The Foster's Daily Democrat has learned that the suspect who took hostages at Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire offices is named Leeland Eisenberg of Somersworth, who apparently is well known to police in Rochester.

Meanwhile, FOX News is reporting that another hostage has been released. Also being reported is that Somersworth's ex-wife has said he is a paranoid schizophrenic and he had not been taking his medicine.

The latest on the situation at Hillary Clinton's campaign office in New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, at the forum that Clinton had to cancel on, the other Democratic candidates took shots at their own party.

Putting things in perspective, Marc Ambinder notes that Mike Huckabee has spent $327,000, approximately, in Iowa. Mitt Romney? $7 million.

"Disgusted." Bill Richardson didn't think much of the Republicans' immigration debate on Wednesday.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly added more fuel to the Giuliani-expense fire today, saying he knew of no problems with the delay of payments before Giuliani was mayor.

Half point? Fed Chief Ben Bernanke hint at a rate cut boosted Wall Street today.

RIP. Evel Knievel is dead at 69.

A new poll is out, interesting stuff:

Poll: Mitt Romney Is Candidate Most Voters Want To Get Into Bar Fight With

(h/t Matt Continetti)

Not to make light of the very serious crisis going on at Clinton's New Hampshire offices.

On the ground in Iowa, Jonathan Martin is reporting:

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Mitt Romney said he would extend "the benefit of the doubt" to Rudy Giuliani over charges that the former mayor billed security expenses to obscure city agencies -- but also suggested that he welcomed the story playing out further.

"This is something that the mayor is addressing," Romney said at a press availability after a town hall forum at a community college here. "And I think we ought to give him the opportunity to address that as he feels appropriate. Let him have an ample chance to look at the history and explain what he feels is needed."

Giuliani "hasn't really laid out at this stage his full explanation or all that was shown," Romney continued. "So my view is, let's give the benefit of the doubt until he has a chance to do that."

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics is out with a new poll in New Hampshire (Nov 27-29, 500 Dem LV, 500 GOP LV, MoE +/- 5.0%). On the Democratic side,

Democrats
Clinton 30 (no trend)
Obama 23
Edwards 17
Richardson 12
Undecided 12

Overall, Clinton leads by 11.0% in the RCP Average for New Hampshire.

Republicans
Romney 29 (no trend)
McCain 21
Giuliani 19
Huckabee 7
Paul 4
Thompson 4
Undecided 14

Romney's lead in the RCP Average for New Hampshire is 14.8%.

Howard Dean:

"Unfortunately as some of you know, there is a hostage situation in New Hampshire involving a Clinton campaign staff person," he said. "The details are sketchy at this time, but understandably Senator Clinton is now dealing with this very difficult problem and she is not going to be able to join us today. And we will keep them in our prayers and hope for a resolution to this situation in New Hampshire."

..are Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes. No doubt they've been reveling the fallout from CNN's debate debacle on Wednesday night, and now this morning a popular anchor on the rival to Fox's new business channel is on air calling President Bush a monkey:

Murdoch and Ailes have proven they're brilliant businessmen who know how to run a network, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have competitors who constantly make mistakes and run their credibility through the shredder with such consistency.

Tom has an interesting post today on Iowa, referring to Jay Carney's piece in Time. But it's worth reviewing what the "second-choice" issue in Iowa is really about and what the polls do and don't reveal.

It's true that one poll shows Edwards tops the list as the leading second-choice of potential caucus participants, which could pay off because of the 15% threshold cutoff. But leading a second-choice list of all caucus participants doesn't mean much because it's likely that -- barring a major collapse of a major candidate -- Clinton, Obama, and Edwards will all meet the 15% threshold virtually everywhere. The key question is who will be the second-choice candidate of the Richardson, Biden, Dodd, and Kucinich supporters on January 3rd. And the likely answer is, who knows? One could certainly make an argument that Richardson, Biden, and Dodd voters have already rejected Hillary and will do so again, if they can't support their first choice. But maybe they'll bind together and go uncommitted. Maybe these voters are more establishment-oriented and Hillary will appeal to them. Or maybe, the most important thing to them will be to go to a corner of the room where they have the most friends.

The point is this issue is virtually unpollable. And, to the extent it is, polling the whole Iowa universe -- rather than the supporters of the likely losers -- doesn't tell you anything.

Besides, someone will likely do an entrance poll that night, just like in 2004. In the internet age, it's that result that will get reported and disseminated to the nation. At this point, it's all about momentum, not delegates. The second-choicers won't even matter.

To read Steven Stark's complete "Presidential Tote Board" blog, go to www.thephoenix.com/toteboard/

On a conference call this morning, the Clinton campaign called on Barack Obama to take down an ad that aired in New Hampshire last night in which they say Obama falsely claims his plan "covers everyone." Heres' the ad:

Clinton Campaign Manager Patti Solis Doyle has written a letter (pdf)to her counterpart at the Obama campaign, David Plouffe, which reads, in part:

Your advertisement not only contradicts the judgment of health care experts, but public statements by your campaign and your candidate. Senator Obama has pledged to put "honesty first" in this campaign. In that spirit I respectfully request that you stop running this ad which is misleading voters in New Hampshire.

In the Q&A portion of the call, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson was asked to explain why Hillary has gone negative recently and whether it's because, as her rivals assert, she's sliding in the polls. Wolfson responded that both Obama and Edwards had been attacking Clinton on a near daily basis for months, adding:

"That's not the way we'd hope this campaign would go. It was not our choice to engage in that. That was a strategy that they chose to employ. Senator Obama, deliberately eschewing the politics of hope - deciding that the politics of hope were not working for him, and Senator Edwards, of course, abandoning his pledge in 2003 and 2004 to run a positive campaign.

It was important for us to correct the record and make sure that people knew the facts. You can never be in a situation where you're opponents are attacking you relentlessly and distorting your record and not respond. So that is what we are doing in this instance."

Wolfson was also asked why they were attacking Obama over this ad now, since it appears the ad was created (and may have even aired) some two months ago. Wolfson said this was the ad was brought to their attention by some of their people who saw it air yesterday in New Hampshire, before seguing to the real reason:

"Look, we've had a great debate about healthcare this week. We're talking about an important, substantive issue that voters care about. And on that important, substantive issue there are important, substantive differences. And Senator Obama is not getting the bettter of that debate because he has a plan that leaves 15 million people out. Therefore he chose, I guess, to put this ad up to make up for his weakness, to make up for the fact that he leaves 15 million out, and we want to make sure that voters get the truth. And if Senator Obama perceives weakness in this debate, we're not going to allow him to compensate for that weakness by misleading voters as to whether or not his plan covers everyone, because it doesn't."

And, incidentally, to the point Steven Stark made earlier, there was more than one mention of Paul Krugman's column this morning.

Chuck Norris and Mike Huckabee showed up on Greta last night:

More videos in the Vlog.