Presidential Campaign

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said he will enter the Iowa Straw Poll in August and called out former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) on his platform.

"This election will be decided on principles and not on personalities," Brownback said. "My values and principles reflect those of Iowans."

There have been a number of presidential candidate debates and public education has not even been a question at any thus far. The nation’s school employees are hoping public education will enter the national political dialogue.  They want to know the candidates’ positions on issues facing public schools—-most notably the No Child Left Behind Act.

Five years after NCLB became law, President Bush’s hallmark of education reform finds the nation’s teachers among an ever-growing chorus calling for change.  NCLB is set for reauthorization by Congress this year and, with several presidential candidates serving as current members of Congress, educators will particularly be on the look-out for each candidate's view on fixing this flawed policy.

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) has a message for the Republicans in Congress backing the Senate's latest immigration bill.

"We’re going to go after every single Republican who votes for this lousy stinking amnesty bill," Tancredo said, launching his new political action committee, Team America. "It’s the scariest thing that you can tell anybody serving in Congress."

In light of John Edwards turning 54 on Sunday, Joe Trippi and Jonathan Prince, some of the brains behind Edwards '08, attempt to bake the candidate a pecan pie for his birthday. The team wants to line up support for the Edwards campaign by rewarding contributors with a recipe for pecan pie.

Speaking in the home state of speculative presidential candidate Fred Thompson, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) made a few wisecracks at the Tennessee GOP Statesman's dinner Saturday about Thompson entering the race.

"I know there's been some speculation about a certain former senator from Tennessee getting into the presidential race," Romney said. "But I feel great comfort in the fact that no one in this room, not a single person - is going to vote for Al Gore."

"I get asked 'Mitt, who do you think is going to be most impacted when Fred Thompson enters the race??' That's really easy - it's the fans of 'Law and Order.'"

Speaking to a crowd in Nevada, Sen. Barack Obama told voters to urge their Congressmen and Senators to support a timetable withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq - a Congressional measure President Bush vetoed shortly after.

"George bush vetoed it, and he said Iraq is going to be like Korea, that we are going to be there for decades," Obama said. "That is not acceptable."

Reiterating the chorus from the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) campaign team launched a global warming commercial this week to address global warming.

"All the earth's creatures are threatened by global warming," the narrator in the commercial said. "One candidate for president is doing something to stop it."

Highlighting a story of a campaign supporter in Iowa, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) laid out the details of a plan he promised at the start of his presidential campaign.

"The very first promise i made on this campaign, was that as president, Iwill sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of my first term in office..." Obama said. "A plan that not only guarantees coverage for every American, but also brings down the cost of health care and reduces every family's premiums by as much as $2500."

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) said unlike GOP frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney, he will "represent the Republican way of the Republican Party." Gilmore spent time in this campaign video to single out each of them.

"As our nation faces grave challenges abroad and renewed liberalism at home, we as a party seem poised to abandon those principles. The three leading challengers for our parties nomination may be good men,but they simply don't share our conservative values."

Video blogging from his car, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) said he strongly supports the second amendment in his latest presidential campaign video.

"I believe that every law biding American has the right to keep and bear arms..." Tancredo said. "There are some people that I believe, should not be able to have firearms and those people are felons... Other than that, I am fully committed to the concept of the second amendment. I own lots of weapons myself, enjoy hunting a great deal and enjoy shooting."