We're nearing the end of the fiscal quarter so it's time for everyone's favorite game: Lowering Expectations!

An aide to Hillary Clinton got the ball rollling in lowering expectations and said because so many Clinton donors have "maxed out" their contributions, they were looking at a $17 to $20 million third quarter haul. But the sneaky aide knows the game and raised expectations for Barack Obama at $30 million. Well played. (Jennifer Parker, ABC News)

Mike Huckabee did his own lowering of expectations in an interview yesterday. "Will it impress anybody? No. But it's what we need to have," the former governor said. Nicely done. (RCP Interview) In a separate interview, the governor even raised the idea of accepting public funds should fundraising not meet expectations. (Ralph Hallow, Washington Times)

No Borat jokes, please. Rudy Giuliani's fundraising web stretches all the way to Kazakhstan. (Mary Jacoby, Wall Street Journal)

Homecoming. Fred Thompson is closing out his first two weeks of campaigning back home in Tennessee, but are Tennesseans ponying up the cash? (Jennifer Brooks, The Tennessean)

A player of a different game, Obama is bringing his poker skills to the campaign trail. (Christopher Wills, Newsday)

What magazine can resist Bill Clinton's mug on its cover? Certainly not GQ. (Ben Smith, The Politico)

Did someone say VP? Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, whose own presidential campaign ended just as quickly as it began, has endorsed Clinton. (Maureen Groppe, Indianapolis Star) Clinton also got the nod from the Bricklayers' union. (Jesse Holland, AP)

Elizabeth Edwards ties Hillary's failure to reform health care in the early 1990s to husband Bill's preference for passing NAFTA. (Celeste Katz, New York Daily News)

"He has a right to speak." Although Obama says he probably wouldn't have invited Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, the senator's alma mater, but he would meet with him as president. (Beth Fouhy, AP)

The former head of the Iowa Democratic Party has endorsed Obama. (Quad-City Times)

Not so fast, Rudy. Michael Bloomberg takes exception to Giuliani's opposition to a gun case filed near the end of his term. (Diane Cardwell, New York Times)

Looks like someone wants to follow in John Kerry's footsteps after all. Although for John McCain, just as far as the nomination. (Tom Witosky, Des Moines Register)

"He's a flip-flopper." An NRA member responds to Giuliani's speech to the group's convention last Friday. The group is also considering entering the 2008 campaign with a possible endorsement, something it usually doesn't do until just before the general election if at all. (Joseph Curl, Washington Times)

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