Kerry won't run for president in '08  —  WASHINGTON —Senator John F. Kerry plans to announce today that he will not run in the 2008 presidential race, and will instead remain in Congress and seek reelection to his Senate seat next year, according to senior Democratic officials.

President's Portrayal of 'The Enemy' Often Flawed  —  In his State of the Union address last night, President Bush presented an arguably misleading and often flawed description of "the enemy" that the United States faces overseas, lumping together disparate groups with opposing ideologies …

Former Duke Prosecutor Faces New Ethics Charges  —  Nifong Accused of Withholding DNA Evidence From Defense, Making Misrepresentations to Judge  —  ABC Law & Justice Unit  —  Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has been charged with new ethics violations for his conduct on the Duke lacrosse sex assault case.

The Knee-Jerk Opposition  —  If George W. Bush proposes something, it must be bad.  Such is the knee-jerk state of partisan suspiciousness that when the president actually endorses a tax increase — a tax increase that would primarily hit the well-off, no less — Democrats still howl.

Exceeding Expectations  —  Bush's former speechwriter on what the president did right—and on Jim Webb's wobbly wordcraft.  —  All the commentary leading up to the State of the Union noted the president's historically low poll ratings and unpopular Iraq strategy.

SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE NEW YORK MONEY PEOPLE:  —  I've admired Wes Clark for a long time.  But his comments to Ariana Huffington about wealthy Jews pushing the country toward war with Iran strike me as nutty and disturbing.  Either I seriously misjudged the man, or his comments were misquoted or taken wildly out of context.

MN congresswoman can't keep her hand off President  —  Newly-elected Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann got quite a bit of face time with President Bush after his State of the Union Speech Tuesday night.  —  While the President was signing autographs for members of Congress after the speech …

The State of the Union  —  The White House spin ahead of George W. Bush's seventh State of the Union address was that the president would make a bipartisan call to revive his domestic agenda with "bold and innovative concepts."  The problem with that was obvious last night — in six years …

Getting a Read On the Speech Makes for Quite A Snapshot  —  George W. Bush flirted with eloquence only at the end of his so-so, nuts-and-bolts State of the Union speech last night: "The state of our union is strong," he said, "our cause in the world is right, and tonight that cause goes on."

Senators eye rejection of Bush war plan  —  WASHINGTON - Democrats took the first step toward a wartime repudiation of President Bush on Wednesday, convening a Senate committee to endorse legislation declaring that the deployment of additional troops to Iraq is "not in the national interest."

Why Democrats can stop the war  —  Pundits say if the party gets too tough with Bush, it will be blamed for "losing" Iraq.  But the real political risk is going too easy on Bush, and losing the trust of war-weary voters.  —  Clockwise from top left: Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush, a Vietnam War protest and Richard Nixon

Rivals CNN and Fox News Spar Over Obama Report  —  A disputed report on the Web site of a conservative magazine about Senator Barack Obama's childhood schooling kicked off a pointed exchange this week between the rival cable news networks CNN and Fox News, when CNN seemed to make an overt effort …

Tax breaks sidetrack minimum wage bill  —  WASHINGTON - Democrats' promise of a quick increase in the minimum wage ran aground Wednesday in the Senate, where lawmakers are insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses that rely on low-pay workers.

SOTU: MCCAIN — LACK OF SELF-CONTROL?  AN EXPRESSION OF CONTEMPT?  EMBARRASSING IN ANY CASE.  —  By Tucker Carlson  —  "We advance our own interests by helping reformers and advocates for democracy"?  That was Bush's position on the Middle East immediately after 9-11 and, remarkably, it remains his position.

Transcript: CNN Interview with Cheney  —  We've just received the transcript for Vice President Cheney's interview with Wolf Blitzer this morning.  It's posted in full below the fold.  —  Q And joining us now, the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney.  Mr. Vice President, thanks very much for doing this.