memeorandum: Terminated — Arnold Schwarzenegger's “universal” … (Wall Street Journal)

2:20 PM ET, January 30, 2008

Top Items:

John Edwards to Quit Presidential Race — John Edwards will end his presidential bid today, a source close to the Edwards campaign confirmed. — The former North Carolina senator is scheduled to speak in New Orleans this afternoon — an appearance billed as an anti-poverty speech …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, American Street, The Gun Toting Liberal™, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly, Liberal Values, The 7-10, Rox Populi, Comments from Left Field, Taylor Marsh, Scobleizer, Say Anything, Middle Earth Journal, The Reaction, Blue Crab Boulevard, skippy the bush kangaroo, Greatscat! and Tom Watson

CNN:

Edwards quitting presidential race — (CNN) — Former Sen. John Edwards is dropping out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, CNN has learned. — Edwards has told top advisers about his decision. It is expected he will announce it at a speech in New Orleans, Louisiana, at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Discussion: TalkLeft, MoJoBlog, Shakespeare's Sister, The Corner, The Carpetbagger Report, The Sideshow, The Democratic Daily, The Crone Speaks, Booman Tribune, Open Left, Wake up America, Outside The Beltway, Cadillac Tight, QandO and PoliBlog (TM)

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:

Why John Edwards Won — John Edwards ends his presidential candidacy today. This is not surprising news: He finished third in every single contest except for Iowa, where he narrowly beat Hillary Clinton. Going forward, he doesn't have the money or the organization to compete with either her or Barack Obama.

Discussion: The Caucus, Matthew Yglesias and Brian Beutler

Associated Press:

John Edwards to Drop Out of Presidential Race — Former Senator's Campaign Adviser: 'It Just Became Clear It Wasn't Going to Happen' — Former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., will drop out of the Democratic presidential race on Wednesday. — “It just became clear it wasn't going to happen …

Discussion: The Swamp, Scholars and Rogues and PoliGazette

Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:

John Edwards to Quit Presidential Race … DENVER (AP) - Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies but never diverted his campaign …

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, The Newshoggers, JustOneMinute, The Campaign Spot, BuzzFlash.org, Minnesota Monitor, Political Machine, The Glittering Eye, The Impolitic, Sister Toldjah, New York Times and Wonkette

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Edwards' Departure & A New Democratic Race

Discussion: TPM Election Central, The New Republic, Power Line and The Carpetbagger Report

Rick Klein / ABCNEWS:
Ralph Nader Flirts with Presidential Bid

Discussion: The Politico, AMERICAblog, Los Angeles Times, Wonkette and Outside The Beltway

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
The Heart Of The Democratic Party

Discussion: The New Republic

Dick Morris / The Hill:

McCain may win, Romney can't — Some may agree with Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) positions on his myriad of causes and enthusiasms. Others may embrace Mitt Romney's record as governor and his experience in business. But one fact remains pre-eminent — McCain has a much better chance …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Open Left

Ross Douthat:
Fortune's Favorite

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The New Republic and National Review

New York Times:
For Giuliani, a Dizzying Free-Fall

Redstate:
The Last Action Hero

Discussion: The Daily Dish

Devlin Barrett / Associated Press:
Giuliani to exit presidential race

Discussion: D-Day, Sweetness & Light, JammieWearingFool and First Draft

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

US AND THEM....You already knew this, but the Bush administration is nuts. Here's exhibit #3,886: … It's dumb enough that we have a policy of refusing to speak to Iran in the first place, as if merely talking to them would give us geopolitical cooties. But to repeatedly get bent …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Matthew Yglesias

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
What Part Of Not Authorized Did Khalilzad Not Understand?

Discussion: New York Sun, The Newshoggers and Power Line

Ben / Think Progress:
Right Wing Attacks Khalilzad For Not Defending Bolton's Honor …

Discussion: New York Times and The Huffington Post

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Tracking Election 2008 — Based on daily polling from Jan. 27-29, 2008 — PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama has now cut the gap with Hillary Clinton to 6 percentage points among Democrats nationally in the Gallup Poll Daily tracking three-day average, and interviewing conducted …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The New Republic, politburo diktat 2.0, New York Daily News Blogs and TPM Election Central

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Top Edwards Adviser Joe Trippi: Hillary And Obama Are “Banging Down The Doors” For Our Endorsement — Top Edwards adviser Joe Trippi just confirmed to me by phone that the Hillary and Obama campaigns are already working overtime to woo Edwards to their sides — even before his official dropout speech.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, Open Left and The Page

The Politico:

Rudy defeat marks end of 9/11 politics — Rudy Giuliani's distant third-place finish in Florida may put an end to his bid for president, and it seems also to mark the beginning of the end of a period in Republican politics that began on Sept. 11, 2001. — Giuliani's national celebrity …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Pajamas Media, Commentary, Outside The Beltway, Comments from Left Field, TIME and Right Voices

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

Compassionate to the End — When President Bush took his final walk to the rostrum of the House chamber, his speech and manner conveyed little nostalgia. He views both meditation on the past and speculation about his legacy with equal suspicion, preferring to live in the urgency of the now.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Shakespeare's Sister, Suburban Guerrilla and If I Ran the Zoo

Wall Street Journal:

The Daniel Pearl Standard — This week marks the sixth anniversary of the murder of my son Daniel Pearl, a reporter for this newspaper. It is a fitting occasion to step back and reflect on what this tragedy has taught us. — I am often asked why Danny's death has touched so many people and why he …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Media Blog and culturekitchen

Wall Street Journal:

Terminated — Arnold Schwarzenegger's “universal” health-care plan died in the California legislature on Monday, in what can only be called a mercy killing. So let's conduct a political autopsy, because there are important lessons here for the national health-care debate.

Discussion: Donklephant, Blue Crab Boulevard and Commentary

Max Holland / Washington DeCoded:

Commission Confidential — EXTRA — In a revelation bound to cast a pall over the 9/11 Commission, Philip Shenon will report in a forthcoming book that the panel's executive director, Philip Zelikow, engaged in “surreptitious” communications with presidential adviser Karl Rove …

Discussion: The New Republic and The Washington Independent

John Derbyshire / The Corner:

On To The McCain-Kennedy Ticket — Oh, stop whining. So what if the likely GOP nominee believes in restraints on free speech, higher taxation, bigger government, open borders, and 100-year U.S. armies of occupation everywhere from Albania to Zimbabwe? Romney believes in those things too …

Discussion: Crunchy Con, LewRockwell.com Blog and Vox Popoli

Eric Boehlert / Media Matters for America:

Fox News is in for a very rough 2008 — My guess is that Fox News guru Roger Ailes has been reaching for the Tums more often than usual early in the New Year, and there are lots of reasons for the hovering angst. — Let's take an extended multiple choice quiz.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Outside The Beltway