Liberal activist group MoveOn.org announced Friday its members voted overwhelmingly to endorse Sen. Barack Obama, 70 percent to 30 percent.

That's the same Barack Obama who was just named the most liberal senator of 2007 by the nonpartisan National Journal.

Hillary Clinton probably never had much of a shot at the group's endorsement, ranking only as the 16th-most liberal senator.

Former President Bill Clinton, stumping for wife Hillary in Kingstree, South Carolina, was taking questions from the audience at a community center when 5-year-old McKenna Chance hit him with "What happens when you get married?"

Gentle titters from the audience; roars of laughter from the press corps at the back of the room, the Clinton marriage being among the chief melodramas and enduring mysteries of recent politics.

But Bubba hit it out of the park:

"When you get married, if you're really lucky, then your husband or wife becomes your best friend, and you get to live with your best friend. And Hillary's my best friend. That's really important."

Applause from the crowd. Clinton continued:

"If you're even luckier you get to have kids like you. The best moment of my life, I think, was that I was in the hospital, in the room, when our daughter was born. And so the best thing about being married is having kids. The best thing of all. And it's still the best thing I did in my life."

"I would say those are the two best things about being married. And in my case, I got an extra boost because until I became president, my wife also made more money than I did every year we were married."

Joshing with reporters aboard the Straight Talk Express, someone asked John McCain what would happen if he lost the state where he banked it all: New Hampshire.

"If I lose, sure, Cindy will have to hide the razor blades," McCain laughed, as wife Cindy McCain cringed next to him.

Hillary Clinton met the press after a huge, enthusiastic rally in Nashua, NH, this afternoon. Some highlights from the 18-minute session:

• Asked if Barack Obama was getting a free ride from a besotted media, Clinton said: "I would never, ever accuse the media of anything. I wouldn't even think it." A pregnant pause, a hint of a smile from Clinton, then giggles and guffaws from the press corps (Clinton and the press have a famously frosty relationship), She went on: "This is a decision for all of you to make, to decide who you're gonna cover and how you're gonna cover us and what you're gonna say."

A note: The media's coverage of Obama is giving the Clinton team absolute fits. They do think he's getting a free ride, especially compared with the aggressive coverage of Clinton. They hope that the "contrasts" they're drawing with Obama take root by Tuesday - or they know they're in deep trouble.

• Asked if the flash of anger she showed at Saturday night's debate helped or hurt her, Clinton said: "I am passionate about the work I've done my entire life...If that showed how passionate I am, I'm happy about that."
• Asked why she's just now "drawing contrasts" with Obama now that she's behind in some polls, Clinton said "I thought the timing was right...voters in New Hampshire are famously and fiercely independent, and they want to have answers."
• "I feel really good about the energy and the excitement...I feel really good about what is happening here in New Hampshire."
• Asked if her campaign was too poll-tested and not inspirational enough, Clinton said: "I don't know, but I think Sen. Obama has four pollsters. If I'm not mistaken."
• Onstage with all the Republican and Democratic candidates Saturday between debates, she said "there was a lot of bantering...Giuliani said 'Oh, my senator' and I said, 'What do you need some casework?" Clinton said. "It was good to see him, actually."
• "If a campaign doesn't evolve, it probably is dead, and I don't intend for it to be anything other than a winning campaign."
• One reporter asked if the cross on her bracelet had "any religious significance." Clinton gave him a "no duh" look and said, "Talk about the secular press!"

HIllary Clinton's stump speech had morphed, in the closing days of Iowa, into a rambling 55-minute beast.

It's gone. Instead, she's giving some brief remarks and taking lots of voter questions.

Her answers are long and meaty, kind of like going to school. About 800 folks here in Penacook heard her.

And a few towns away, intrepid colleague Margaret Talev reports that thousands of people are listening to Obama wow `em, traffic backed up for miles.

Sometimes it feels like 1968. With Hillary in the role of Hubert Humphrey.

Speaking at a high school in Penacook, Sen. Hillary Clinton just declared "I've spent so much of my life in the non-profit sector."

Say what? There were the 17 years at the Rose Law Firm, a major corporate law firm in Little Rock. During that time she also served on the boards of three multibillion-dollar companies: LaFarge, a cement maker; Wal-Mart, the retail chain; and TCBY, a yogurt chain. Then eight years in the White House (granted, no salary there) followed by the U.S. Senate, where she earns more than $165,000 a year.

She did work for the well-regarded Children's Defense Fund for two years after she graduated from law school.

In the face of Mitt Romney's latest attack on John McCain - that McCain couldn't be a change agent because he hadn't changed Washington in 20 years - the McCain camp did what campaigns always do when they want to respond to Romney.

They turned to Mitt himself.

In 2002, the McCain camp gleefully told reporters, Romney said McCain "has always stood for reform and change."

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton embarked on her final campaign swing of the Iowa caucus campaign Wednesday morning. Some highlights:

8:30 a.m. - Hillary and Chelsea pop into Clinton's local Des Moines headquarters to thank volunteers and field staff for their work. Posted on the wall is a hand-printed sign; guidelines for phone bankers: "Components of Persuasion." The No. 1 component: "Listen & Be Polite."

Hillary brought bagels and donuts for the workers: "We want you to be fortified."

They move through the crowd. Chelsea approaches seven-year-old Aaron Norris, there with dad Chris. "Are you going to go to the caucus tomorrow night?" Chelsea asks. Shy silence. "The correct answer is 'yes'," Chelsea says. A 25-minute visit. Then to the bus, and on to Indianola.

9:30 a.m. - First United Methodist Church in Indianola, a massive crowd in a less-than-massive room. Actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, longtime friends of the Clintons, introduce Hillary.

"They are as wonderful people as they are actors," Hillary tells the crowd. Hope that's hyperbole, cause here's a news flash: Ted Danson is not such a hot actor. "Three Men and a Baby?" `Nuff said.

11:30 - After the event, waiting on the idling press bus. In strides Hillary - a rare appearance! She brings bagels and coffee for the disheveled reporters still recovering from the uncivlized 7:15 call.

"I didn't want you to feel deprived," she says, adding "maybe we'll have a toast tomorrow night."

She departs quickly, leaving staff to dispense coffee. There is much wisecracking about whether it's safe to eat or drink, given Hillary's famous antipathy for the press. This reporter braved the coffee. And survived.

Noon - Back to Des Moines, boarding planes for eastern Iowa. Stops scheduled in Cedar Rapids and Davenport, two areas heavy with Democratic voters.

1:30 - Cedar Rapids, here's former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack introducing Hillary: "It's bowl season, so I'll use a football analogy. We're moving down the field. We're in the red zone. It's first and goal. And our quarterback is the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton!"

Hmmm. Personally, I'd go with Chad Henne.

More updates as the day goes by...

UPDATES

2:30 - The buses roll from Cedar Rapids...BREAKING NEWS...Repoters on the bus learn from editors in New York and Washington that Clinton taped an appearance on Letterman before the Cedar Rapids event. The press staff had not told the traveling press. Frustration simmers. It's a virtually meaningless slight/oversight, yet emblematic of the strained relationship between the Clinton campaign and those who cover it. The general feeling of reporters covering the campaign is "Why do they hate us?" The general feeling of the campaign toward reporters is "Why do they hate us?"

4 p.m. - Quick flight to Davenport. Clinton's 11-car motorcade rolls to the Mississippi Valley fairgrounds, where Clinton speaks in the round to about 400 people. Sitting just behind the press riser is a supporter who functions as something of an off-color, one-woman Greek chorus to Clinton's stump speech.

"You know, we borrow money from the Chinese to buy oil from the Saudis," Clinton says. "That's retarded," responds the woman.

Clinton points out the average family's energy bills skyrocketed the past few years. "She-ee-it," drawls the woman.

Clinton says of Republicans: "They've been after me for 16 years and I'm still here!" The woman jumps to her feet, erupting with "woo-hoos!"

7 p.m. - Clinton flies to Ottumwa, splitting from the traveling press corps, who fly to Des Moines for the last big rally of the night. The Ottumwa rally is pooled and, no news comes from it. The pool traveling "with" Clinton is still relegated to a separate plane.

10 p.m. - Back in Des Moines, Clinton is at the state historical society for the last big rally of the day. With her is President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea, mom Dorothy, and the man who will be guaranteed a very nice job in Washington if Hillary pulls off a win here, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. The crowd is enthusiastic, Bill is charismatic, and now, after months of pre-game, it's out of everybody's hands except the people of Iowa.

Continuing her effort to woo pinched middle-class voters, New York Sen. HIllary Clinton unveiled Sunday an effort to help people who care for their aging relatives.

Its highlights:

• A new $3,000 care-giving tax credit
• A new long-term care insurance tax credit of up to $1,500 a year.
• Improve nursing home quality by tripling to $50 million the federal support for nursing home ombudsmen programs
• Make assisting state consumer advocates and prosecutors a top priority of the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission
• National background checks for long-term care workers

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton must be peeved by the suggestions that her international experience as First Lady doesn't count for much. Barack Obama said a lot of it amounted to "drinking tea" in fancy surroundings; Chris Dodd said she "witnessed experience."

As Bart Simpson might say: "Au contraire, mon frere!"

Speaking to an overflow crowd in a massive room at a Dubuque convention center, Clinton said she went many places in the 1990s that Bill Clinton couldn't go.

"We used to have a saying in the White House," Clinton said. "If a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady."

Recalling a tense corkscrew landing at an airport in war-torn Bosnia, she said: "I don't remember anybody offering me tea on the tarmac."

And she said she went to northern Ireland more frequently than her husband did during the peace talks there.

Finally, she mentioned her many meetings with Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf: "Three, four, five times, I don't remember."

UPDATE: According to Sen. Clinton's autobiography, she was accompanied on the Bosnia trip by the comedian Sinbad and rocker Sheryl Crow, as well as daughter Chelsea. There may not have been tea, but at least there was entertainment. And who knew Sinbad was a "part of the diplomatic team that conveyed America's values to the world," as Clinton describes her White House years?