Pure Horserace: Tangled In The Roots?

Hillary Clinton leads her Democratic rivals in national and most state polls. Despite slightly trailing Barack Obama in fundraising, she's still her party's undeniable front-runner. But among one faction of Democrats — the bloggers that comprise the "netroots" — she's in a weak third place. However, it looks like Clinton is going to make at least some effort to change that.

On Thursday, Clinton's Internet director, Peter Daou, made a posting on DailyKos — perhaps the grand poobah of liberal blogs — indicating that Clinton, like John Edwards and Barack Obama, would attend the YearlyKos convention taking place the first weekend of August in Chicago. She, Obama and Edwards will also join Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd at a candidate forum that should be the highlight of the weekend.

Clinton will have to do a lot to win over this crowd. Her establishment persona and vote to authorize the Iraq war have hurt her popularity among readers of DailyKos and other Democratic blogs, who have been firmly opposed to the war from the start. In the site's monthly straw poll, she grabs only 6 percent of the vote, behind Edwards and Obama, as well as "Other."

Assuming Clinton doesn't pull an Edwards and apologize for her Iraq vote, is there anything she can do to win over the bloggers in Chicago? Probably not, but she might get at least better treatment if she shows she's serious about reaching out to the blogs and maybe even giving them a little extra access to her campaign. Bloggers have been trying to be treated like traditional journalists for years. Treating them well may not win Clinton any primary votes, but it could reduce the trash talk aimed at her in the online world. — David Miller

It's All On Me: John McCain isn't pointing fingers at anyone else for the embattled state of his campaign. Of course, after this week's exodus, which included the campaign manager and political director, there aren't all that many people left to point fingers at. Still, McCain is soldering on, saying, "the responsibility is mine."

In New Hampshire to deliver his argument for perseverance in Iraq, McCain told New Hampshire Public Radio said he will continue his campaign despite the "mistakes" that have the effort teetering on the financial brink. McCain allowed these are "difficult times" and admitted that the $25 million he raised in the first two quarters of the year was misspent. "I'm confident we're going to be fine," McCain said.

The Arizona senator is in the state to deliver a speech warning of the dire consequences he sees as the result of a pullout from Iraq. McCain has supported the war in general and the current "surge" strategy in particular, but reminded his host that he has also been among the harshest critics of the way the war has been managed. McCain said he likely would have made the decision to go to war had he been president but stressed that he would have followed a different strategy — one that included more troops from the very beginning. "You and I would be celebrating democracy in Iraq, although a fledgling one and a flawed one, as opposed to the debacle we're in today," McCain said. — Vaughn Ververs

Caught On Tape: One of the long-standing rules of politics is that you should never say something potentially embarrassing if there's an open microphone anywhere nearby. Yet two people who should know better, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, may have done exactly that at Thursday's NAACP forum in Detroit.

After the event was over, Edwards walked over to Clinton and, as seen in

Clinton then mentions to Edwards a previous effort by their campaign to have more control over debates that got "detoured." At that moment, who should walk up to Clinton but Dennis Kucinich, one of the longest shots in the Democratic field, to shake Clinton's hand.

So it should come as little surprise that once Kucinich caught wind of the conversation taking place right under his nose, he was none too happy about it. "Candidates, no matter how important or influential they perceive themselves to be, do not have and should not have the power to determine who is allowed to speak to the American public and who is not," he said in a statement.

Clinton and Edwards might have a hard time getting their way on this one, especially with Kucinich — during his quixotic 2004 run for president, he didn't formally withdraw from the race until just before the Democratic National Convention. — David Miller

Home Field Advantage? Massachusetts Republicans didn't do their former governor any favors by turning down a proposal to allocate all the state's delegates to the overall winner of the March primary. According to the Boston Globe, an effort by some Mitt Romney loyalists to allocate delegates on a winner-take-all basis was defeated by the party's state committee, which includes some backers of Romney's opponents.

At first glance, it seems to be a bit of a setback for Romney, who should be expected to win the state he once governed. But the move could potentially make the GOP contest more interesting in the unlikely event that the nominating contest is not wrapped up by next March. With the majority of delegates expected to be up for grabs on or before February 5, it's hard to see a protracted battle. But if the perfect storm arises, delegate decisions like this could come into play. — Vaughn Ververs

United They Stand: Labor unions may not be the force they used to be, but their endorsements can still carry a lot of weight in Democratic circles, especially that of the still-growing Service Employees International Union. What factors does the union consider when it comes time to endorse a candidate? That's one of the questions CBS News' Brian Goldsmith examines in this week's Political Players interview with the union's secretary-treasurer Anna Burger. To find out more about the union's political process — including the chances of them backing a Republican — read this week's interview.

Editor's note: Pure Horserace is a daily update of political news as interpreted by the political observers at CBSNews.com. Click here to sign up for the e-mail version.

By David Miller and Vaughn Ververs