Rudy makes his endorsement for McCain official, and new Gallup numbers show Obama trending up, Hillary ahead nationally by six.

In the tumult of the last few days, some things have slid under the radar. Here's one of them: 28 Republicans (so far) are retiring from Congress rather than running for re-election.

The federal funds rate is now 3 percent, in case you were curious. Credit is going to get cheap, so if you're in the market for a car or some other big ticket item, the iron is hot.

... the specter of Nader.

We may have caught an indicator of this when Bush said during the State of the Union address that troop drawdown in Iraq will be conditional, but now there are confirmed rumblings from the Defense Department indicating that a reduction in troops to pre-surge levels may not be happening any time soon.

Far exceeding expectations of what was already projected to be a big slowdown to 1.4 percent GPD growth in the fourth quarter of 2007, initial government estimates put the actual GDP growth at 0.6 percent for the last three months of 2007. Which is bad news, and the slowest growth since 2002.

NBC and the Associated Press are reporting that Edwards will be announcing that he is dropping out of the presidential race at his appearance in New Orleans at noon Central time.

After a disappointing finish in what was a must-win Florida primary for Giuliani, NBC reports and CNN confirms that Giuliani is leaving the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Florida primary was this evening, and it didn't yield any major surprises.

So much for the certainty of advance dates: Republican State Senator Kyle Janek revealed today that he will retire from the Senate effective June 2.