Sen Clinton has personally apologized to Sen Obama for remarks by her New Hampshire campaign chairman Billy Shaheen, the husband of Gov Jeanne Shaheen, who said yesterday that Obama’s past drug use could be used against him by Republicans in a general election. Shaheen  apologized for bringing up the drug issue, and the campaign immediately disavowed his comments.

Now, New Hampshire spokeswoman Kathleen Strand says “Sen. Clinton personally apologized to Sen. Obama this morning, and reiterated that this was not anything that came from the campaign or that we condone.” She confirmed that the apology took place at Washington’s Reagan National Airport as the two left the nation’s capital for a Des Moines, IA presidential debate.

After campaigning with her mother for two days in Iowa last week, Hillary Clinton is giving the Hawkeye State even more time with her mom — airing a TV ad featuring Dorothy Rodham addressing why her daughter should be the next president.

Speaking directly into the camera, Mrs. Rodham says she’d like people to know “what a good person” Hillary is, and how much she’s done to help women. She talks about her daughter’s childhood and her empathy for others over childhood photos and video of the Clinton women in the kitchen, with the caption “Hillary’s mom lives with her.”

The ad ends with Mrs. Rodham saying, “I think she ought to be elected, even if she weren’t my daughter.” done

After the AP reported that the Clinton campaign was preparing for a possible loss in Iowa by building a firewall in New Hampshire, two new polls show Obama pulling into a dead heat. A new WMUR poll has Hillary leading Barack Obama by a single point, 31-30. She once led the same poll by 20 points. And Rasmussen Reports actually has Obama ahead in the Granite State, 31-28.

Meanwhile, a new survey from Republican polling outfit Strategic Vision shows Obama ahead by 8 in Iowa, 33-25.  But a Rasmussen poll shows Hillary leading 29-26, confirming what everyone already knows about Iowa — it’s just too close to call.

To add insult to injury, the NY Daily News reports that Bill Clinton is so worried about the campaign’s recent performance that he’s taking a much more active role, and there are rumors of an impending staff shake-up — rumblings that were denied by Sen Clinton herself yesterday.

Our own Major Garrett reports that the Clinton campaign “exhibits increasing annoyance at what it regards as a ‘free ride’ for Obama from the political press corps and feels beseiged as it has to bat away incessant questions about declining poll numbers in early battleground states and accounts of deepening turmoil at the highest levels of the Clinton campaign.”

The Clinton folks are trying to end that free ride, pushing newly-surfaced voter questionnaires filled out by Obama that they believe underscore their contention that Obama is either too liberal, too inconsistent, or too unelectable — or all three.

Barack Obama’s campaign had a big New Hampshire endorsement to announce today; they won the support of Carol Shea-Porter, a freshman congresswoman, and the second  of two from the Granite State to back Obama. To roll out the endorsement, the campaign announced a 2pm conference call with the congresswoman — giving reporters about an hour’s notice.

Just about a half hour later, Hillary’s campaign announced their own 2pm conference call on electability — giving us less than 2o minutes warning.  On that call, Rep Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) took a shot at Obama for changing some of his  liberal positions laid out in a 1996 questionnaire obtained by the Politico, just because he’s running for national office. “I don’t frankly understand a candidate that seems to think he can offer one position in the early stages of his career, and then as he reaches the level of a national election, he can change from one position to the next,” she said.

But other than that direct response to the Politico piece, participants didn’t have much news to offer — leading reporters like yours truly to wonder why they held the hastily assembled call in the first place. Sen Evan Bayh (D-IN) talked about Hillary’s electability among moderate Republicans and Independents in the heartland, while Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) stressed her appeal to women all over the country, who she said would come out in force in a general election.

Asked whether a new poll showing John Edwards performing best against Republican candidates meant he, not Hillary, was most electable, spokesman Phil Singer pointed to another poll in which most respondents called Hillary the most electable Democrat. But Edwards’ camp shot back with a memo with Democrats (mostly Edwards supporters) from red states cringing at a possible Clinton nomination’s effect on their reelection efforts, and praising Edwards as someone who could help down ticket Dems across the country.

After spending about a week on the campaign trail attacking Barack Obama over Health Care, Social Security, and his commitment to women’s rights, Hillary Clinton has gone back to emphasizing what she would do as president.

Gone are the frequent mentions of Obama by name, or even the veiled slaps at “some of my opponents” who have health care plans that won’t cover everyone. She’s even gone back to a line her husband used when he campaigned for her in July, saying it’s great to be a Democrat because there are so many fantastic candidates that “you don’t have to be against anyone.”

It could be because she’s been more focused on organizing Iowans to get to the caucuses — campaigning with her mother and daughter last week to ask experienced supporters to “buddy up” with first time caucus goers and make sure they get to their precincts on January 3rd. Or it could be because the attacks earned her a lot of negative press and some negative feeling among Iowans — and didn’t reverse a general downward trend in the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, and nationally.

Asked whether she’d given up the attacks because of sinking poll numbers, Sen Clinton told reporters that she would continue to draw distinctions with her opponents throughout the rest of the primary season. Watch what she had to say.done

As ABC’s Jake Tapper reports, even if those “contrasts” have stopped coming from Hillary’s mouth, they’re still flying through the mail.

To break up this uninterrupted string of GOP debate updates, here’s the latest ad from Hillary Clinton — a :60 second spot hitting the air in Iowa and New Hampshire. Called “New Beginning” (read: she can bring change), the ad lays out her big big policy goals over some stirring music and images. As Carl says, this is her closing argument of the primary campaign; it uses video from the campaign trail and hits all the highlights from her speeches — from her call for universal health care to ending the war in Iraq.

There are no “contrasts” (read: attacks on rivals) being drawn here, and you’re not likely to see any from any of the Democratic candidate. They’re all a bit gun shy after the two frontrunners in Iowa, Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, engaged in a negative ad war last cycle and built up so much ill will among caucus goers that they both dropped out of the lead, ceding the state to John Kerry and John Edwards.

Chelsea Clinton and her grandmother Dorothy Rodham are on the trail in Iowa with Sen Clinton today. They started the day at Palmer’s Deli in Des Moines, shaking hands in the middle of a media scrum before sitting down and ordering breakfast. Chelsea hasn’t been too visible this election cycle; the last we saw her was at her mom’s 60th birthday party in New York in October.

The other prominent member of the family, former President Bill Clinton, is campaigning in South Carolina today.

Why bring the whole family out this weekend? It may have SOMETHING to do with one Oprah Gail Winfrey hitting the stump with Senator Clinton’s chief Democratic rival, Barack Obama. Hillary was asked whether she was concerned about Oprah drawing big crowds tonight, here’s what she said.

Daytime TV Goddess Oprah Winfrey may be touring the early primary states this weekend with her chosen candidate, Barack Obama, but Hillary Clinton campaigned on Friday with a woman who’s supported her since birth — her mother, Dorothy Rodham.

Senator Clinton said her mom’s been following the campaign closely on TV — and told the story of the last time her mother had been in Iowa, some 53 years ago when they stayed at a place called the Tall Corn Motel. Hillary recalled that a waitress had recommended it for its swimming pool, saying “we said, my brother and I, said that’s where we want to stay.” Turns out, the pool wasn’t quite olympic sized.

“It was about as big as this stage,” she said. “We thought we’d died and gone to heaven. We thought it was the greatest experience ever.”

Hillary said her mom had asked to join her daughter in the Hawkeye state, but of course, the timing has some strategic advantages as well. Obama is surging among women here, and Oprah’s visit certainly won’t help matters. Showing some mother-daughter bonding might help Hillary’s cause in that key demographic.

A new Iowa survey from Strategic Vision, a Republican polling outfit, seems to confirm the recent pro-Obama trend in the state. The Illinois Senator leads the Democratic pack with 32%, followed by chief rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards at 25%. But as with all recent polls here, the numbers are within the margin of error.

Should Hillary be worried? The campaign can’t be happy with the trend lines in the horse race — especially since momentum always plays such a key role in Iowa. They also can’t be happy with the fact that she’s dropping among women, and that voters seem to care less about experience than change. But staffers constantly point out that polls don’t matter here. While that’s partially spin, since aides won’t hesitate to point out a poll that looks good for their candidate, there’s a lot of truth to the assertion.

I asked Opinion Dynamics CEO John Gorman, who runs the Fox News / Opinion Dynamics polls, why it’s so difficult to get a read on the Hawkeye state. “Polling in Iowa is very difficult and of very uncertain quality,” he wrote back. “This results from the following factors:

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Former NATO commander Wesley Clark is hitting the airwaves for Hillary Clinton, who he endorsed earlier this year. In a new TV ad airing in Iowa, the ex-presidential candidate says “I’ve known Hillary Clinton for 24 years. I know she has what it takes to end the war in Iraq, avert war with Iran, and restore our country’s standing in the world.”

Iran is a major issue in Iowa, where Hillary is still asked about her months-old vote calling on President Bush to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. Her critics have accused her of aiding and abetting the president’s “rush to war” with Iran; she says the resolution promotes more aggressive diplomacy.

Since the National Intelligence Estimate revealed that Iran dismantled its nuclear weapons program in 2003, her rivals have turned up the heat on her vote. This ad, though planned before the NIE was released, could help on that front.

The RNC, meanwhile, points out that Clark once advised a candidate for the House to vote for the Iraq resolution in 2002, saying “it is only fitting Hillary Clinton would run an ad with someone that has a stance on Iraq as inconsistent as her own.” Spokesman Danny Diaz also points out that Clark may not have much sway in Iowa — he skipped the caucuses when he ran for president in 2004.