: Holds media availability, Reno, NV

--8:00 pm ET: Meets with Reno Volunteers, Reno, NV

ANN ROMNEY

--12:00 pm ET: Speaks at the Republican Women's Club of Seminole County Luncheon, Lake Mary, FL