The Bay State has a history of producing presidential candidates seven presidential contenders since the 1950’s, including Mitt Romney.

WBUR has been reporting on opinions among Derry, New Hampshire voters all this week. Today is the conclusion of the series, “Gateway to the Primary,” with a report from WBUR’s Fred Thys on what Derry voters have to say about the war in Iraq.

How is it that Libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul can raise a record $6 million in one day on the Internet while he’s at the bottom of national polls? Here’s what Gail Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor correspondent who’s been on the campaign trail with Ron Paul, told Here and Now’s host Robin Young.

Also, back in June of this year, Ron Paul spoke to On Point’s Tom Ashbrook about his run for the White House and his progress on the campaign trail.

The presidential candidates unleash their Yuletide-themed campaign commercials:

A red-sweatered Giuliani rattles off his gift list for America which includes “secure borders,” “strick constructionist judges” and “a really nice fruitcake.” The bearded-one himself makes an appearance towards the end of the video.

Huckabee, pitching himself to evangelicals, wants us to forget politics and remember the Christ in Christmas. Bookshelf/cross backdrop sparks minor kerfluffle.

Hillary appears amidst smartly-wrapped and labeled gifts including temporarily waylaid package of “universal pre-k.” No sign of Kringle.

The Obama family video postcard featuring father, mother, two adorable daughters, Christmas tree and crackling fireplace. Light on issues; heavy on the sugar plums.

An intensely somber and earnest Edwards yearns for the homeless, the poor, the tired masses, and talks of a “season of miracles, of faith and love.”

It is back to New Hamsphire today where WBUR takes the pulse of Derry, HN voters on healthcare and the candidates. The series “Gateway to the Primary,” wraps up tomorrow with a look at how the War in Iraq is resonating as a political issue.

John Edwards, most prominent purveyor of a populist message this election cycle, speaks with On Point. His message seems to be resonating, at least in Iowa where “there’s evidence of new momentum.”

And in WBUR’s continuing series, “Gateway to the Primary,” Bianca Vazquez Toness reports on the saliency of immigration as an issue in one small New Hampshire town.

John Edwards chats with some Derry, New Hampshire voters:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLl9qq-ziRM[/youtube]

Political maverick John McCain spoke with On Point today. Click here to listen to the program, which included New York Times columnist David Brooks and other guests discussing the Arizona senator’s chances of becoming “the Republican comeback kid.”

Dean Spiliotes, who writes the blog nhpoliticalcapital.com, ponders the efficiency of the Clinton campaign’s repackaging itself in response to Barack Obama’s surge in the polls.

Writes Spiliotes:

The campaign has begun to show its candidate in a much more personal light, with a new emphasis on her family and friends, and with a set of personal stories to help Hillary Clinton make her own emotional connection with voters. Whether this strategy will work quickly enough to reposition Clinton for Iowa and New Hampshire remains to be seen, but one has to be impressed by the speed with which the Clinton campaign pivoted to address the most serious threat to her nomination yet.

Via PrezVid:

Des Moines Register gets into YouTube:

“Share your opinions, campaign trail videos, interview other Iowan voters, or offer your predictions for what will take place in the most exciting caucus season in decades. Then on January 3rd, document your caucus experience and show the rest of the world what the Iowa caucuses are all about.”

WBUR’s special series continues with residents of Derry, N.H. weighing on the economy as an election issue.

The Boston Globe:

For the Democrats: Barack Obama

Clinton has run a diligent, serious campaign, and her command of the issues is deep and reassuring. But her approach is needlessly defensive, a backward glance at the bruising political battles of the 1990s. Obama’s candidacy looks forward.

For the Republicans: John McCain

The iconoclastic senator from Arizona has earned his reputation for straight talk by actually leveling with voters, even at significant political expense.

Des Moines Register:

Republican endorsement editorial: Why McCain

McCain is most ready to lead America in a complex and dangerous world and to rebuild trust at home and abroad by inspiring confidence in his leadership.

Democratic endorsement editorial: Why Clinton

The job requires a president who not only understands the changes needed to move the country forward but also possesses the discipline and skill to navigate the reality of the resistant Washington power structure to get things done.That candidate is New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And Iraq War hawk and one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman throws his support behind McCain:

WBUR’s series, “Gateway to the Primary” begins today. Reporters visit Derry, NH, to tap into what voters there are thinking about the presidential race.

Click here to listen to the first report by Bob Oakes.

Tomorrow, WBUR reports on how the economy resonates as an issue among voters.

Via Presidential Tote Board:

Over the last nine months in the Democratic race, little of consequence has really happened.

It was the Democract’s turn — well at least some of them — to meet one final time before the Iowa Caucases. The Des Moines Register, sponsor of the debate, says Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel were exluded because of their failure to meet the paper’s criteria, specifically the following: Neither Dennis Kucinich nor Mike Gravel had a campaign office in Iowa by the Oct. 1 deadline, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Gravel also did not have any paid staff in the state by the deadline.

Naturally both marginal candidates didn’t take too kindly to the news. The Kucinich camp calls the “entire (selection) process suspect.” For his part, Gravel has released a rather trippy music video riff on “Give Peace a Chance.”

And with the “big mo” behind Obama and the Clinton camp on the defensive after misteps, including impertinent remarks by campaign co-chair Bill Shaheen that ultimately resulted in his departure, and with the vaunted New Hampshire “firewall” eroding, the debate was an opportunity for the New York Senator to stem some of the damage.

Like the GOP debate the previous evening, the overall media consensus portrays a rather tepid affair with few sharp elbows tossed. MSNBC’s First Read has a nice summary of various media assessments of the scrum and quotes The Politico’s Ben Smith: “The debate did not … produce a moment likely to change the direction of the race as the campaign shifts from one fought out in the national media to one whose only significant events take place on the ground in a handful of states – primarily Iowa – and in a media environment muffled by the holidays and the snow.”

One of the brief sparks of the night was triggered by a question about experience and ended with Clinton on the receving end of this Obama zinger:

The last GOP debate before the Iowa Caucases generated little heat. NPR’s Morning Edition calls it “somber,” and notes, “The candidates were subdued and positive during the debate, despite the highly contentious race. ”

TMPTV has cobbled together some of the highlights:

And on WBUR’s Morning Edition, University of New Hampshire political science professor, Dante Scala parses Mitt Romney’s slippage in the polls. A Rasmussen survey taken Monday shows he has 23 percent voter support, compared with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s 39 percent. Can Romney survive a loss in Iowa?

From Boston.com’s “Political Intelligence: “Barack Obama, neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton in Iowa, has now surged into a tie in New Hampshire as well, according to a new poll.”

John Dickerson detects a hint of panic in the Clinton camp in their calling out the big guns to stump for Hillary in the Nutmeg State: “With each minute, the Obama camp is locking in the swarms of new voters who attended Oprah’s rallies. That’s where the momentum is right now, and you can hear it in the beleaguered voices of the Clinton team. There was grumbling that the crowds at Bill Clinton’s event were smaller than expected. Staffers and advisers make the occasional resigned statements about the wisdom of Iowa voters who can’t be swayed by reason from their foolhardy decision to vote for the dreamer.”

And on the Republican side, as the GOP candidates head into their final debate in Iowa before that state’s caucuses, a Rasmussen daily Presidential Tracking Poll documents the Mike Huckabee surge. Not only is Huckabee in a statistical deadheat with Giuliani in a national poll, but the erstwhile Baptist preacher tops Romney by at least 16 percentage points in Iowa. On Point spoke to experts and watchers about what’s behind Huckabee’s sudden surge.

The queen of talk pumped up crowds for Barack Obama on Saturday from Iowa to South Carolina to New Hampshire.

As On Point observes, Hillary Clinton, the first woman with a real shot at the presidency, is running neck and neck with a man whose feminist appeal may be as strong as her own.

Oprah in Iowa:

WBUR’s Fred Thys reports from Manchester, New Hampshire, the ending point for the Oprah-Obama tour.