John Edwards Drops Out of the Race

Just breaking - John Edwards is dropping out of the presidential race and will make the formal announcement in New Orleans where he launched his ill-fated campaign. There's no word on whether he will make an endorsement.

This surprises me a bit because I figured Edwards would stick it out until the convention where he might have been able to use his delegates to decide the race. This means the Los Angeles Dem debate on Thursday night will be mano a womano - just Barack and Hillary. That ought to be fun.

With Rudy dropping out on the GOP side it's down to just Romney and McCain. The issue is still in doubt on the Dem side (with the numbers favoring Clinton), but the GOP side is pretty well decided. It's going to be McCain. I think both parties will have their nominees after next Tuesday's primaries.

More on this later.

(Totally self-serving note: I actually had my post up 5 minutes before Drudge starting his siren going. I don't think that's ever happened before...and it probably won't happen again.)

UPDATE: Here's the AP report:

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 voter's sympathies but never diverted his campaign, The Associated Press has learned.

The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two of his advisers.

It'll be a speech on poverty, all right. The poverty of Edwards' campaign coffers and the poverty of ideas from his campaign. Buh-bye John.