The Note

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 26—
, 2004 -- TODAY SCHEDULE AS OF 9:00 am (all times ET):

— 4:30 am: Vice President Cheney speaks to the Italian Senate, Rome, Italy — 6:30 am: Gen. Wesley Clark greets supporters at the Fort Truck Stop, Lebanon, N.H. — 6:30 am: Rep. Dennis Kucinich visits Jac-Pac, Manchester, N.H. — 7:30 am: Sen. John Kerry attends a "Town Hall for America's Future" event at Yoken's Restaurant, Portsmouth, N.H. — 7:45 am: Sen. Joe Lieberman has a "Cup of Joe" at Chez Vachon, Manchester, N.H. — 7:30 am: Gen. Wesley Clark's wife Gert appears on NBC's "Today Show"— 7:55 am: Gen Clark greets supporters at the Hullabaloo Coffee Co., Claremont, N.H. — 8:30 am: Gov. Howard Dean and his wife Judy have breakfast at the Crowne Plaza, Nashua, N.H. — 8:30 am: Gen. Clark's wife Gert appears on CNN's "American Morning"— 9:30 am: Sen. Lieberman and his wife Hadassah greet local residents on Main Street, Nashua, N.H. — 9:35 am: Gen. Clark greets supporters at Timoleon's Restaurant, Keene, N.H. — 10:00 am: Sen. John Edwards meets voters at Milford High School, Milford, N.H. — 11:30 am: President Bush speaks about medical liability reform at the Baptist Health Medical Center, Little Rock, Ark. — 11:30 am: Gov. Dean and his wife Judy attend a town hall at the Palace Theater, Manchester, N.H. — 11:40 am: Gen. Clark greets supporters at City Hall, Nashua, N.H. — 11:45 am: Sen. Lieberman meets with "Independents for Joe" on the steps of the State House, Concord, N.H. — 12:00 pm: Sen. Edwards meet voters at South Church, Portsmouth, N.H. — 12:15 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a "Town Hall for America's Future" event at the Keene State College, Keene, N.H. — 1:00 pm: Gen. Clark greets supporters at Avandi's Restaurant, Londonberry, N.H. — 1:00 pm: Politics Live on ABCNews.com and AOL— 1:15 pm: Sen. Lieberman and his wife Hadassah host a town hall meeting at the Belknap Mill, Laconia, N.H. — 2:00 pm: Gen. Clark greets supporters at City Hall Plaza, Manchester, N.H. — 2:30 pm: Gov. Dean and his wife Judy attend a rally at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H. — 2:30 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a "Town Hall for America's Future" event at Conant High School, Jaffrey, N.H. — 3:10 pm: Gen. Clark greets supporters across from the State House, Concord, N.H. — 3:40 pm: President Bush returns to the White House— 3:45 pm: Sen. Lieberman and his wife Hadassah greet residents on Main Street, Dover, N.H. — 5:00 pm: Howard Dean appears on CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports" — 5:15 pm: Gen. Clark greets supporters at Isinglass Country Store, Strafford, N.H. — 5:30 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a "Town Hall for America's Future" event at Pinkerton Academy, Derry, N.H. — 6:00 pm: Sen. John McCain and Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Chairman Gov. Marc Racicot attends a rally at the City Hall auditorium, Nashua, N.H. — 6:00 pm: Sen. Edwards holds a town hall meeting at the Palace Theater, Manchester, N.H. — 6:40 pm: Gen. Clark attends a house party at Sunny Slope Farm, Alton, N.H. — 7:00 pm: Gov. Dean attends a town hall at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H. — 7:30 pm: Sen. Kerry attends a "Rally for America's Future" event at Salem High School, Salem, N.H. — 7:30 pm: Sen. Lieberman and his wife Hadassah greet supporters at Milly's Tavern, Manchester, N.H. — 8:00 pm: Sen. Edwards holds a town hall meeting at Conant Elementary School, Concord, N.H. — 9:00 pm: Gen. Clark greets supporters at the Community Center, North Conway, N.H. — 10:00 pm: Sen. Kerry stops by his campaign headquarters, Manchester, N.H. — 11:00 pm: Voters in Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, N.H. gather before voting at midnight in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary— 11:30 pm: Multiple candidates' taped appearances air on NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" — 11:40 pm: Gen. Clark greets first-in-the-nation voters at the Balsams Hotel, Dixville Notch, N.H.

NEWS SUMMARY

The Note is about asking questions, not giving answers.

But that doesn't stop a lot of nice people from asking us the same things over and over again around the clock.

Who is going to win the New Hampshire primary?

Will that person be unstoppable after that win?

Why is there so much fruit in all the entrees at Richard's Bistro?

Those are all good questions, but, with all due respect, we think there are better -- or, at least, more germane -- ones.

Such as:

Which side is playing the more sophisticated New Hampshire expectations game with the media -- Kerry or Dean?

When the 19 political journalists who decide who has to do what in New Hampshire -- in terms of rank order, margin, and percentages -- in order to meet or exceed expectations -- will it be at Baldwin's, what will they decide, and will they have ice cream sandwiches?

What is it going to take to get John Kerry to stop saying "literally" when he literally means "figuratively" ("This President has literally thrown the baby out with the bath water.")?

Does Walter Shapiro understand that only someone who lives on the Upper West Side would cast doubt on whether the President's re-election effort could make "Massachusetts" an issue in the general election?

Have you read the New Republic story on John Kerry's record?

Which sounds more resonant with historicity: "Wayfarer bar" or "JD's Tavern at the Holiday Inn"?

What would every producer and anchor at the Fox News Channel write if forced to turn out 800-word essays about this remarkable exchange from this morning's Today show?

KATIE COURIC: "In many ways the polls are not that believable, are they, Tim?"

TIM RUSSERT: "No. The fact is they are small snap shots at a particular moment. They are a good indicator to use in talking to the campaigns. Otherwise the campaigns would tell us what their polls were. But we cannot rely on them."

Will bosses understand why it makes more journalistic sense to cover the Feb.3 contests from Charleston instead of Columbia?

In fact, beyond New Hampshire and it's polls, when looking ahead to Feb. 3, we ask that you broaden your horizons a little.

Yes, South Carolina is the first Southern test.

Yes, it is a state with a large African-America vote.

Yes, it has the only debate next week to which the candidates have committed as of now.

Yes, our colleagues in the media regularly talk about it as the "signature" event of Feb. 3 (or they use other comparable phrases).

Yes, on the Republican side the Palmetto State primary has been big in the past.

But there are at least three good reasons not to go overboard.

First, the voters of all states should get to play a role in the process, and over-focusing on South Carolina gives the media too big a role in disenfranchising the voters of some states.

Second, there are a lot of delegates at stake in other places that day, including Missouri -- as wide open as anywhere with Gephardt out -- and Arizona -- a big state without a favorite son.

Third, although candidate schedules are still in flux, this isn't going to be like Bush-McCain, where they candidates park in South Carolina for a week. They will move around and cherry pick.

So keep things in perspective.

Speaking of which: here are 10 reasons why we do not discount for a moment talk of a Howard Dean comeback, no matter how plainly and obviously his campaign is attempting to frame one by repeating the word.

And it has nothing to do with the polls. (As we have written before: If you live by Zogby, you die by Zogby…)

1. Many of his supporters here are angry at the media and the process and are fighting back (unlike in Iowa, where they seemed more angry at Dean).

2. Karen Hicks, his state director, is awesome. And she is totally in charge of the campaign, from deciding what interviews Dean does to influencing senior staff assignments to being the voice closest to Dean's ear. This is decidedly unlike Iowa, where there were probably too many cooks in the last few days. Other key Dean names in New Hampshire: Michael King, Tom Hughes, Maura Keefe . . .

3. His news coverage is getting better, and The Scream has faded a bit.

4. The campaign is doing an enormous amount of behind-the-scenes canvassing and a whole lot of maintenance of its "Ones."

5. Perhaps, Senator Kerry's barbed words for the Governor are based on some concern, either diffuse or specific, about Dean's momentum.

6. The organization Dean has in place -- from his house party contacts to his unions (SEIU, NH NEA, etc).

7. Judy is adorable. (Chad, the driver, is also adorable.)

8. Did we mention: Karen Hicks.

9. Clark is not quite as strong as the Dean believed he would be, and that's allowing them to focus on turning out women and independents.

10. The western border of the Granite State.

President Bush travels to Arkansas today to talk about medical liability.

Vice President Cheney speaks to the Italian Senate early this morning.

Sen. McCain and BC '04 campaign chairman Racicot rally this afternoon in Nashua, N.H.

Sens. Kerry, Edwards and Lieberman, Gov. Dean, Gen. Clark, and Rep. Kucinich are all in New Hampshire today.

Rev. Al Sharpton has no public events today. We wonder what Roger Stone thinks about that.

The Wex:

We at The Note like to think that "partly cloudy" isn't such a bad day in the New Hampshire neighborhood.

After all, 15 degrees and "partly cloudy" is nothing like Washington's "really, really snowy!"

But it seems the luck of the New Englanders won't last much longer when it comes to escaping the powdery white stuff -- Tuesday night snow is indeed "likely."

The question is, will it start post-poll closing, once the Granite Staters have had their ballot box say? Or earlier, say around the just-leaving-work hour, in time to keep folks away from the polls? And what will this mean for whom? Stay tuned, folks!

(Oh, and to all of those media and campaign types who think of Wednesday as "travel day," the National Weather Service advises "the expected snowfall will have the potential to produce hazardous travel conditions. Commuters...other travelers...and anyone with plans for Tuesday night and Wednesday should stay informed on the progress of this developing storm." Hmmm . . . ) LINK

New Hampshire:

The New York Times' Adam Nagourney writes that on the final weekend before the New Hampshire primary the candidates elevated their attacks on President Bush (and attracted record crowds). Nagourney also reports that the Dean campaign "called about 100 of the campaign's top donors to a five-hour meeting in Concord, in part to discuss what they said would be the severe fund-raising challenges he would face if he lost here, a matter of particular concern given what the aides said had been a huge expenditure of money on the losing effort in Iowa." LINK

The New York Times' Robin Toner reports on the drastic shift the Iowa caucuses created in the candidates' long term plans, writing, "The struggle for the Democratic nomination is transformed after New Hampshire, becoming more of a national race, and putting a premium on competing in many states and steadily acquiring delegates." LINK

The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg reports that even in direct mailings, the campaigns are staying positive in the days before the primary-a very big change from the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. LINK

The Wall Street Journal's John Harwood and Jake Schlesinger write that the Clark and Edwards battle for third place on Tuesday may be the most interesting story of the night.

The Washington Post's John Harris Notes that an old story is shaping up in New Hampshire: Kerry, a "politician who last year was dismissed as old hat is back in fashion, polls here uniformly indicate. Yet former Vermont governor Howard Dean, roughed up and ridiculed in the week since Iowa, apparently remains his most formidable rival here -- a state historically prone to late-breaking swings in public opinion and sympathetic to the kind of reformist message Dean is offering." LINK

The New York Times' Todd Purdum Notes the "frenzied" final weekend before the New Hampshire primary, writing that "for all but the fortunate few New Hampshire was the place to see candidates from a distance, on C-Span, in holding rooms or from behind a frosted pane of glass." LINK

And Dan Balz and Paul Schwartzman report on the collection of mothers, wives, widows and colleagues brought out for the final push, Noting that of the "flurry" of weekend polls, "several showed a close contest for second." LINK

Bob Novak questions whether Sen.Edwards is surging: "Sen. John Kerry, the decisive Iowa winner, appears headed for another clear victory Tuesday in New Hampshire. Polling indicates former front-runner Howard Dean's free fall has been arrested, perhaps enough to finish second. Wesley Clark has lost momentum, particularly after a disastrous performance in Thursday night's final debate. Sen. Joe Lieberman may get into double digits. That leaves Edwards, starting the week in single digits and no better than fourth here, but moving up a little." LINK

The Nashua Telegraph reports Bill Gardner's prediction that 1992's turnout record will be broken when 184,000 Democratic ballots will be cast on Tuesday. LINK

"Racing across the state, the Presidential candidates yesterday worked to cash in on their momentum and sell their electability before snow threatened to greet voters at the polls tomorrow," the Union Leader reports. LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Faye Fiore writes about the Granite Staters' desire for a winner. LINK

Undecided voters are the target of a last minute blitz, the Union Leader reports. LINK

The Union Leader writes up what's on the Dems' schedule on this, the last day before the New Hampshire primary. LINK

The AP's Pickler depicts Dean's most recent criticism of Iraq and his campaign's belief that "his wife's presence is helping". LINK

The AP runs down the latest Kerry/Dean foreign policy debate. LINK

The Boston Globe's Anne Kornblut and Joanna Weiss give a great sense of all the stumping and last-minute efforts of the campaigns in New Hampshire. LINK

In a similar vein, the Boston Globe's Pat Healy writes about why the Kerry campaign and the GOP both welcome the support of the Kennedys. LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein writes that Dean's decline is defining the race just as much as his rise did. LINK

ABC News Vote 2004: the Democratic nomination fight:

The Los Angeles Times' James Rainey and Nick Anderson report on Kerry responding to attacks from Dean and Clark. LINK

Ceci Connolly Notes that Kerry yesterday defended his 1991 vote against and 2002 vote for authorizing war in Iraq following criticism on Saturday from Dean. LINK

The Washington Post's Jonathan Finer reports on Judy Steinberg Dean's stumping for her husband, which continues today. LINK

Kit Seelye reports that the reactions to the top of Clark's speech to the Club 100 on Saturday night "suggested that General Clark had still not met one of the threshold tests for a Democratic candidate: convincing voters that he has a rightful claim to the party's presidential nomination." LINK

The Washington Post's Walter Pincus picks up on Kerry's and Clark's statements that the Bush administration misled Americans on the reason it went to war in Iraq. LINK

The Washington Post's Brian Faler reports that Dean's post-caucus rant "seemed to bring out the Karl Rove" in Dean's ardent bloggers, who "flooded the campaign with sometimes pointed advice on his next move." LINK

The New York Times' David Rosenbaum leads simply and effectively about polls: "based on the track record of four years ago, they could be way off the mark." LINK

The New York Times' William Safire opines about a possible Kerry/Edwards ticket: "the political philosophy these two men have embraced is lopsidedly leftist: In this campaign, they have clawed their way up the greasy pole of politics with a pitch that is pure populism." LINK

The New York Times Notes that Sen. Kerry updated his latest New Hampshire ad to mention an endorsement by the League of Conservation Voters. LINK

The New York Times' editorial page editor Gail Collins writes from Manchester and seems a bit bored: "The current campaign has delivered nothing more than a few strained stabs at regular-guyness." She closes, those, with a tip of her hat to those Granite Staters willing to "drive considerable distances in ridiculously cold weather to watch a politician give a speech." We can feel the love from here. LINK

The New York Times' Lynette Clemetson Notes the positives and perils of CSPAN coverage, catching this Dean moment following Sunday morning's event with his wife: "But after the event, Dr. Dean's tone changed, as he said discreetly but audibly: 'Get her out. Get her out. Get her out.'" LINK

New Hampshire, graveyard of politicians -- and pollsters. LINK

The Granite State vote: "It's messy, but it works." LINK

The Washington Post's Fred Hiatt examines what he sees as a "gap in the Democratic message" that anyone who becomes the Democratic nominee will have to "fill" through the prism of the senior senator from Massachusetts' recent speech. LINK

The candidates' speeches, excerpted. LINK

Feb. 3:

Ryan McNeill and John Greiner of the Oklahoman report that the candidates have spent more than $1.5 million in Oklahoma thus far in advance of the Feb. 3 primary, including nearly $1.3 million on TV ads in the largest markets in the state. Sen. John Edwards and Gen. Wes Clark have been the biggest spenders -- Edwards has spent almost $350,000 on ads, and Clark has spent more than $500,000. The Sooner State has about one million registered Democrats. LINK

Like many voters in other states and across the country, those heading to the polls in Arizona on Feb. 3 are most concerned with jobs and the economy, writes Paul Matthews of the Arizona Republic. An average of 149,500 people in Arizona were unemployed last year. The state's 1 percent annual job growth, puts it fifth nationally, Matthews writes, thanks to gains in the health care, construction and business services industries. Population is growing faster than jobs, however. LINK

The Chicago Tribune's Jeff Zeleny sums up the post N.H. scene in states such as North Dakota, which "hasn't been a political hotbed like this for a long time." LINK

The Albuquerque Journal attended a "meet-up" with a bunch of Democrats preparing for New Mexico's Feb. 3 caucuses and if the crowd at the Applebee's in Roswell is indicative, Gen. Clark may find fertile ground in New Mexico. LINK

The AP reports that the Feb. 3 contests are still "up for grabs." LINK

The Boston Globe tells us just how serious the wooing of Rep. James E. Clyburn is. LINK

Reaching out to those men who will be descending upon his state soon, always a Southern gentleman, The State's Lee Bandy wrote "A candidate's guide to South Carolina" yesterday. And the key line to all you campaign managers out there:

"Exit polls consistently show about a third of S.C. voters are Republicans, a third are Democrats, and a third are independents - the so-called swing voters, the ones who decide elections. No one has any idea who or how many of those voters will cast ballots in the Feb. 3 primary. Turnout estimates range from 275,000 to 325,000."Sound familiar? LINK

The State today Notes the key voters to target this primary - older black women. LINK

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on the Gephardt backers now getting behind the Kerry bid. Do see the Patrick Kennedy quotes. LINK

Special: Dump-On-Kerry Overcompensation Section:

The New Republic's Michael Grunwald provides an excellent recap of the liberal baggage that Kerry would bring into a general election race:

--"his opposition to mandatory minimum sentences for dealers who sell drugs to children"

--"voting against the death penalty for terrorists"

--"efforts to provide cash benefits to drug addicts and alcoholics"

--"onetime opposition to a modest work requirement for welfare recipients"

--"supporting more than half a trillion dollars in tax increases--including hikes in gas taxes and Social Security taxes"

--"accepting free housing and other goodies for himself from friendly influence-peddlers"

--serving as LG under Dukakis when Massachusetts "famously furloughed more than 500 murders and sex offenders under a program Kerry later defended as tough"

Grunwald points out that Kerry has altered some of these positions during his current run for president. He "now favors a death-penalty exception for terrorists," for example. Grunwald also notes how Kerry has skillfully employed his record as a combat veteran to diffuse many of these charges when they came up in the past.

"But George W. Bush is not Bill Weld, 2004 is not 1996, and the United States is most assuredly not Massachusetts."

Kerry:

The Wall Street Journal's David Rogers writes a must-read for anybody trying to understand Kerry's new frontrunner status, calling it "a turnaround, slow to be recognized, that actually began late last year when Mr. Kerry decided to gamble heavily on Iowa and invest his time in a more direct, personal style of campaigning to engage voters.

Stephen Sherman writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that despite his war record, Kerry hasn't been a friend to veterans -- with testimony on atrocities, stopping an investigation into POW/MIAs and supporting trade with South Vietnam while not forcing it to hold to human rights standards.

From ABC News Kerry campaign reporter Ed O'Keefe:

While growing crowds are not unusual late in a primary contest, Kerry's weekend showings were particularly strong and consistent: two overflow rooms at Dartmouth Friday night, nearly 2,000 New Hampshirites at a celebrity-laden hockey game Saturday afternoon, and a 1,500 person rally Sunday. Though the campaign and Sen. Kerry routinely double these figures, in reality, they are impressive without exaggeration.

Crowd size itself has had little effect on event content, except that Kerry now stays longer and thus falls behind schedule earlier in the day. Evening crowds wait upwards of an hour and a half to see the Senator, surviving multiple local speakers and Billy Shaheen's best comedy routine.

The tighter schedule and larger crowds have also led to a historic occasion: on Sunday, the Senator gave his shortest scheduled stump speech to date, clocking in at six minutes, 45 seconds. The improved time is a far cry from the days when Kerry rarely spoke less than 25 minutes and often averaged times in between 30 to 40.

And, for no apparent reason, it seems Springsteen's "No Surrender," the campaign's theme song in Iowa, has been displaced by U2's "Beautiful Day" and "The Rising," a later contribution from the Boss, in New Hampshire. This Kerry song shakeup could mean the campaign casualty list now includes one campaign manager, a communications director, several staffers, a political director, and a song.

Read more from the trail with Kerry on abcnews.com: LINK

ABC News' Jake Tapper on Kerry's Southern strategy -- or lack thereof. Even if Kerry remains committed to campaigning and winning there, his comments sounded foul to some political observers.

"Saturday at Dartmouth, Kerry discounted notions that any Democratic candidate would have to appeal to Southern voters in order to win the presidency, calling such thinking a 'mistake' during a speech at Dartmouth College." LINK

"He noted that former Vice President Al Gore would be president if he'd won any number of other non-Southern states in 2000, including New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Ohio. 'Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South,' Kerry said, in response to a question about winning the region. 'Al Gore proved he could have been president of the United States without winning one Southern state, including his own.'"

"Dick Harpootlian, former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, told ABCNEWS in an exclusive interview. 'It's the wrong message to be saying at this point,' said Harpootlian, who noted Kerry was the only major Democratic candidate not running TV ads in his state."

Dean:

From ABC News Dean campaign reporter Reena Singh:There doesn't seem to be a cure for the Governor's terminal bout of can't-control-what-comes-out-of-my-mouth-itis.

Like a boy who kept getting his hand caught in the cookie jar, the Governor bashfully acknowledged throughout the weekend that he doesn't always say the right thing. This, of course, was immediately followed by saying the wrong thing. Latest case in point being the Iraq comment over which the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post were buzzing about yesterday. Strategically speaking, the blanket excuse is a brilliant way to diffuse the self-destructive statements, which spill out of Howard Dean's mouth regularly.

A senior advisor finally lost the stiff upper lip and admitted the Iowa loss was a big setback and that the Governor had not expected such a large gap. One staff member blamed it on Gephardt's not being able to make threshold at several precincts. The Gephardt unviables then went to other camps while the Kucinich people rallied behind Edwards. The Governor himself criticized the Edwards campaign for playing dirty citing the document listing unsavory arguments against other candidates as proof.

Speaking of dirty tricks, the New Hampshire staff claims some of their supporters have received robo calls or harassing calls claiming to originate from the Dean campaign. The campaign has not taped any of these calls. One of the recipients, who asked not to be identified, is a woman from Berlin who says she received a call at 7:15 am on January 24 from someone identifying themselves as a Dean worker. At first the male caller told the woman a "dirty Irish joke," and when she asked the man not to call her again, he replied, "I'll call you anytime I want." After hanging up, the woman said the man dialed back and left "strange noises sounding like flagellation" (sorry, gentle readers) on her answering machine.

Read more from the trail with Dean on abcnews.com: LINK

The Globe's Sarah Schweitzer writes of Dr. Judy's campaign presence and how its resonating with some voters. LINK

The New Republic looks at Dean's positions on taxes and writes: "Is Dean's proposal to repeal Bush's middle-class tax cuts political suicide? Maybe. But it's the right thing to do." LINK

ADS: Dean has two spots running in rotation in New Hampshire; one called "Leader," and the other, a 60-second bio ad.

Clark:

From ABC News' Clark campaign reporter Deborah Apton:

HANOVER, N.H., Jan. 25 - He's wearing a red tie tiled with mini-New Hampshire maps. He's holding rallies instead of conversations. And he's trying to keep the mood of his campaign up with last minute, added retail stops at diners, Dunkin' Donuts, and a bowling alley. It's T-minus 48 hours until the final push towards the primary or, as the press has nicknamed it, the "Hell on Wheels" tour of the Clark for President campaign.

Riding on the Clark campaign bus-the second bus since coming full-time to New Hampshire (p.s.-it's the bus that the Gephardt campaign had rented for their Granite State run)-most of the talk is not about New Hampshire but about the February 3rd states. In the hotel lobby Sunday morning, one campaign staffer stood around waiting to catch a flight to Missouri.

In an off-the-schedule Sunday night stop at a restaurant in Hanover, Clark sat down with a dozen women who had just come from the Lifetime/ABC News women's forum to try and convert many of the independent, undecided voters to his team.

When one woman asked him about strategy coming out of New Hampshire, Clark said: "I'm all set for the third. We've got ads everywhere…we hired thirty-nine of Gephardt's people, we've got tons of money, we're moving into Missouri, we've got all we need to win all this stuff." And in response to a question about an endorsement from Gephardt, Clark said: "Gephardt hasn't made up his mind…I talked to Dick."

In the end, Clark's drop-in at dinner convinced one of the women to switch over from Dean to Clark. And while handing out Clark04 pins, The General kept asking the women for their votes -- even offering to buy one woman a drink. She refused.

And Monday's star power on the trail? Actress Drew Barrymore, who will be riding with the press corps and following Clark for a documentary she's making, according to campaign staffers.

Read more from the trail with Clark on abcnews.com: LINK

Lieberman:

From ABC News' Lieberman campaign reporter Talesha Reynolds:

MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan 25 - Normally, a third place finish is nothing to write home about, but when the prospect of fourth or fifth was for a while all you could hope for, you shout, "We're number three!" from the rooftops for as long as the poll holds. And that's just what Senator Lieberman did on Sunday.

Before Thursday's debate, the situation for the Lieberman campaign had been dire. The crowds were thin, the media had declared the race a four-person battle, excluding Lieberman, and taps were playing off in the distance. But as Sen. Lieberman put it, "the debate was a turning point. It just seemed to all come together for me."

Saturday evening's town hall meeting in Nashua was perhaps a sign that the tide was turning. The City Hall auditorium held about three hundred people and another two hundred waited in the stairwell outside the room for the duration of the event.

Lieberman learned Sunday morning that he had overtaken Wesley Clark and John Edwards for third place in the new CNN/Gallup poll. Three is the number Lieberman will never say publicly but counted on for months, and now it seemed again a possibility. When Wolf Blitzer pointed out on Late Edition that he was nevertheless a "distant third" Lieberman winced and exclaimed, "Wolf, be excited!!! This is JoeMentum here in New Hampshire."

In an effort to build on that Mo (Joe?), the campaign released a new 60-second radio ad starring post-debate converts, who came into New Hampshire offices to lend their support and ended up lending their voices, too. The ad is an appeal to still undecided voters, who in the final hours of a race for third place that promises to be close are what Deputy Campaign Director Brian Hardwick calls "gold."

Sunday afternoon, Sen. Lieberman hit the streets of his own Manchester neighborhood to knock on doors and drum up votes Sunday afternoon. Usually, the houses are pre-screened to make sure someone will be home to answer the door, but Lieberman had to leave notes at half the doorsteps he visited on Monroe Street. He signed on glossy campaign literature: "Stopped by. Please help."

Read more from the trail with Lieberman on abcnews.com: LINK

The Union Leader endorses Joe Lieberman... again. LINK

Edwards:

From ABC News' Edwards campaign reporter Gloria Riviera:

BERLIN, NH--Jan. 23, There was hope the moose walked away unscathed.

At 9:15 p.m, the seven-person-strong Edwards traveling press corps' plane landed at the municipal airport in 1-degree Milan, NH to the news there would be some delay in their pickup.

The press marched from the charter across the tarmac, treading carefully over black ice, heads down in the chilling wind. In the half-lit lobby, which the airport manager unlocked as a refuge for the wait, they wondered at the delay.

"The press van was in an accident," said Spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri. "They hit a moose."

Actually, two were involved. Only one walked away. Both drivers were fine, but impact (on average a grown moose weighs up to 1,000 lbs.) was enough to crack the van's windshield and put out the headlights.

January in Berlin is not typically a high moose traffic month, but Friday was a fateful night. When New Hampshire Press Secretary Colin Van Ostern called the police department to determine the location of the moose accident, he was asked, "Which one?" There had been multiple moose incidents that evening.

After learning the status of the drivers (A-OK), one of whom is an up and coming press liaison in the Edwards campaign and the other a well-meaning volunteer, the press wondered about the details of the incident.

"People from Washington called and told me the vehicle was involved in a motor vehicle incident that involved a moose," said airport manager Eric Kaminsky upon press inquiry. "See, a moose is a long-legged animal," he went on. Kaminsky has seen his share of moose incidents and said it was not all that unusual, even in January.

Kaminsky described how, depending on speed and impact, the accident could have been much worse. A bad one could have left more than the moose on the road. "It's not good," he said. "It is not good at all."

After an hour the drivers arrived in the van. But since the headlights were out group mutiny threatened to rise up and even Van Ostern agreed the vehicle was not fit to make the hour drive to Berlin, even for the press. And so, like highschool students post Friday night game, they crammed into a "mom mobile" -- literally. The state political director's mom, Matha McCloud, came and rescued the press with her station wagon.

Uncannily enough, and of yet to be determined appropriateness, Berlin is located in the White Mountain "Presidentials" -- the New Hampshire mountain range that is home to Mt. Washington, Madison and Jefferson among others. However, Sen. Edwards himself was not on hand for the dead-moose-on-arrival incident, having jetted from South Carolina to Birmingham, Alabama for a fundraiser before a late arrival in New Hampshire.

Read more from the trail with Edwards on abcnews.com: LINK

The Chicago Tribune states that Edwards is "prompting fresh concern from Republicans." LINK

The Orlando Sentinel's Mark Silva sees John Edwards gaining valuable Mo' as the "good hair candidate" with the positive message in New Hampshire. LINK

ADS: In New Hampshire, Edwards has two thirty second spots in rotation --Time and Two Americas.

Politics Live:

If you still have not watched Politics Live (as friends call it, "PL") -- the daily discussion of all things political -- then how can you call yourself an insider or a player or a participant or even a good reporter in this game we all know and love, politics?

Reading The Note (honored as we are to have you) is not the end of it. To have your fully daily dose, you must see this ground-breaking webcast. And if you're still thinking you can't make the time, we'll let you in on a secret: newsmakers are now calling our bookers asking, begging, pleading to be guests on this show.

Sen. Lou D'Allesandro will grace the streets of Times Square today (no, we won't tell you who called whom), on the Jumbotran of course, from the ABC News campaign bus in the Granite State. LINK

AOL subscribers, don't you worry, you can watch it too.

But you can't tell the players without a program -- which means ya gotta sign up to have ABC News Live delivered right to your desktop. We don't underestimate the power of customer service around here. LINK

The economy:

The Wall Street Journal's Clare Ansberry writes that manufacturing, while not necessarily a booming sector, won't drag down the economy in 2004. Things are picking up, but whether or not they begin creating jobs and gaining voters' attention is another story.

ABC 2004: The Campaign Bus Logs:

From Onawa to Sabula, from New Ipswich to Scott Bog, ABC News' Campaign Buses -- Red, White and Blue are the biggest things to hit Iowa and New Hampshire since Jack Germond. They feature full-service production suites, hungry reporters, and fun-loving producers -- and they're the centerpiece of ABC News' Vote 2004 coverage.

Those bus producers -- some of them legends in the broadcast business -- file memos to the news division every night, providing a unique look at life on the road. Here are some of their observations.

From ABC News Blue Bus producer Tarana Harris:

Team Blue overcomes weather and delirium to score three candidates for This Week. The performance is mighty enough to retire with, and wheels come to a screeching halt in front of City Hall. Don't cry New Hampshire. We won't be coming to you any longer, but you can come to us for tours at 9 am, 12 pm and 3 pm.

Local wag wonders, "Will candidates ever visit the Red or White bus ever again?"

Distaff wag wonders, "Do we really want to invite the candidates on the bus ever again?"

Politics:

The Washington Post's Rene Sanchez reports that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has supported decisions to set eight apparently rehabilitated murders free. LINK

The Washington Post editorial board believes that "Even in an election year, it shouldn't be asking too much to expect the president to firmly reject a step as radical as rewriting the Constitution to stop states from adopting laws that recognize gay relationships." LINK

ABC Vote 2004: Bush-Cheney re-elect:

The Washington Post's Mike Allen Notes that "After two years of barely speaking to reporters aside from rare appearances on NBC's "Meet the Press," [Vice President] Cheney has given eight interviews in the past month. LINK

Also in the Post, David Broder and Mike Allen report that the President's strategists are ecstatic over their possible opponent-no matter who he is. "They don't know what his name is, but those Republicans say that they can put him in that box, whoever he turns out to be. One Republican consultant said the basic message of ads on behalf of Bush will be that the Democrat is 'liberal, liberal, liberal.'" LINK

President Bush will leave the campaigning in New Hampshire to a troupe of surrogates this week, including Senator John McCain who beat Bush there by 18 points in 2000. The New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller also reports this extremely juicy nugget about President Bush and his campaign:

"Today, Mr. Bush's advisers are scavenging for damaging nuggets in the long legislative record of Senator John Kerry, who was 3 points ahead of Mr. Bush, 49 percent to 46 percent, in a hypothetical election matchup in a Newsweek poll of registered voters on Friday and Saturday. That may be why Mr. Bush chose to swipe at Mr. Kerry in some off-the-record jokes in a speech on Saturday night at the Alfalfa Club dinner." LINK