Indiana Senator Evan Bayh today announced he will not run for President in 2008 because he can't win.

"At the end of the day, I concluded that due to circumstances beyond our control the odds were longer than I felt I could responsibly pursue," Bayh said in a statement. "This path - and these long odds - would have required me to be essentially absent from the Senate for the next year instead of working to help the people of my state and the nation."

Translation: Between Hillary and Obama, there's no room for me.

Here's Laura Bush on why Condoleezza Rice won't run for President:

Mrs. Bush referenced Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and noted that while she would be a "really good candidate", Rice is not interested in the job.

"Probably because she is single, her parents are no longer living, she's an only child. You need a very supportive family and supportive friends to have this job," the First Lady said.

[via Jessica at Feministing.]

Dennis Kucinich, whom I think has just about the best stand on criminal justice issues of any of the presidential contenders, has announced he will run for President again in 2008.

A long shot? Very. But his voice is an important one and I'm glad it's going to be heard again...provided the national press decides to include him in their coverage.

While campaigning for an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth" Al Gore answered presidential aspiration questions on the Today Show this morning.

"I am not planning to run for president again," Gore said last week, arguing that his focus is raising public awareness about global warming and its dire effects. Then, he added: "I haven't completely ruled it out."

Does he mean it? Is a Gore-Obama ticket in the wings? What would a Gore run mean for Hillary? I continue to believe Obama is going to be a vice-presidential candidate, not the Democrats' nominee for President.

He says he is going to run for President but he can't seem to remember he is a Democrat:

Biden resonates with Republicans as he sets up S.C. ground game

COLUMBIA, S.C. | U.S. Sen. Joe Biden heads into his quest for votes in a 2008 presidential primary in South Carolina with a well-exercised sense of what to say and what to leave unsaid to Republicans and Democrats alike.

. . . He's not shy about talking about South Carolina's Confederate history either. . . . Biden noted Delaware was a border state and "a slave state that fought beside the North. That's only because we couldn't figure out how to get to the South - there were a couple of other states in the way."

Oy. But wait there's more:

. . . Club member Bruce Rippeteau, who says he's on Genghis Khan wing of the Republican Party, said Biden kept the crowd's attention by being nonpolitical. And his Iraq message resounded because "what we've been doing hasn't worked," he said. Biden told the crowd he needs the GOP and its supporters to put Nov. 7 behind them. "American needs - I need - the Republican Party to get back up," he said. "Not a single change in direction can be done without a bipartisan consensus in this country." . . . "I don't find a lot of difference between Republicans and Democrats right now," Biden said.

I like Biden. I really do but man does he seem in outer space politically. h/t TPMCafe.

The ranks of the Republican right-wing superstars who thought they'd follow the Bush/Rove plan to win the presidency in 2008 are dwindling. Don't expect George Allen or Rick Santorum to run after failing to hold their Senate seats. Today Bill Frist, who tried to solidify his extremist credentials by diagnosing Terry Schiavo via videotape, announced that he won't seek the presidency.

"In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close," he said in a written statement. "I do not intend to run for president in 2008."

Halleluiah.

The Timesonline (UK) has a feature article on Barak Obama:

Obama will appear on Friday at the Saddleback church in Lake Forest, California, where at least 20,000 conservative Christians gather each week for services led by Pastor Rick Warren, the evangelical author of the bestselling inspirational book The Purpose Driven Life.

At first glance Warren and Obama appear the unlikeliest of allies — the conservative white preacher and the liberal black Democrat — yet aides to both confirmed last week that they have formed an intriguing friendship that may prove a key element in the next presidential campaign.

Bible-thumping didn't get Harold Ford elected. Can it help Obama?

In light of this, I think it is fair that I take a shot at the very smart Mark Schmitt as well:

It's tempting to make fun of Marshall Wittmann's newest guise, as Lieberman's communications director, as if it were just another twist in one of the oddest careers in Washington. The New York Times has some fun with that theme today. However, it's quite obvious where this is going. John McCain will fail to win the Republican nomination, and he and Lieberman will turn up as a third party presidential ticket. They will have a great shtick: "We were each rejected by the ideological extremists in our parties, therefore we represent the true forgotten center of American politics." The Broders of the world will salivate over the possibility.

Pleeeaaaaaze! Never ever. McCain wants to emulate Teddy Roosevelt by winning the Presidency not by wrecking the GOP nominee's chances. This is simply absurd. Unless it is designed, in the manner of LBJ's musings about his opponents' sexual interests, to make McCain claim to be hard right Republicans by denying these wild stories. In which case, BRILLIANT Mark! Apologies Steve!

Steve Clemons is a very smart man and he wrote a very stupid post on Marshall Wittman of all people. Steve needs to get out of Washington more if he believes this:

What those heaping scorn on Wittman are missing, however, is what his employment by Lieberman really means. When political giants tie up, it's not an accident.

Lieberman's acquisition of Marshall Wittman, who is very close to John McCain, signals a calculation by some that McCain and Lieberman might tie up for the 2008 Presidential run. The progressive left will start choking at this point, coughing and convulsing uncontrollably -- but reason needs to be gripped for a moment.

McCain and Lieberman would be a formidable challenge for any Democratic opponent because even though both are now self-described neoconservatives and strongly supported America's botched war against Iraq, to many pundits they would "seem like" the very epitome of centrism.

John McCain is having enough trouble convincing the GOP base he is one of them. Marshall Wittman does not help. And neither does Joe Lieberman. David Broder does not decide who the GOP nominee will be. And I guarantee you that McCain is not a fool who will run as an independent. Lieberman and Wittman may be stupid enough to believe he will. It surprises me that on this narrow point, Clemons seems as obtuse as they.

The rest of Clemons fluff piece on Wittman is frankly embarrassing to Steve. I think the less said the better. I'll prefer to forget Steve wrote this clunker.

Rudy's running in 2008.

The former mayor filed papers to create the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee, Inc., creating a panel that would allow him to raise money for a White House run and travel the country.

How many scandals does he think he can overcome? As I wrote in 2004, "Guiliani, Could You Just Gag?"

Russ Feingold sent out the following letter this morning:

Dear Friends and Supporters,

On Sunday, November 12th in Racine, I will hold my 1000th Listening Session with the people of Wisconsin. Before reaching that milestone, I want you to know that I've decided to continue my role as Wisconsin's Junior Senator in the U.S. Senate and not to seek the Democratic nomination for President in 2008.

Pachacutec over at Firedoglake gives 12 reasons not to trust Chuck Schumer. Why is Schumer an issue? Because Harry Reid has asked him to stay on as the Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) for another two years.

Sources said Schumer has agreed to Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting Harry Reid's request that he stay on as head of the Democratic campaign committee for another two years, partly to counter the growing influence of liberals like Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Reid and other party bosses believe Schumer's middle-of-the-road strategy in recruiting a fistful of moderate candidates to knock off GOP incumbents in red states is the only way for Democrats to hold onto or increase their power.

"You have to save the party from not drifting too far over," Schumer told The Post yesterday.

I'll add another reason: Schumer's checkered past endorsement of excessive wiretapping.