Five presidential candidates had a chance to play for the cameras in yesterday's Senate testimony from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. As expected, during the nearly 10 hours of testimony, the Democratic candidates criticized the two men, while the lone Republican candidate, John McCain, offered support.

As the Washington Post's Dan Balz writes today, "The sobering reality for all those seeking the presidency is that the ultimate decision on when and how to wind down the U.S. mission in Iraq may well fall to one of them."

But before that can happen, there's advantage to be gained. "The Petraeus-Crocker hearings offered a chance for the Democratic candidates not just to probe and prod and challenge the assessments and recommendations of the two officials but also to highlight subtle distinctions among themselves, as well," writes Balz. This means long opening statements, few questions.

As the Washington Times' S.A. Miller reports, "Barack Obama unleashed a litany of criticisms of the Iraq war at a hearing yesterday but barely got a question in when his turn came." When time ran out, "Obama asked what scenario would prompt Mr. Crocker to recommend a pullout, a repeat of a question by Sen. John E. Sununu."

The hearings were a chance at the spotlight for Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, who used the occasion to promote his partition plan, reports the Delaware News Journal's Nicole Gaudiano. Arguing that a unified Iraq won't happen "in the lifetime of any of us," Biden said it would be wiser to "give the Iraqi warring factions breathing room in their own regions," reports Gaudiano.

Following the hearing, McCain left Washington for Sioux City, Iowa, to kick off his "No Surrender" tour, reports the AP's Amy Lorentzen. Speaking at an airport hangar, McCain, flanked by veterans and American flags, told the crowd, "For almost four years we pursued a failed policy in Iraq. ... I condemned it, I was criticized by Republicans and others for doing so, and I saw it was doomed to failure and I argued for the strategy that is now succeeding." The week-long tour will take McCain through the early primary states touting his message of supporting Petraeus' and the president's surge policy.

The dust-up between the Romney and Thompson campaigns continued yesterday, with the Romney folks denying that they had had anything to do with an anti-Thompson Web site. "We made it clear that we did not approve of the site and asked for immediate action to make sure it was again in no way affiliated with the campaign," said spokesman Kevin Madden in an email to the Boston Globe.

Thompson, however, isn't backing down. "Today's half-baked coverup attempt by the Romney campaign does not even pass the laugh test," Todd Harris, a Thompson campaign spokesman, said in a statement. "This latest episode only serves to prove what many voters are already figuring out: Mitt Romney will do anything, say anything, smear any opponent, and flip-flop on any position in order to win."

Despite the vitriol, Thompson is positioning himself as a Southern gentleman, writes the Los Angeles Times' Michael Finnegan. "As the only Southerner in the top tier of Republicans in the race, Thompson, 65, offers a sharp contrast" to the other candidates, Finnegan writes. "He's a Johnny Cash fan who likes to quote 19th century Tennessee frontiersman David Crockett." Of course whether the Southern charm plays well in Iowa or New Hampshire remains to be seen.

For Ron Paul supporters out there, your man was at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies in D.C. yesterday, talking foreign policy, reports NBC's Andrew Merten. "Non-intervention is better than assuming this moral superiority," Paul said, adding that he believes American intervention in the Middle East over the past 50 years was a "major participant" in fueling the attacks of six years ago, writes Merten.

Meanwhile, Obama will be delivering a foreign-policy speech at Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa today, reports the Quad-City Times' Ed Tibbetts. In addition to calling for a "winding down" of U.S. operations in Iraq, Obama will also propose "a new constitutional convention in Iraq with the United Nations playing a central role," writes Tibbetts.

But Obama is coming under some fire for having the support of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, writes The Politico's Ben Smith. The controversy is over Brzezinski's defense of the book the "Israel Lobby," by Harvard's Stephen Walt and the University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer, seen by some as anti-Israel.

Finally today, Newt Gingrich has once more rustled the presidential bushes, reports the Washington Times' Ralph Hallow. In an interview with the Times, Gingrich said, "I will decide [to run] based on whether I have about $30 million in committed campaign contributions and whether I think it is possible to run a campaign based on ideas rather than 30-second sound bites."

Starting this month, reports Hallow, Gingrich will begin a series of "workshops" through Sept. 30, after which he "will make a decision."

Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections Page.