UPDATE:  WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON,  JANUARY 30,  2008

•  John Edwards is about to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination.  Rumors are flying that he will immediately go to Branson, Missouri, to star in a sixties-style revival of "Hair."

The online New York Times has a photo of Edwards, with jeans, rugged shirt, and a two-way radio clipped to his belt.  I think it was the radio that done him in.  How dorky can you get?  I mean, who wants a president who wears a two-way radio?  A president has an aide who whispers in his ear.  Tell John, for next time.  Update:  The Times has now changed that picture.  They heard us.

•   Rasmussen now reports that, according to his latest polling, John McCain would beat either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the general election.  He'd beat Clinton, 48 to 40, and Obama, 47 to 41.  Polls taken this early are, of course, not necessarily predictive, but the news is not good for the Democrats.  In 1988 Michael Dukakis came out of the Democratic convention with a double-digit lead over then Vice President George H.W. Bush.  Now the Democrats, who consider this their year, can't even muster a lead over the leading Republican contender.  Even worse, according to Rasmussen, both Clinton and Obama have higher negatives than McCain.

There is no reason for Republican despair.  The GOP hasn't even started working over the Democratic nominee, and look at the numbers. 

•   There is much huffing and some puffing about the now-famous picture of Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama together, and apparently snubbing Hillary Clinton, just before the president's state of the union address.  The Dems are doing it to themselves.  This is not a happy party, and we can only wonder what the loser for the nomination will do for, or to, the winner during the general-election campaign.  Can't wait. 

Posted at 12:28 p.m. EST, January 30, 2008.