Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen was never one given to the clever quip or colorful anecdote. Buttoned-up and taciturn, he made a disastrous stab at a presidential run in 1976. Newspaper scribe Jack Germond once compared the Democrat to plate glass—substantial, but people just couldn't see it.

ORLANDO—When former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani settled on his unorthodox strategy to win the GOP presidential nomination—ignore failures in early primary states, then win later and often—political historians and purveyors of conventional wisdom snorted.

ORLANDO—If national Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean was contemplating spring break in sunny Florida, he might want to reconsider.

"He would not be welcome," says Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, a Democratic former state senator. Not a very friendly stance for the head of a city known for its embrace of tourists seeking suntans and all things Disney.

Mac may be back, but what about the others?

After Republican John McCain's decisive win last night in New Hampshire just days after Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses, the GOP contest remains deliciously scrambled. (Exhibit 1 from last night: Rudy Giuliani in a tight race for fourth place with Ron Paul. Now that's scrambled, though the former New York mayor might not find it particularly delicious.)

DES MOINES—In the excruciating final hours before caucus doors open across the state, most of the candidates have gone quiet, save for a negative ad or two.

The daily flood of tit-for-tat campaign E-mails has slowed to a trickle. And members of the media horde have been printing out boarding passes for Friday flights to New Hampshire, and placing bets on winners and losers.

DES MOINES—Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer struggled to be heard above the din in Barack Obama's East Locust Street campaign headquarters, but his message came through loud and clear.

With the start of the primary season just 14 days away, voters in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and even South Carolina are getting special holiday treats this year: video Christmas cards disguised as television and online ads from their favorite candidates. The hands-down highlight has been Republican Mike Huckabee's put-the-Christ-back-in-Christmas ad that has spawned a spirited debate (at last!). Is it a glowing white bookcase or a hovering Christian cross? You be the judge. But there's more—from Ron Paul's singing family to Hillary Clinton's hunt for gift tags. Here they are, in all their red-sweatered glory:

IONIA, MICH.—The brick storefronts that line Main Street here in the heart of GOP country are decked in their holiday finery of greens and red ribbon, yet something is missing: With the state's January 15 presidential primary just weeks away, there are no political posters and no candidates—Republican or Democrat—anywhere to be found.

Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman's announcement today that he'll cross party lines and endorse Republican Sen. John McCain for president came as little surprise to those aware of how close the two have become in recent years, in part over their shared support of the war in Iraq.

The Iraq war was expected to be the defining issue of the current presidential campaign—a slam-dunk for Democrats wooing an increasingly anti-war electorate, a line in the sand for Republicans seeking to tout their terrorism-fighting bona fides.

As a campaigner, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson is known for bucking convention. The former senator from Tennessee entered the race so late that people wondered whether he was serious, and he prefers limited "meet and greets" to town hall meetings. But that style is perhaps expected in a man whose career has been anything but ordinary. Thompson, 65, entered public life as an assistant U.S. attorney and, at 30, became minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. He's had a second career as a television and film actor, perhaps best known as a district attorney in TV's Law and Order. Later elected to the Senate, Thompson served on the intelligence, finance, and judiciary committees. He talked recently with U.S. News. Excerpts:

Mitt Romney has finally given the faith speech he had long wanted to avoid—a talk that many had thought could be disastrous to his quest for the White House.

But Romney, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, impressed even some of his detractors with a message last week that avoided details about his Mormon faith but eloquently laid out his views on religion and liberty. "I think this speech will reassure conservative evangelicals and Catholics," says Michael Cromartie, director of the evangelicals in civic life program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Corrected 12/6/07: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported one of the cities in which the Oprah television show is most popular. It is Columbia, S.C.

When the day shift at the Bunn-O-Matic coffee- maker factory in Creston, Iowa, ends at 3:30 p.m., there's plenty of time for workers like Monica McCarthy to head home and watch Oprah at 4—and many do.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a growing John Kerry problem, and last night's CNN/YouTube debate underscored a stark reality the former Massachusetts governor faces as he battles for his party's nomination.

WATERLOO, IOWA—Former Mayor Bernie McKinley's first impression of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was downright dismissive. "My thought was, he doesn't have a chance," says McKinley, 78, who led this city out of tough times during the late 1980s. "And I don't want to put my money behind someone who's not going to win."

DES MOINES—Barack Obama delivered the best speech and the largest, most ardent brigade of supporters Saturday when thousands of Iowa Democrats gathered to hear from the party's top six presidential candidates. And the raves rolled in.

Ron Paul didn't exactly fall off his chair laughing. That's not the 10-term Texas congressman's style.

But the day after supporters went online and plowed what could be a single-day record $4.2 million into his underdog Republican presidential campaign, the no-nonsense Paul allowed himself a modest chuckle when asked how he concocted such a potent Web strategy.

What is your appeal?
I think people are tired of what they're getting from their government. They don't believe it's working. They're angry. They believe they're being lied to when it comes to the economy. They believe they've been lied into going to war. And they're tired of it all, and they want change. Even though people poke fun at me—say that I don't look like the one to bring about change—I think I offer a different program than they've heard about for a long time.

From the days of party bosses and backroom deals, the path to the White House has never been pretty—or particularly fair.

But the chaos reigning in the march to choose 2008 presidential nominees has many looking back with nostalgia. This season, the race for influence, attention, and the infusion of campaign money into local economies has devolved into an ugly power struggle between national and state party bosses. Five states have defied their national party rules by scheduling contests in January. More than 20 have moved up their votes to the first week in February. And bickering continues over whether New Hampshire and Iowa should retain protected pole positions in the quadrennial contests.

No one predicted that 2,000 conservative evangelicals would emerge Saturday from their two-day "Values Voters Summit" united behind one Republican presidential candidate. But clarity and consensus proved even more elusive than expected.

In a meeting room at a Washington hotel, an unlikely coalition of evangelical and progressive leaders announced last week that after a few years of hashing out what divides them, they have seen the light.

"We are ready to end the culture wars," religion scholar Robert Jones said. The group, organized by Third Way, a progressive organization that looks for new approaches to economic, security, and cultural issues, laid out a framework to ease the rancor that has characterized their relationships. Key to the plan: finding common goals on issues like gay rights and abortion—from affirming the human dignity of gay people to emphasizing the shared desire to reduce the number of abortions. "None of us want to compromise on our moral standing, and we will continue to disagree," said Florida minister Joel Hunter. The effort, however, provides a path "to heal divisions in this country."

First things first: Fred Thompson's much anticipated debut at last night's GOP presidential debate in suburban Detroit exceeded admittedly modest expectations. He was competent and composed and projected his usual laid-back self, which has worked against him on the stump but was not a handicap on television, his natural medium.

OTTUMWA, IOWA—Over a Coke in the historic Hotel Ottumwa's Second Street Cafe, Bob Beisch smiles slyly when asked to compare the on-the-ground campaigns of the Democrats' top three presidential candidates.

Democrat John Edwards, who last week became the only leading presidential candidate to announce he would accept public campaign financing for the primaries, today reported that his organization raised a disappointing $7 million over the past three months.

Corrected on 9/27/07: An earlier version of a photo caption accompanying this story incorrectly stated that Bill Grimm’s son was killed in Iraq. In fact, the son is alive and is currently serving in Iraq. U.S. News deeply regrets the error.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been riding a wave. Considered a second-tier GOP presidential candidate, the Baptist minister and steadfast social conservative has watched his political fortunes—and meager campaign coffers—swell since he came in as runner-up last month in Iowa's Republican straw poll. Huckabee, who shares Bill Clinton's hometown and wants to replicate the former president's trajectory from statehouse to White House, now counts himself a contender. After last week's debate in New Hampshire, U.S. News caught up with the preacher with the wry sense of humor. "You've got to be pretty nuts to do this, you know," he says.

The threat that Fred Thompson's shadow would hover over Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire never materialized.

The post-Iowa straw poll days have gotten so heady for second-place finisher Mike Huckabee that even his staffers have half-jokingly begun referring to the GOP presidential candidate as the newest media "darling": the cover of the National Review, a splashy feature in the Washington Post, a growing list of interview requests.

The villain of the 2000 presidential election, Ralph Nader, was greeted by boos and hisses this morning by Progressives at their annual conference in Washington D.C., as he introduced Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel.