They may not be in the White House together, but the Clintons and Al Gore are a presence in the presidential race as today's news reminds us.

Bill Clinton took the stage yesterday in Detroit at the 10,000-strong NAACP Fight For Freedom dinner after speaking to the group last in 2000. Meanwhile, The Politico's Ben Smith reports that Gore hired a Democratic political operative who's worked for Sen. Joe Lieberman and Gore in their respective presidential runs. The operative worked for a company co-founded by pollster Mark Penn, whom the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut profiles today in his role as Hillary Clinton's political guru. Penn, who has made his influence felt on Clinton's campaign, is known to be mostly cautious in his advice and a hawkish centrist in his politics. If Clinton resembles an insider and appears arrogant about her chances to win the nomination, it's because Penn is both of those things, Kornblut writes, but he's also smart, experienced and loved by Clinton.

Both Clinton and Barack Obama have collected contributions from more than 100 donors who funded one or both of President Bush's campaigns for the White House, reports the New York Sun's Josh Gerstein. Some have become disenchanted with Bush, while others may have personal ties that "transcend partisan politics." Business executives "regularly straddle the field, even supporting multiple candidates in the same race" while other donors may give to undermine a politician by supporting a rival that seems like less of a threat.

In separate speeches at the California Democratic Party's convention yesterday, both Clinton and Obama said the bill Congress sent to Bush to leave Iraq next year is the best chance at terminating the war, the New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports. John Edwards was a little stronger in his rhetoric but supported a timetable for withdrawal. Sen. Chris Dodd, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson all suggested the current bill was "too leisurely in its deadlines and urged Congress to adopt even tougher legislation by cutting off financing for the war."

While Obama was in California, he remembered the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and tied the war to domestic problems, saying, "We have now spent half a trillion dollars on a war that should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged. We could have invested that money in South Central Los Angeles, or the South Side of Chicago, in jobs and infrastructure and hospitals and schools. Why is it we can find the money in a second for a war that doesn't make any sense?"

On Iraq, Sens. Joe Biden and Sam Brownback may team up on a plan that would split the country into three loosely federated states, the Sun's Russell Berman reports. Fred Thompson's foreign policy would possibly help overthrow the Iranian regime next door by capitalizing on internal disdain for the regime.

Meanwhile, as recently as January Thompson was making calls on behalf of John McCain to potential donors and supporters, including politicos in Thompson's home state of Tennessee, reports Newsweek's Holly Bailey. Thompson called McCain in March before announcing he was mulling a run.

Elsewhere in the GOP field, The Politico's Jonathan Martin reports that McCain accused Romney of "naivete" about Osama bin Laden's importance to the War on Terror after Romney said "it's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person."

Get these and today's other elections stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.