Poll: Obama makes gains, is even with Clinton in N.H.  —  PELHAM, N.H. — Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a dead heat among New Hampshire voters in a statewide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, underscoring the volatility of the race less than three weeks before the nation's first primary.

Richardson Accuses Clinton of ‘Flip-Flop’ on Iraq Pullout  —  MUSCATINE, Iowa — I just got a phone call — unprompted — from Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democratic candidate for president, blasting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for saying she would withdraw nearly all American troops …

Hasta La Vista  —  Tom Tancredo is an angry man.  —  We know this because he has proposed dropping bombs on Mecca.  We know this because he sang “Dixie” at a South Carolina gathering full of Confederate flags and white supremacists.  And we know this because he wants to expel 12 million people now living in the United States.

Romney never saw father on King march  —  Defends figurative words; evidence contradicts story  —  Mitt Romney acknowledged yesterday that he never saw his father march with Martin Luther King Jr. as he asserted in a nationally televised speech this month, and historical evidence shows …

Dem leaders pressured to alter war strategy  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, despite their pledges to continue pushing to end the war in Iraq, face growing pressure from their rank-and-file Democrats to focus more attention on domestic, “pocketbook” issues in the upcoming election year.

Why Isn't Anyone Paying Attention to This?  —  This was not exactly bannered across the front page of the New York Times yesterday.  As a matter of fact, I don't think I saw it in my paper at all.  But on the Times' website, dated December 20, there is this headline: “Giuliani's Office Shifted Money Around?

Cheney Repeatedly Met With Auto Execs Before White House Killed California's Emissions Law  —  Before EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson “answered the pleas of industry executives” by announcing his “decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles,” …

A Problem Like Bill  —  Hillary Clinton tells audiences that having lived in the White House for eight eventful years, she's eager to take charge as president on “day one."  Apparently, though, so is Bill.  —  Before the Clinton campaign's recent shift to themes of warmth and approachability …

Huckabee Surges, Giuliani Plummets  —  By The Associated Press - 13 hours ago  —  THE RACE: The presidential race for Republicans in Michigan.  —  ___  —  THE NUMBERS — REPUBLICANS  —  Mitt Romney, 21 percent  —  Mike Huckabee, 19 percent  —  Rudy Giuliani, 12 percent  —  John McCain, 10 percent

The “Theory of Change” Primary  —  Perhaps we are being too literal in believing that “hope” and bipartisanship are things that Obama naively believes are present and possible, when in fact they are a tactic, a method of subverting and breaking the unified conservative power structure.

American Pastoral  —  Mike Huckabee preaches to the choir, but not everyone's singing along.  —  I didn't see the famous floating cross.  What I saw when I watched Mike Huckabee's Christmas commercial was a nice man in a sweater sitting next to a brightly lit tree.

Ron Paul's Photo-Op with Stormfront  —  An LGF reader emailed this photograph, showing Ron Paul at the Values Voters Presidential Debate in Fort Lauderdale on September 17, 2007.  Immediately to Paul's left: Don Black, the owner of neo-Nazi hate site Stormfront.

Putin ‘has secret $40bn fortune’  —  An unprecedented battle is taking place inside the Kremlin in advance of Vladimir Putin's departure from office, the Guardian has learned, with claims that the president presides over a secret multibillion-dollar fortune.

Column One: The triumph of legal defeatism  —  This week the IDF distributed ribbons to its soldiers and officers for their service in the war with Hizbullah in 2006.  The ribbons were a source of embarrassment.  Soldiers and officers, who like the general public view the war …