Weekend highlights:

• Seven Democratic candidates (all but Mike Gravel) are in Orlando on Saturday to address the National Associated of Latino Elected Officials.

• Six Republicans are in Des Moines for a tax forum sponsored by Iowans for Tax Relief and the Iowa Christian Alliance. Ron Paul was excluded and is having his own separate "celebration" in the same building as the forum.

• John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are skipping the tax forum. McCain is in Arizona. Giuliani will be in New Orleans with Sen. David Vitter to receive a "hurricane preparedness update."

• We should add, tomorrow is the last day to raise money counted toward the second quarter.

• As we reported earlier here, Iowa will see an influx of candidates and spouses -- including Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama -- in the next few days.

• For more weekend details, see the Sneak Peek at ABC News.

USA TODAY's Fredreka Schouten reports that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has raised $7 million for his Democratic presidential campaign in the last three months. That's more than his first-quarter haul of $6.2 million. All of the money would go toward the Democratic primary contest.

"This proves that Gov. Richardson is a formidable fundraiser," spokeswoman Katie Roberts told Schouten. She wouldn't say how much cash Richardson has on hand.

The total leaves Richardson lagging behind his party's top fundraisers. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign aides say she has raised about $27 million for the quarter, and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is expected to post strong results. Former North Carolina senator John Edward's has raised $8.6 million so far, according to a running tally on his website.

The second-quarter fundraising deadline is Saturday. Candidates must disclose the details of their fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission by July 15.

Mike Huckabee is one of two Southern conservatives in the Republican presidential race right now, and today he brushed off concerns about a likely candidate with a similar identity.

"It'll sort out as to which one of us is the real or the Southern conservative," Huckabee, a pastor and former Arkansas governor, said of former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson.

"He's going to occupy an extraordinary amount of stage space early on. He'll start at the top when he comes in. The challenge will be for him to sustain that," Huckabee told reporters in a conference call. He said that "if you enter at the top, there's only one direction you can really go."

His own goal, Huckabee said, is to continually move ahead: "We're hoping to peak at the right time."

For Huckabee, mired in single digits and having raised only $540,000 in the first quarter, that's the Aug. 11 Iowa straw poll. He said the straw poll would not necessarily make or break his bid, but he did call it a milestone.

"We're going to play to do well," he said. If he doesn't, he said he will re-assess his odds of success in the January caucuses that start the nomination process.

Another candidate in single digits, former governor Tommy Thompson, pretty much said today he would drop out if he does poorly in the straw poll. He told C-SPAN it is "very much a must-win" for his campaign.

Two leading GOP candidates, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, are skipping the straw poll. But a third, Mitt Romney, is competing hard to win it.

Update at 4:25 p.m. ET: The other Southern conservative in the race is former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore.

Update at 4:32 p.m. ET: Rep. Ron Paul is from Texas, but he's usually categorized as a libertarian and he has been against the Iraq war from the start.

Republican Mitt Romney is moving up in the polls, at least when it comes to a story about him and an Irish setter.

Nearly 140 bloggers in the last two days have linked to a Time article on this nugget mined from a seven-part Boston Globe series on the former governor: In 1983, Romney's dog made a 12-hour trip from Boston to Ontario in a kennel lashed to the top of the family station wagon.

Time's discussion of the incident is the third most popular news story this afternoon, topped only by the release of the iPhone and discovery of a car bomb in London.

What happened with the dog?

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A new poll from Gallup shines a light on how blacks and Hispanics view the presidential field. Poll questions, methodology and analysis are available here. Among the findings:

• Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is rated favorably by 84% of blacks and 63% of Hispanics. Democrat Barack Obama, who is black, received a 68% favorable rating from blacks. Democrat Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic, received a favorable rating from only 20% of Hispanics.

The pair's lower ratings may stem from lower name recognition than Clinton, who is almost universally known. About a quarter of blacks said they had never heard of or had no opinion of Obama. Seven in 10 said the same about Richardson.

• On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani scored most favorably with both groups; 34% of blacks and 46% of Hispanics said they had a favorable opinion of him. John McCain, co-author of the just-killed immigration bill that would have given illegals opportunities to become citizens, was second. A quarter of blacks and 31% of Hispanics viewed him favorably.

The poll came out the day the 10 Republican candidates had been invited to appear before the National Association of Latino Elected Officials in Orlando. Only one, Rep. Duncan Hunter, accepted. He's from the San Diego area and supports a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Read it and weep, all you heavyweight states that moved your primaries up so you could score some love. Iowa's still the one, if candidate travel schedules are any indication.

The state that launches the nomination season with caucuses for both parties will host at least 11 candidates and three wives in the coming week. For starters, six Republicans will be there for a tax forum on Saturday in Des Moines. And three Democratic couples -- the Clintons, the Obamas and the Dodds -- are touring the state together next week.

The most prominent couple, of course, is Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. They have appeared together at fundraisers and they went to Selma, Ala. together this year for civil rights tributes, but this is the first time the former president will participate in full-fledged campaign events with his wife.

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Democratic forum coverage:

• USA TODAY,  Dems call for ending tax cuts for rich. "Democratic presidential candidates Thursday called for ending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in a debate focusing on domestic issues related to minorities. The Democratic hopefuls called for a more direct presidential role in addressing racism that they said continues to run through American society, and in treating and preventing AIDS, which they said has disproportionately affected African Americans."

• The Washington Post, Democrats Address Race Issues in Debate. Democratic contenders aggressively sought to outmuscle one another on the topics of race and poverty and derided yesterday's Supreme Court decision banning most affirmative action in public schools.

• The New York Times, Democrats stress domestic programs in debate. For 90 minutes Thursday night, eight Democratic candidates debated before an audience made up largely of one of their party’s most reliable and liberal constituencies — African-American voters — and used the stage to urge a revitalization of domestic programs that they said had faltered under President George W. Bush.

• The Los Angeles Times, Democrats court black audience. Setting aside their discord on the Iraq war, eight Democratic presidential candidates presented a largely united front in their third debate Thursday night, vowing to fight racial bias and improve day-to-day living conditions for all Americans.

Two columnists rate the candidates:

• The Politico, Debate Winners! Guaranteed Accurate!: Columnist Roger Simon gives it to Hillary Rodham Clinton: "The debate was explicitly devoted to 'issues that matter most to black America' and, of course, it was a panderfest, but not to any greater extent than Democratic candidates pander to organized labor (or Republicans pander to the business community). And, once again, Hillary, as her campaign officially refers to her, looked like she was in charge, with a command of the issues and even some soaring rhetoric now and again."

• The Des Moines Register, Clinton's fine showing should help her in Iowa. Columnist David Yepsen says "the New York senator turned in the single most impressive performance during a debate among the Democratic presidential candidates Thursday night in Washington, D.C. Clinton was crisp, cogent and methodical in her answers. She understood better than any of the other candidates the need for terse answers when so many candidates are given so little time in which to answer questions."

On the money front:

• The Associated Press, McCain says he will not drop out due to funding. "He noted that the first primary contests are a full six months away and said voters will not start paying close attention until the fall. 'I don't know why I would even remotely consider such a thing in the month of June, or July,' he said."

• The Washington Post, Obama Set to Pass Clinton in Money Raised, Her Aide Says. Advisers in the two camps had been quietly predicting for weeks that Obama would outperform Clinton, and yesterday, the Obama campaign unveiled a tidbit about its fortunes. Officials said they have attracted a total of 250,000 donors for the year.

Other news:

• New Hampshire Union Leader, Thompson gets a look at NH. Hinting strongly at a presidential run, Fred Thompson last night urged Republicans to lead the country by returning to their founding principles and renewing their commitment to small government, individual freedom and free trade.

• The Boston Globe, The Making of Mitt Romney, part six;: "Taking office, remaining an outsider."

The deadline for second-quarter fundraising is Saturday at midnight. Need we say more?

We're taking a short break before we start live-blogging the Democratic forum on PBS at 9 p.m. ET. For those who must know who is where and doing what on Friday, check out the "Sneak Peek" compiled by our friends at ABC News. They've also thrown in a dash of reaction to the 5-4 Supreme Court decision on desegregation. 

All eight Democratic presidential candidates appear at a forum tonight at Howard University. The focus of the All-American Presidential Forum is domestic issues. The moderator and questioners are minority journalists. The 90-minute event starts at 9 p.m. ET.

You can watch the discussion on PBS television stations (check local listings) or at PBS.org. You can also follow it here at this post, where we'll be live-blogging the proceedings. The updates are in chronological order.

The questioners: Tavis Smiley of PBS (moderator), NPR's Michel Martin, nationally syndicated columnist Ruben Navarette Jr. and DeWayne Wickham, a columnist for USA TODAY and Gannett News Service.

The participants: Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden; New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd; former North Carolina senator John Edwards; former Alaska senator Mike Gravel; Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich; Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

For more details on the event, click here.

9:12 p.m. ET People in the audience are shouting "Obama." First question comes from Crecilla Cohen Scott of Bowie, Md., winner of an online question contest: "Is race sill the most intractable issue in America?"

All the Democrats said the country has made progress but needs to make more.

Clinton said progress is evident just be looking at the stage, with presidential candidates who are African-American, Latino and female. But she cited the Katrina aftermath, the "opportunity gap" and today's Supreme Court decision striking down two school desegregation plans. "It is abundantly clear, especially today, that race and racism are defining challenges," she said.

Obama said African-Americans and other groups should "take personal responsibility to rise up out of the problems that we face," but the country also needs " a sense of mutual responsibility and there's got to be political will in the White House to make that happen. That's the reason I'm running for president."

Edwards said there are two separate health and education systems in America: "All of us have a responsibility to build one America that works for everybody."

9:42 p.m. ET: The question from Wickham is how to reduce "achievement gap" that affects minority children.

Biden says half the gap exists the day the child starts school. "The moment they walk into school they are already behind," he said, so nurturing programs have to start earlier.

Richardson says he supports a minimum wage for teachers and universal preschool. He said education should be the nation's "foremost priority," even if it costs money: "Nobody asks how you going to pay for the war."

Kucinich says the Pentagon budget should be cut 15% and the money used for education and other needs. Gravel says that's too modest, we could cut more.

Obama says you can't have a No Child Left Behind law "and leave the money behind." He also says good teachers should go where they are needed and children should not think it's acceptable that they don't achieve.

Dodd says he has dedicated himself to education and "the whole child" for 26 years in the Senate. He said he wrote the first child care legislation in the country and was named "senator of the decade" by the National Head Start Association (he doesn't say which decade). "I have walked the walk. I am committed to these issues."

Clinton, alluding to her book, says it really does "take a village" and the American village has failed its children. She refers to her work for preschool and other programs for children but says "this is a broader issue" because you can't separate education from economic problems and discrimination.

9:58 p.m. ET: The question from Michel Martin is about health care -- better access, better coverage, reducing AIDS among minority teen-agers. Kucinich wins applause when he says we have to get rid of for-profit medicine. He says Michael Moore got it right.

Gravel says African-Americans have to get rid of the drug problem "which is ravaging your communities." It's the second time he's said it.

Dodd is talking about how HIV-AIDS is not the only health problem in the community when Smiley tries to cut him off. "I was going to say I'll take global warming for $600," Dodd says.

"I was going to say you're Paris Hilton, you have an hour, but you're not," Smiley responded.

"That was good, Tavis," Clinton said. She went on to say that if HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of young white women, there would be "an outraged outcry." "Let me say quickly before I get compared to Paris Hilton... I'm working on all this."

Biden says there aren't enough leaders "demanding that we face the reality" of black teens getting AIDS. He said people should get tested and noted Obama had been tested.

Obama interrupts: "I just got to make clear I got tested with Michelle when we were in Kenya and Africa. I don't want there to be any confusion here..."

10:06 p.m. ET: The question is whether rich people don't pay enough taxes. The candidates, some of them rich themselves, agree that they don't.

Edwards says the Bush tax cuts "have distorted the system." Obama says "people didn't need them and weren't even asking for them." Dodd says there was a good period with a fairer tax system during the Clinton administration. "We need to get back to those days again," he says, and do things like reward companies to locate in inner cities.

Clinton seconds his praise for what she called the 1990s, reciting her husband's record of 22 million new jobs, a balanced budget and a budget surplus. Bush came in "determined to tilt the balance back toward the privileged... We've got to get back to having those with the most contribute to this country."

10:12 p.m. ET: The question is on the disproportionate incarceration of blacks charged with crimes.

Obama says "the criminal justice system is not colorblind. It does not work for all people equally." He says it's important to have a president who signals the justice system works for everybody. Dodd says it's important to have a president who doesn't politicize the Justice Department.

10:24 p.m. ET: The question is whether Katrina victims should have a right to return to New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities, as required in U.N. standards on internally displaced people.

Kucinich, Gravel, Richardson and Dodd say yes. Clinton says that "even if we were to give people a right, there is nothing to return to. We have got to rebuild New Orleans." She and Richardson say states should not have to put up a 10% match to get federal funds to rebuild, a requirement that was waived for New York after 9/11. Biden says New Orleans is a national problem and "we should guarantee the reconstruction."

Edwards, noting he announced his campaign from the 9th ward, says he'd make a "very high-level, competent person in the White House" responsible for rebuilding and require daily reports on what's been done. He also says city residents should be paid to rebuild their own city rather than giving the contracts to multinational corporations.

Obama agrees with Edwards and calls the contracts "a compounding of the outrage." He says the nation needs a president in touch with people's needs.

10:34 p.m. ET: The question is why, after failing to act against genocide in Rwanda, the country is again failing to act in Darfur, and what that says about the U.S. claim to moral leadership.

Dodd says "we have lost our moral authority" in the Iraq war and have less ability to mobilize the world, but "the United States ought to act" unilaterally

Clinton says peacekeepers should be moved into Sudan as soon as possible, with airlift and logistical support, preferably from NATO but from the United States if necessary, and a no-fly zone enforced with threats to the Sudan government that "we will shoot down ther planes" if they don't comply.

Biden says "we lost moral authority because we stood by and watched this carnage" for three years, not because of Iraq. He says the United States should have sent troops and imposed a no-fly zone two years ago.

Richardson says he stands by his suggestion in the last debate that the United States threaten to boycott the Beijing Olympics if China doesn't use its influence to halt the killing. "Genocide is mor eimportant than sports," he said.

Obama says the larger question is about U.S. policy and investment in Africa to prevent future "violence and chaos," rather than responding to crises like Darfur.

Kucinich says the United States should stop looking at Africa as a place U.S. corporations can exploit people: "Let's face it,if Darfur had a large supply of oil, we'd be occupying it right now."

Gravel gets the last word, and it's a doozy. He says we need a president with moral judgment. "Most of the people on this stage do not have it and have proven it by what they've done," he says, in an apparent reference to their  2002 votes to authorize the Iraq war.

The Senate has turned the page on immigration, but it's unclear whether Arizona Sen. John McCain can do the same in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

McCain is a co-author of the defeated bill, which would have given millions of illegal immigrants a way to earn citizenship as well as strengthened border enforcement.

(Update at 4:15 p.m. ET: McCain issued a statement saying he is disappointed and making clear he is not giving up his fight. "The American people will not settle for the status quo –- de facto amnesty and broken borders," he said. "I am hopeful that we will have another chance to address this critical national security issue that affects people throughout our country. In the meantime, we must keep working to secure our borders while we continue fighting to reform our unenforceable immigration laws.")

McCain and his campaign have been open about the toll of his stand on polls and fundraising. How unpopular is his view? In one indicator, 76% of Republicans in a new poll said the government's most important goal on immigration should be border control -- not citizenship.

In a fundraising pitch today to supporters, McCain compared a campaign to the "steady strain" sailors must keep on the lines between ships, to keep the lines from snapping. "Won't you stand with me today to maintain the 'steady strain' of this long political contest?" he asked. "I am not the most popular guy in Washington amongst the big money lobbyists, but I have the support of people like you--and that my friend is far more important to me."

McCain's competitors wasted little time welcoming the demise of the immigration bill:

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Whether you want born-again independent Michael Bloomberg to run for president or not, there's now an online place to say so. USA TODAY's Martha Moore reports that mayormikeforpresident.com was launched this week by John Penley, a New York dog walker and self-described political activist.

Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York, is a former Democrat who left the GOP last week -- and left political junkies to speculate in presidential futures.

The new site has pictures and an online poll and is open for posts from fans and foes. Moore reports that Penley likes the mayor -- "He seems to come up with innovative stuff that catches the public's attention, and that's what I think we need at this point in history'' -- though he isn't sure he'd vote for him for president. "A lot of it depends on how he comes out on the war in Iraq," he said.

For more on Mike, and more evidence he is seriously looking at a race, try the campaign-like Mikebloomberg.com. His former re-election site, it was transformed a month ago into a site that is all things Bloomberg: "his life in the public sector, his life in the private sector, his life in the philanthropic sector,'' says Stu Loeser, the mayor's press secretary.

It includes recent speeches, a biography, articles about the mayor and links to Bloomberg's media company, his causes and the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Bloomberg pays for the site out of his own pocket, Loeser said, but declined to specify who's posting the information.

With Saturday's second-quarter fundraising deadline looming, USA TODAY's Fredreka Schouten reports that the two biggest-money Democratic presidential campaigns are waging their own battle over expectations. Each side predicts the other will raise lots more.

Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said her campaign has had a "great quarter." In an e-mail to supporters this afternoon, he said Clinton expects to bring in about roughly the amount she raised in the first quarter or "slightly more, which should put us in the range of $27 million."

He added: "While that figure is record setting, we do expect Senator (Barack) Obama to significantly outraise us this quarter." By how much? In an interview earlier this week, Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff predicted Obama would raise at least $35 million.

As they did in the first quarter, Obama aides are trying to talk less about how many dollars they have and more about how many donors -- more than 240,000 since launching the campaign in February. Their goal is 250,000 by midnight Saturday.

As for money, "We've said we would be thrilled at $20 million," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. "But we don't have a former president on our team."

A new poll of 2,000 self-described Republican voters finds that the party has gotten older, more conservative and more concerned about foreign policy and national security during President Bush's tenure.

The GOP firm Fabrizio McLaughlin conducted the survey May 28-June 3 to update a similar poll it did in 1997, called "The Elephant Looks in the Mirror." See their findings and comparisons here.

Among  the highlights:

• Republicans are far more concerned with national security and foreign policy, and far less with the economy, than they were back then. One in five are "Bush hawks," ardent supporters of Bush and the Iraq war, who want to use U.S. power to spread democracy.

• The party is divided on some surprising issues. For instance, by 51%-43% participants said health care coverage should be a "guaranteed right of every American." They also favored letting gays and lesbians serve openly in the military, 49%-42%. And while 28%  would ban abortion, 52% said it should be legal in some circumstances.

• Oh, and if the Republican primary were held today, Rudy Giuliani would win with 30%. John McCain was second at 17% and Fred Thompson was third at 15%. All others were in single digits.

USA TODAY's Susan Page reports that not one of the Republican presidental candidates accepted invitations to a political forum tomorrow at a gathering of Latino officials -- raising questions about their efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters. (See update below; one of 10 candidates will be there).

All the Democratic candidates have accepted invitations to a forum Saturday at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials convention in Orlando. As Page reported today in USA TODAY, Hispanics are turning back to Democrats for 2008.

"I don't have a good answer why that occurred," Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, the general chairman of the Republican National Committee, said of the GOP's no-shows. "It's not a purposeful desire not to go."

Martinez himself plans to show up if Senate debate on an immigration bill doesn't keep him in Washington. He says they'll be time for the eventual Republican nominee to recoup with Hispanic voters.

"I don't think any one of the candidates, the way they're discussing the (immigration) issue today, are foreclosing themselves from making the case to Hispanics."

Not one of them? "Well, maybe one of the minor candidates," he allowed.

That would be Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, who has based his longshot candidacy on his fervent opposition to illegal immigration.

Update at 11:05 a.m. Turns out one of the 10 GOP candidates will be at the NALEO forum -- California Rep. Duncan Hunter. He told the Tampa Tribune that "I am running for president to represent every citizen in this country."

Update at 11:45 a.m.  Based on information from NALEO, USA TODAY reported in today's paper that all the GOP candidates declined the group's invitation to speak. Hunter spokesman Roy Tyler said Hunter initially declined because of a scheduling conflict, then decided to come -- but an e-mail to the group accepting the invitation went astray.

The mix-up was resolved a few days ago and Hunter was put on the program. "If other candidates were to change their minds, we would welcome them," too, said Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO.

Some of the political news making headlines this morning:

• USA TODAY,  Hispanics turning back to Democrats for 2008. The inroads George W. Bush made in 2000 are vanishing, in part because of an immigration bill that would help millions of immigrants become citizens but which many Republicans oppose. "The chief beneficiary for 2008 so far is Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton."

• USA TODAY, Dems continue to haul in cash. Top Democratic candidates appear on pace to exceed second-quarter fundraising from four years ago, but the breakneck fundraising pace of the first quarter has slowed and "they may not break their own record from the first three months of this year. Republicans, meanwhile, are tamping down expectations," citing damage done by an unpopular immigration bill and the expected candidacy of Fred Thompson.

• The Washington Post, Immigration Stance is Costly for McCain. "Once seen as the inevitable Republican presidential front-runner, McCain is sinking in the polls, particularly in the all-important early-primary states. On conservative talk radio, he is lumped together with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and derided endlessly. His stance on immigration is making life ever more difficult for his fundraisers. He is expected to again lag behind rivals in money raised when the quarter ends on Saturday."

• The Los Angeles Times, Terrorism: Giuliani's running mate. "The world according to Rudy Giuliani is a very, very scary place. ... The man who has been billed as 'America's Mayor' and who wants deeply to become America's next president hewed most closely to his core campaign message last week as the days wore on, and the twin towers rose into high relief."

• The State, Thompson, Sanford huddle in private. "In a move sure to raise eyebrows, Gov. Mark Sanford met briefly with presumed Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson, whom the governor described as an old friend and former congressional colleague... Thompson, in his first visit to South Carolina, showed Wednesday he could fulfill the unmet hopes of the most conservative voters. Stressing his conservative credentials, Thompson delivered a pro-military, anti-illegal immigration speech to a group of Republicans at the Clarion Townhouse downtown."

• USA TODAY, Bloomberg: Neither party 'stands for anything.' "I don't think I disagree with what any national party stands for, because I don't think that either national party stands for anything," said the New York mayor, newly minted independent and possible presidential candidate.

• Des Moines Register, Williamsburg asks candidates to skip its party. "A politician in an Iowa parade is as common as an antique tractor. But when it's Iowa caucus season, the candidates and their supporters seem to outnumber clowns and Shriners combined. At least two Iowa towns have recently announced that they aren't welcome."

• The Boston Globe, The Making of Mitt Romney, part five: "In games, a showcase for future races."

Democrat John Edwards said tonight he's proud that his wife, Elizabeth, went toe-to-toe with Ann Coulter after the firebrand author said she wished John Edwards had been killed by terrorists.

"I don't think she has any shame," Edwards said on MSNBC's Hardball a night after Coulter appeared and tangled with his wife by phone. "And her response to any effort to raise the dialogue, to talk about things that people care about, is to attack in a mean, hateful, mean-spirited way."

Host Chris Matthews asked Edwards if he could both "attack her and exploit her" -- attack Coulter for "hate speech" and at the same use her comments to raise money.

Edwards' response: "I think that we can say to America that we're not going to tolerate this kind of behavior, we're not going to tolerate this kind of hate language and we're going to stand up and we're going to fight. And if we ask Americans, other good Americans to join us in standing up and being strong, there's nothing wrong with that. And that's exactly what we're asking them to do."

The Warren Buffett primary is still open for competition.

We reported this week on the Omaha billionaire's $1 million fundraiser Tuesday night for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, and his $4,600 contribution to her presidential campaign. That's the maximum anyone can give a candidate.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for rival Barack Obama, tells us Buffett will be raising money for Obama soon. He also says Buffett gave $4,600 to the Illinois senator in April. The donation won't show up in public records until second-quarter financial reports are filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a veteran of diplomatic missions to hotspots all over the world, offered his take on Iran and its nuclear ambitions today at the Center for National Policy.

USA TODAY's Barbara Slavin reports that there was standing room only as Richardson called for "broad, bilateral, unconditional negotiations with Iran -- with all subjects open for discussion." He said the Bush administration should give up talk of regime change, Slavin reports, and not fund Iranian émigré groups "in the delusional expectation that they will somehow be able to topple the regime."

Richardson is a former United Nations ambassador and U.S. energy secretary. Read his full advance text here.

(Richardson outlining proposals on Iran today, AP photo by J. Scott Applewhite)

All eight Democratic candidates converge on Washington, D.C. for a forum at Howard University. The moderator is Tavis Smiley, the panel of questioners is black and Hispanic, and the focus is domestic issues. See it at 9 p.m. ET on PBS or webcast at pbs.org. Get more details from our earlier report.

On the Republican side:

Fred Thompson, continuing his non-campaign tour of early primary states, is in New Hampshire to raise money for the state Senate campaign committee. The price of entry: $50 for the general reception, $500 for the "conversation reception."

Mike Huckabee appears on NBC's Today Show and then has a private event in Chicago. Rudy Giuliani is raising money in California. He visits with voters at a Sacramento coffee shop at lunchtime.

Mitt Romney is raising money in Hartford, Pittsburgh and McLean, Va. He'll meet the press in Pittsburgh. John McCain is also in Pittsburgh, to raise money.

Actor-lobbyist-former-senator Fred Thompson, yet to announce his presidential bid, is attracting attacks from all over as he shows increasing strength among Republicans.

Thompson leads the Republican field in recent polls of Nevada, South Carolina and Georgia and, as we wrote earlier, is doing well in many other states. Today, reports The State in Columbia, S.C., he got a "rousing welcome" at a party lunch, emphatically rejected the immigration bill that is causing rival John McCain so much trouble in the Senate and with GOP voters, and hinted he'd be back "in a different capacity" to talk more.

Thompson got hit today in a YouTube video for his past opposition to "criminalizing" abortion. As noted by The Shot, a blog about South Carolina politics, several clips of Thompson expressing that view are presented "Law & Order" style in a takeoff on his TV career. It's one of several videos highlighting his earlier, less conservative views on abortion.

The Democratic National Committee has started an anti-Fred campaign in anticipation of a full-fledged candidacy. Among the elements so far:

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