ROMNEY DENIES SNUBBING ATHEISTS

When Mitt Romney said during a high-profile speech last week that “freedom requires religion,” he was not deliberately snubbing atheists or other nonbelievers, according to an interview he gave Newsweek. “Religious liberty … it includes all, all forms of personal conviction,” Mr. Romney told the magazine. “Personal conviction includes a sense of right and wrong and any host of beliefs someone might have. Obviously, in this nation, our religious liberty includes the ability to believe or not to believe.”

EDWARDS ENLISTS STARS, TOO

Iowans blinded by the star-power of the Oprah-for-Obama tour should brace themselves for other candidates using celebrities to create excitement on the campaign trail.

A Democratic hopeful, John Edwards, announced yesterday that two actors, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins, would join the former senator for “parts” of an eight-day tour of Iowa that the campaign has dubbed “Six Degrees of John Edwards.”

A Republican contender, Michael Huckabee, is touting support from another actor, Chuck Norris, while Senator Clinton has announced an endorsement from a singer who has made occasional forays into acting, Barbra Streisand.

ENDORSEMENT WATCH

In another sign that the establishment is beginning to take Mr. Huckabee more seriously, a major figure in Florida politics is throwing his weight behind the former Arkansas governor. The speaker of the Florida House, Marco Rubio, is expected to appear with Mr. Huckabee in Miami this morning to give more momentum to the still-accelerating “Huckaboom.”

“It is time for America to set and reach big goals again,” Mrs. Clinton declares as patriotic music swells in a new 60-second ad airing in New Hampshire in Iowa. The ad alludes to her criticisms of Senator Obama, but doesn’t mention him directly. “We need to provide health care for every single man, woman, and child at a price that people can afford,” she says, repeating her complaints that Mr. Obama would not mandate health coverage. She also insists that “it takes strength and experience to bring about change.” Mr. Huckabee is also rolling out new ads. One set to air in Iowa focuses on immigration. “Our borders have to be secured. No amnesty,” he declares. Mr. Huckabee is toughening his rhetoric on the issue after some conservatives claimed he was too soft on immigrants as governor of Arkansas.

AD BUYING WATCH

A liberal group touting a new television ad attacking Mrs. Clinton has put up only $2,500 to buy airtime for the spot. Democratic Courage, a political action committee, made the payment last Friday in order to secure time on Iowa cable systems, according to a report filed yesterday with the Federal Election Commission.

“That’s what we bought so far,” the group’s president, Glenn Hurowitz, told The New York Sun. “As we get more funding, we hope to do more.” According to the report, the PAC spent $17,400 to make the ad, which is seven times more than the ad time purchased so far. Last week, the Associated Press heralded the spot as “the first non-Republican negative ad aimed at a Democratic presidential candidate.”

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign complained that publicity about the ad was simply a gambit by the group to raise funds it did not have. “No buy means their web video should go bye-bye,” a spokeswoman, Caroline Adler, said last week.

IT’S A BIRD. IT’S A PLANE. IT’S A RON PAUL BLIMP

Apparently unsatisfied with occupying highway overpasses across the nation, backers of the libertarian Republican presidential phenom, Ron Paul, are launching a blimp to call attention to his candidacy. The airship is scheduled to be launched tomorrow from North Carolina and to slowly make its way to Boston for a reenactment of the anti-tax Boston Tea Party. The plan is to actually dump tea from the blimp into Boston Harbor. Organizers of the effort, who are independent of Mr. Paul’s campaign, want to raise $400,000 for a sustained blimp campaign. So far they say they’ve landed more than $200,000.