Saturday Afternoon Catch Up (9/29/07)

Before getting into some serious blogging, here’s a crib sheet on what’s been happening in the ‘08 field:

• Following news that Newt Gingrich would enter the race if he could get $30 million in pledges by October 21, 2007, Gingrich officially stated today that he would not be entering the race after all.  Why? Because the 3 week pledge drive would present legal problems for his non-profit group, American Solutions for Winning the Future.  We’ll try to connect with Steven Parkhurst over at DraftNewt.org this week to get their reaction.
• Democratic candidate, John Edwards, has decided to opt in to the public financing system.  We’ll take a closer look at this decision in a later post, but for your information now…(1) Entering the public finance system places significant spending restrictions on a candidate…(2) Ambinder looks at the pros and cons of this decision.
• Transcript of MSNBC’s Democratic Debate in New Hampshire hosted by Tim Russert.  We’ll have more on this later, since it was certainly a noteworthy debate.
• Michelle Obama stirs things up when she says that if Barack Obama doesn’t win Iowa, then “it’s just a dream.” Was I the only person who thought of Ralph Cramden upon hearing this? ‘One of these days, Michelle…bang…ZOOM…to the moon!’
• Mike Huckabee tackled the Bush Administration’s foreign policy in an attempt to substantially distinguish himself from his primary rivals.  Huckabee concluded that “this administration’s bunker mentality has been counterproductive both at home and abroad.”
• Bill Richardson launched a new website that details his plan to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq and promises not to leave any residual forces.  Chris Dodd takes issue with the details.
• If Iowa was your answer to the question “What state will decide who gets their Republican convention delegates first?” then you would be wrong.  It’s Wyoming (for now) and they will make the decision on January 5, 2008.

Anymore links you’d like to see?  Send them along (tips).