Edwards to quit presidential race

DENVER - 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, 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 aides. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement. Clinton said Wednesday that Edwards called her to inform her about his decision.

Obama told reporters Edwards had exited the race in a "classy" way. "I think he's run a great campaign," said Obama, who aides said also spoke with Edwards Tuesday night and asked for his endorsement.

In a statement from his campaign, Obama said Edwards "spent a lifetime fighting to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling, even when it wasn't popular to do or covered in the news."

"While his campaign may end today, the cause of their lives endures for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America," the statement said.

Four in 10 Edwards supporters said their second choice in the race is Clinton, while a quarter prefer Obama, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo poll conducted late this month. Both Clinton and Obama would welcome Edwards' backing and the support of the 56 delegates he had collected, most of whom will be free to support either Obama or Clinton, though some will probably look for guidance from Edwards.

An immediate impact of Edwards' withdrawal will be six additional delegates for Obama, giving him a total of 187, and four more for Clinton, giving her 253. A total of 2,025 delegates are needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

Edwards won 26 delegates in the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina contests. Under party rules, 10 of those delegates will be automatically dispersed among Obama and Clinton, based on their vote totals in those respective contests. The remaining 16 remain pledged to Edwards, meaning his campaign will have a say in naming them.

Three superdelegates — mainly party and elected officials who automatically attend the convention and can support whomever they choose — had already switched from Edwards to Obama before news of Edwards' withdrawal from the race.

Edwards waged a spirited top-tier campaign against the two better-funded rivals, even as he dealt with the stunning blow of his wife's recurring cancer diagnosis. In a dramatic news conference last March, the couple announced that the breast cancer that she thought she had beaten had returned, but they would continue the campaign.

Their decision sparked a debate about family duty and public service. But Elizabeth Edwards remained a forceful advocate for her husband, and she was often surrounded at campaign events by well-wishers and emotional survivors cheering her on.

Edwards planned to announce his campaign was ending with his wife and three children at his side. Then he planned to work with Habitat for Humanity at the volunteer-fueled rebuilding project Musicians' Village, the adviser said.

With that, Edwards' campaign will end the way it began 13 months ago — with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn't hear the cries of the downtrodden.

Edwards burst out of the starting gate with a flurry of progressive policy ideas — he was the first to offer a plan for universal health care, the first to call on Congress to pull funding for the war, and he led the charge that lobbyists have too much power in Washington and need to be reigned in.

The ideas were all bold and new for Edwards personally as well, making him a different candidate than the moderate Southerner who ran in 2004 while still in his first Senate term. But the themes were eventually adopted by other Democratic presidential candidates — and even a Republican, Mitt Romney, echoed the call for an end to special interest politics in Washington.

Edwards' rise to prominence in politics came amid just one term representing North Carolina in the Senate after a career as a trial attorney that made him millions. He was on Al Gore's short list for vice president in 2000 after serving just two years in office. He ran for president in 2004, and after he lost to John Kerry, the nominee picked him as a running mate.

Elizabeth Edwards first discovered a lump in her breast in the final days of that losing campaign. Her battle against the disease caused her husband to open up about another tragedy in their lives — the death of their teenage son Wade in a 1996 car accident. The candidate barely spoke of Wade during his 2004 campaign, but he offered his son's death to answer questions about how he could persevere when his wife could die.

Edwards made poverty the signature issue of both his presidential campaigns, and he led a four-day tour to highlight the issue in July. The tour was the first to focus on the plight of the poor since Robert F. Kennedy's trip 40 years earlier.

But even as Obama and Clinton collected astonishing amounts of money that dwarfed his fundraising effort, Edwards maintained a loyal following in the first voting state of Iowa that made him a serious contender. He came in second to Obama in Iowa, an impressive feat of relegating Clinton to third place, before coming in third in the following three contests.

The loss in South Carolina was especially hard because it was where he was born and he had won the state in 2004.

At Edwards headquarters in Chapel Hill, N.C., two staffers debated on how best to answer the phones, saying "John Edwards for president" no longer seemed appropriate.

EBay sellers not happy about fee changes

SAN FRANCISCO - Vendors who sell their goods on eBay are scratching their heads after the company unveiled a new fee structure in effort to boost listings and maintain its share of the online auction market it helped start a decade ago.

While eBay Inc. says more than 60 percent of its sellers will save money with the new plan, several sellers have crunched their numbers and consider the rejigging a fee hike.

"We call it eBay math, it's a different math than most other people's math," said Randy Smythe, who used to sell music and movies on eBay from Southern California.

Under the old rules, for example, selling a purse at auction for $25 would have cost the seller $1.91, including 60 cents for listing the item plus eBay's commission of $1.31. Under the new structure, the seller would pay $2.74, including 55 cents to list the item plus a higher commission of $2.19.

Carol Hearn, who sells antiques on eBay from Washington state, said the fees are modest compared with the cost of selling items in person.

"It looks like what they are trying to do with the fees is make it more difficult and expensive to sell low-end items. The people that are selling low-end items are going to feel this fee increase the most," Hearn said.

EBay's commissions will rise on items auctioned for less than $1,000 or sold at fixed prices lower than $100, while eBay's cut on more expensive auction items will remain 1.5 percent. It will take less off the top of higher-end fixed-price sales — 2 percent or 4 percent, rather than 3 percent or 5 percent.

One of its main rivals in fixed-price sales, Amazon.com Inc., charges no fee at all to list an item, though it charges a commission as high as 15 percent.

EBay said the changes were designed to boost listings, which have stagnated in recent years. The company is accustomed to a "vocal" and "passionate" seller community, company spokesman Usher Lieberman said.

Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital, said eBay's rising fees have in the past caused sellers to look elsewhere for places to practice the online skills they perfected at eBay, whether it's their own Web sites, Amazon, or other shopping sites.

"The more savvy sellers look at a multitude of options," Pyykkonen said. "It's not like Amazon is taking market share from eBay in a big chunk, it's more of a gradual shift.

"This commission going up will be a telling point over the next months to see what kind of reactions it gets," he said.

Lieberman said the company's internal pricing experiments and number-crunching show listings overall will rise in response to the changes, which come as longtime Chief Executive Meg Whitman announced she would retire at the end of March.

EBay most wants to encourage growth in fixed-price sales, the area where it sees the most potential for growth.

"It's too little too late," said Steve Grossberg, one of eBay's top 100 sellers and the founder and president of the Internet Merchants Association.

Grossberg, a Florida-based vendor of video games, spoke by phone from a conference of 200 of North America's top eBay sellers in Washington, D.C., where incoming CEO John Donahoe announced the fee changes Tuesday. EBay makes 80 percent of its revenue from the top 20 percent of its sellers.

"I think you are going to see a listing decrease, you are going to see some sellers leave the site or pull back quite a bit and think of other ways to make revenue, and it's going to backfire," Grossberg said.

Listings on eBay's various sites rose 4 percent in the fourth quarter, reversing two straight quarters of declines, the company reported last week. The number of people actively using the site has stagnated, rising just 2 percent from a year ago, while revenues have risen modestly.

"EBay does sincerely want to compete. They are reacting to the competitive threat of Amazon," said Ina Steiner, editor of AuctionBytes.com, a trade publication for online sellers.

Amazon already has "cherry-picked" a lot of eBay's high-volume sellers, Steiner said.

EBay shares fell 75 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $26.12 Tuesday.

Ditching Vista: How To Downgrade To Windows XP

Software incompatibilities. Sluggish operation. That darn User Account Control screen. Is it any wonder Windows Vista has being greeted in some quarters with a lack of enthusiasm? But your PC came with Vista, and that means you’re stuck with it, right?

Wrong. You can replace stiff, awkward Vista with the comfy, compatible old slipper that is Windows XP. It takes a couple of hours, but it won’t cost you any money that you haven’t already spent. Here’s how.

Start by backing up your system. At the very least, offload the data to CDs or, better yet, a USB flash drive or external hard drive. Even better: Take an image of the entire hard drive using a utility like Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost, for a complete system restoration. If the XP installation goes badly, having a backup or disk image allows you to restore your system to its previous state. You’ll still be running Vista, but at least you’ll still be running.

Next, gather up all the drivers you'll need. Remember that your PC was built to Vista specifications and equipped with Vista-compatible software and drivers. Your PC doesn’t have XP drivers, and Windows XP might not have all the drivers built into it that your PC needs. Unless you collect all the right drivers before you do your upgrade, you run the risk of ending up with a crippled PC.

To avoid this dilemma, poke around Windows Device Manager to see exactly what components are installed, then head to your PC maker's Web site and download the appropriate drivers. Essentials include video, audio, Ethernet, and wireless networking (Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi). Save everything to the USB drive so the drivers and other software and information are easily accessible when you need them.

Round up the software CDs for connected peripherals like printers, PDAs, and iPods.

Make sure you have a Windows XP Pro CD and a valid activation key. If you don’t have a CD available, you can beg or borrow one from a friend or co-worker.

You can get the activation key from Microsoft. All volume-licensed versions of Vista, along with retail and OEM versions of Vista Business and Vista Ultimate, come with downgrade rights. That means you're entitled to an XP activation key from Microsoft or your PC maker. (Interestingly, you can downgrade even further if you wish: The license also entitles you to Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, or even Windows 95.)

Finally, make a list of applications and utilities you'll want to install (or reinstall) after you've downgraded.

Downgrade Or Sidegrade?

Now you have to decide if you want to downgrade or “sidegrade.” “”Downgrading” is what Microsoft calls it when you revert from a newer OS to an older one.

“Sidegrading” is a less radical option. Instead of ditching Vista altogether, you can install XP alongside it, booting to either operating system as the need arises. That way, you get to run XP for everyday operations, while still poking around in Vista and getting acquainted with it more gradually.

So, let's dive into actually doing a downgrade. (If you want to sidegrade, see the sidebar on the third page of this article). As I mentioned earlier, you should have a good backup in place along with all the necessary drivers and software for your system.

Installing XP On The Side

For the best of both OS worlds, consider setting up a dual-boot configuration: Vista stays put, XP and joins it on a newly created drive partition. Each time you boot your PC, you'll choose the OS you want from an options menu. It's easy to set up, and it requires only a few extra minutes on top of the standard XP-install process. Here's how:

1. Click “Start” and type “computer.” Select “Computer Management” from the list that appears.
2. In the left pane, click “Disk Management.” In the center pane, right-click your C: drive and choose “Shrink Volume.”
3. When prompted to do so, enter the amount of space you want to allocate for the new partition; the one that’s about to receive XP. I recommend giving XP at least 10 Gbytes (meaning you'd type the number 10,000 into the size field), though obviously you may want to allocate a lot more space to accommodate programs and data.
4. Now look for a box labeled “X gigabytes unallocated,” where X is the amount of space you entered in step 3. Right-click the box and choose New Simple Volume. Follow the wizard as it walks you through the remaining steps.
5. Exit the Computer Management utility and reboot your PC, this time with your XP CD in the drive. From here you can follow the installation steps outlined in the main section, but make sure to select the new partition, not the C: drive.
6. Once you've installed XP, you'll need to run a free utility (VistaBootPRO) to configure a boot menu for your system. You can find a more comprehensive tutorial (and the utility itself) on the VistaBootPRO site

When you're all done, you'll still need to activate XP using the information provided in the main section.

Boot your Windows XP Pro CD. Most new PCs are set up to let you boot from CD by default, but if yours isn’t one of those, you’ll have to venture into your manufacturer’s documentation or search Google to find out how to tweak the BIOS settings to allow you to boot from CD.

When the first XP Setup menu appears, press Enter. Press F8 to accept the license agreement, then select your C: drive as the desired partition and hit Enter.

Note that if you get an error message indicating Windows was unable to detect any hard drives on your system, it's because XP lacks the necessary drivers for newer SATA hardware. Unfortunately, there's no easy workaround. Although your PC vendor should have the drivers you need, you may have to attach a floppy drive to load them during XP installation. You boot from the XP CD, hit F6 when prompted, and hope the system is able to pull the drivers off the attached floppy drive. This can be a hit-or-miss affair. If you run into trouble, hit Google — or sweet-talk your local PC guru —for additional help.

Now choose the option labeled “Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick).” On the final screen, press F to format the drive. This is the do-or-die moment; you’re completely erasing your PC’s hard disk. No turning back!

From this point you can follow the remaining prompts to install XP in regular fashion. The entire process will take around an hour to complete.

When the OS installation completes, install whatever drivers are needed so you can get on your local network and the Internet (those are the drivers you saved to your USB drive before the upgrade), adjust the video settings, install your favorite applications, restore your data from the USB drive, and otherwise customize Windows to your liking.

There's no sense activating Windows until you know for sure that everything works like it should. Activation would just be a waste of time if you end up having to roll back to Vista or re-install XP again. XP gives you 30 days to use Windows and tinker before activation is actually required (though it'll nag you on a regular basis until you comply).

Once you're satisfied that XP is in the groove, you're free and clear to activate. Make sure to select the "activate by phone" option; this isn't something you can do online. Dial the number provided, wade through the prompts until you reach a live rep, then explain that you're downgrading. Provide your Vista product key; the rep should walk you through the remaining steps. Note that you may be redirected to your PC vendor, depending on your Vista version and license.

That's it! Now you can install your software, restore your data, and do whatever else it takes to make the system your own. Welcome back, XP — you were missed.

Yahoo's woes vex employees, shareholders

SAN FRANCISCO - It's not a pleasant time to be a Yahoo Inc. employee or shareholder.

Hoping to snap out of a financial malaise, Yahoo is preparing to lay off as many as 1,000 workers in the Sunnyvale-based company's biggest purge since it was scrambling to survive the dot-com bust seven years ago.

Cost-cutting like that normally makes investors happy, but Wall Street wasn't in a celebratory mood late Tuesday after Yahoo reported a 23 percent drop in its fourth-quarter profit and provided a tepid outlook for 2008.

The one-two punch pounded Yahoo's already sagging shares, hurling the stock 9.4 percent lower when trading opened Wednesday. Shares fell $1.96 to $18.85. The backlash extends a decline that has obliterated $35 billion in shareholder wealth since the end of 2005, slashing Yahoo's market value by more than 50 percent.

Unless Yahoo can bounce back soon, the company could face more pressure to find a buyer or make another dramatic move like hiring rival Google Inc. to run its search engine and generate more ad revenue.

Microsoft Corp. has been mentioned as Yahoo's most likely suitor, although more analysts are starting to question whether Yahoo's deepening funk will scare off potential bidders.

Jerry Yang, a Yahoo co-founder who became chief executive seven months ago in an attempt to shake things up, remains confident better times are ahead as the company realizes the gains from recent acquisitions and ad partnerships.

But he indicated the big payoff is unlikely to come before 2009, warning in a prepared statement that Yahoo still faces "headwinds" this year.

"This sort of transition takes time," Yang said in a conference call with analysts Tuesday. "But we have the talent and the strong cash flow it takes to succeed."

Investors, though, appear to be growing weary of waiting for a turnaround that has been promised for the past 18 months. Yahoo shares dropped $2.09 in extended trading Tuesday after finishing the regular session at $20.81, up 3 cents.

"I'm surprised by how slowly they seem to be moving," said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown. "Yahoo still has quite a bit of work ahead."

In its most drastic step since Yang became CEO, Yahoo is drawing up plans to whittle as many as 1,000 jobs from its payroll — a 7 percent reduction of its 14,300-employee work force.

Yahoo indicated some employees whose current jobs are eliminated may be offered new assignments in other parts of the company. Further details are supposed to be released by mid-February.

Yahoo expects to absorb a first-quarter charge of $20 million to $25 million to pay for severance costs and other expenses incurred in the layoffs.

The cost cutting could reduce Yahoo's annual expenses by more than $100 million, helping offset some lost revenue from a re-negotiated partnership with AT&T Inc. to provide high-speed Internet service.

Under a new deal announced Tuesday, Yahoo and AT&T will share revenue generated through online advertising. Previously, AT&T had paid Yahoo a portion of the fees collected from subscribers to their cobranded Internet service. Analysts had estimated that arrangement generated about $250 million in annual revenue for Yahoo.

To ease the pain of the transition, Yahoo will receive an upfront payment of $300 million to $400 million from AT&T.

Yahoo's profits have been falling even though advertisers are spending more than ever on the Internet.

The bulk of the additional online ad spending has been pouring into Internet search leader Google, which was smaller than Yahoo just three years ago and is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter results Thursday.

Yahoo earned $205.7 million, or 15 cents per share, during 2007's final three months, down from net income of $268.7 million, or 19 cents per share, at the same time in 2006.

Reflecting the gloomy aura hanging over Yahoo, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had projected earnings of 11 cents per share, on average.

For the full year, Yahoo's profit decreased 12 percent to $660 million.

Fourth-quarter revenue totaled $1.83 billion, an improvement of 8 percent over $1.7 billion a year earlier. After subtracting commissions paid to its advertising partners, Yahoo's revenue was $1.4 billion, in line with analyst estimates.

Yahoo estimated its revenue this year will range from $5.35 billion to $5.95 billion, excluding ad commissions. The average analyst estimate stood at $5.92 billion.

Separately, Yahoo announced it hired former VeriSign Inc. executive Aristotle "Ari" Balogh as its new chief technology officer, filling a void created with the resignation of Farzad Nazem last June. Balogh, 43, held the same job at VeriSign.

Lawyer: Andy Pettitte will back trainer

WASHINGTON - A lawyer for Andy Pettitte's former personal trainer said Tuesday he believes the pitcher will tell Congress he discussed human growth hormone with Roger Clemens between the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

The lawyer, Earl Ward, said Pettitte talked about HGH with trainer Brian McNamee following a conversation with Clemens, who has denied that he used HGH or steroids. McNamee worked with both Clemens and Pettitte.

"We're hopeful based on Andy's reputation that he will corroborate Brian's statements with regard to Roger," Ward said in a telephone interview.

Pettitte's meeting with a congressional committee investigating drug use in baseball was postponed until Monday. He originally was slated to appear for a deposition or transcribed interview Wednesday but the date was changed Tuesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

McNamee said in last month's Mitchell Report that he injected Clemens at least 16 times with steroids or HGH in 1998, 2000 and 2001. He said he injected Pettitte two to four times with HGH.

Pettitte admitted two days after the Mitchell Report was released that he tried HGH for two days in 2002 — before it was banned by players and owners.

Ward said the discussion he was referring to occurred at Clemens' house.

"Based on what we know, there was a situation where Andy was speaking to Roger in Brian's presence, then Andy came over to Brian and essentially said, 'Why didn't you tell me about this stuff?' He referred to HGH," Ward said. "Brian discouraged him and then several months later, when he (Pettitte) got injured, he came back and asked Brian about it, and that's when Brian injected him. We believe that based on the fact that Andy came to Brian and asked him about HGH, it was Roger who told Andy about HGH and that's why he asked Brian about it."

Richard Emery, another lawyer for McNamee, said his client and Pettitte also discussed steroids use by Clemens.

"Pettitte is certainly going to tell the truth and if he tells the truth everything will be fine," Emery said.

"There are a number of conversations where Pettitte and Brian talked about Clemens' use. I think there is everything to believe Pettitte is not a liar."

Jay Reisinger, Pettitte's lawyer, would not discuss what Pettitte would say.

"He hasn't testified yet, and I'm not going to comment on what he's going to testify about," Reisinger said.

Lanny Breuer, Clemens' new lawyer, said the seven-time Cy Young Award winner stood by his denials.

"Roger Clemens' remarkable success as a pitcher has everything to do with his extraordinary work ethic and his innate abilities, and nothing to do with HGH or steroids," Breuer said in a statement. "Let me be clear: Roger Clemens never took HGH and he never took steroids."

Ward's claims about the discussion were first reported by The New York Times on its Web site.

The delay of Pettitte's deposition or transcribed interview was the latest switch in the schedule of meetings between witnesses and staff before the Feb. 13 hearing.

"Just a mutually agreeable postponement," said Keith Ausbrook, Republican general counsel for the committee. "It give us a little more time to prepare and gives him a little more time to prepare."

Also asked to appear at next month's hearing are Clemens, McNamee, former Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, and former New York Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski.

"Mr. Pettitte is cooperating voluntarily with the committee, and we look forward to his testimony on Monday," panel chairman Henry Waxman and ranking Republican Tom Davis said in a joint statement. "We appreciate Mr. Pettitte's willingness to assist the committee."

Knoblauch now is scheduled for Friday and would be the first of the five Feb. 13 witnesses to provide a deposition or transcribed interview. He agreed to appear after a subpoena was issued.

Clemens is to follow Feb. 5, with McNamee down for Feb. 7, and Radomski on Feb. 12 — pending further changes to a repeatedly shuffled schedule.

Letters sent by Waxman and Davis to Clemens, Pettitte and Knoblauch on Jan. 16, requesting their appearances both at the hearing and a pre-hearing meeting, said: "The committee asks that you provide testimony about allegations in Senator George Mitchell's report ... that you and other Major League Baseball players used performance enhancing drugs during your professional baseball career."

Clemens, Pettitte and Knoblauch were among more than 80 players named in the Mitchell Report.

McNamee told Mitchell he acquired HGH from Radomski for Knoblauch in 2001, and that he injected the player with it. Knoblauch's major league career ended in 2002.

Radomski pleaded guilty in April to federal felony charges of distributing steroids and laundering money, and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8.

The 35-year-old Pettitte has a 201-113 major league record and won four World Series championships with the Yankees. He also helped his hometown Houston Astros reach their first World Series.

Pettitte returned to the Yankees last season and went 15-9. This offseason, he put off retirement and agreed to a $16 million, one-year contract to play for the Yankees next season.

McCain beats Romney to win Fla. primary

MIAMI - Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary Tuesday night, seizing the upper hand in the Republican presidential race ahead of next week's coast-to-coast contests and lining up a quick endorsement from soon-to-be dropout Rudy Giuliani.

"It shows one thing: I'm the conservative leader who can unite the party," McCain told The Associated Press after easing past former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for his first-ever triumph in a primary open only to Republicans.

"We have a ways to go, but we're getting close" to the nomination, he said later in an appearance before cheering supporters.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the Democratic winner in a primary held in defiance of national rules that drew no campaigning and awarded no delegates.

The victory was worth 57 Republican National Convention delegates for McCain, a winner-take-all haul that catapulted him ahead of Romney in that category.

Romney, who has spent millions of dollars of his personal fortune to run for the White House, vowed to stay in the race.

"At a time like this, America needs a president in the White House who has actually had a job in the real economy," the former businessman told supporters in St. Petersburg.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor, ran third. It was his best showing of the campaign, but not nearly good enough for the one-time front-runner who decided to make his last stand in a state that is home to tens of thousands of transplanted New Yorkers. Several officials familiar with events said he intended to endorse McCain on Wednesday in California.

In remarks to supporters in Orlando, Giuliani referred to his candidacy repeatedly in the past tense — as though it were over. "We'll stay involved and together we'll make sure that we'll do everything we can to hand our nation off to the next generation better than it was before," he said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ran fourth in the primary but told supporters he would campaign on. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was fifth, and last.

Florida marked the end of one phase of the campaign, the last in a series of single-state contests that winnowed a once unwieldy field.

The race goes national next week — McCain said it would be the closest thing to a nationwide primary as any event in history. Twenty-one states hold Republican primaries and caucuses on Tuesday with 1,023 convention delegates at stake.

Returns from 81 percent of Florida's precincts showed McCain, the Arizona senator, with 36 percent of the vote and Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, with 31 percent.

In the overall delegate race, it was McCain 93, Romney 59, Huckabee 40. Paul has four and Giuliani one.

The victory was another step in one of the most remarkable political comebacks of recent times. McCain entered the race the front-runner, then found his campaign out of funds and unraveling last summer as his stands in favor of the Iraq War and a controversial immigration bill proved unpopular.

The war gradually became less of a concern after President Bush's decision to increase troop deployments began to produce results. McCain also sought to readjust his position on immigration.

By the time of the New Hampshire primary, he had retooled his candidacy and ridden his Straight Talk Express campaign bus to over 100 town hall meetings. He won in New Hampshire, stumbled in Michigan, but won the South Carolina primary last week, taking first place in the state that had snuffed out his presidential hopes in 2000.

McCain's previous triumphs this year, and in two states in 2000, came in elections open to independents as well as Republicans. He campaigned in Florida with the support of the state's two top Republican elected officials, Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.

Romney's only primary win so far was in Michigan, a state where he grew up and claimed a home-field advantage. He also has caucus victories to his credit in Wyoming and Nevada.

A survey of voters as they left their polling places Tuesday showed the economy was the top issue for nearly half. McCain led his rival among those voters, blunting Romney's weeklong effort to persuade Floridians that his background as a businessman made him best-suited for heading off a recession.

McCain also benefited from the support of self-described moderates, as well as older voters and Hispanics. Giuliani ran second among Latino voters, according to preliminary exit poll data.

Romney was favored by voters opposed to abortion and to easing the path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

About 40 percent of self-described conservatives supported him, as well, compared to about 25 percent for McCain.

The poll was conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for The Associated Press and the television networks.

The Democratic primary was controversial by its very existence, an act of defiance against national party officials who wanted it held later in the year.

Even so, Clinton sought to emphasize her performance in the state, holding a victory rally as the polls were closing.

She challenged Barack Obama to agree to seat the delegates on the basis of the night's vote, but he demurred, saying he would abide by an agreement all Democratic candidates had made months ago.

"Those decisions will be made after the nomination, not before," Obama told reporters Tuesday on a plane from Washington to Kansas. "Obviously, I care a lot about the people in Michigan and a lot about the people in Florida. And I want their votes in the general election. We'll be actively campaigning for them."

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. Right now, which of the following topics is likely causing the discomfort inside Ailes' Fox News empire?

A) CNN's resurgence as the go-to cable destination for election coverage.
B) The incredible shrinking candidacy of Fox News' favored son, Rudy Giuliani.
C) The still-standing candidacy of Fox News nemesis and well-funded, anti-war GOP candidate Rep. Ron Paul.
D) The Democratic candidates' blanket refusal to debate on Fox News during the primary season.
E) Host Bill O'Reilly being so desperate for an interview from a Democratic contender that he had to schlep all the way to New Hampshire, where he shoved an aide to Sen. Barack Obama and then had to be calmed down by Secret Service agents.
F) Former Fox News architect and Ailes confidante Dan Cooper posting chapters from his a wildly unflattering tell-all book about his old boss. ("The best thing that ever happened to Roger Ailes was 9/11.")
G) The fledgling Fox Business Network, whose anemic ratings are in danger of being surpassed by some large city public access channels.
H) Host John Gibson's recent heartless attacks on actor Heath Ledger, just hours after the young actor was found dead.
I) Fox News reporter Major Garrett botching his "exclusive" that Paul Begala and James Carville were going to join Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, and then refusing to correct the record.

I'd say it's A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. (I doubt Gibson's grave-dancing or Garrett's whopper caused Ailes a moment's concern.)

Bottom line is that Fox News is in for a very rough 2008. And the umbrella reason for that is quite simple: Eight years ago the all-news cable channel went all-in on the presidency of George Bush and became a broadcast partner with the White House. Proof of that was on display Sunday night, January 27, during Fox News' prime-time, "Fighting to the Finish," an "historic documentary" on the final year of Bush's presidency. Filmed in HD and featuring "unprecedented access," according to the Fox News press release, the show was pure propaganda. (I must have missed Fox News' "Fighting to the Finish" special back in 2000, chronicling the conclusion of President Bill Clinton's second term and his "extraordinarily consequential tenure.")

The point is that Fox News years ago made an obvious decision to appeal almost exclusively to Republican viewers. The good news then for Fox News was that it succeeded. The bad news now for Fox News is that it succeeded.

Meaning, when the GOP catches a cold, everybody at Fox News gets sick. As blogger Logan Murphy put it at Crooks and Liars, "Watching FOXNews getting their comeuppance has been fun to watch. They made their bed, now they're having to lie in it and it's not too comfortable."

The most obvious signs of Fox News' downturn have been the cable ratings for the big primary and caucus votes this year, as well as the high-profile debates. With this election season generating unprecedented voter and viewer interest, Fox News' rating bumps to date have remained underwhelming, to say the least.

For instance, on the night of the big New Hampshire primary, CNN, which habitually trails behind Fox News in the prime-time race, attracted nearly 250,000 more viewers than its top competitor, marking a changing-of-the-guard of sorts.

The turnaround was striking when you consider that in 2004, even with no Republicans running against Bush, Fox News was still able to draw 200,000 more viewers than CNN on the night of the New Hampshire Democratic primary. Yet in 2008, with a very competitive GOP field, CNN was the ratings winner from New Hampshire.

And just look at the ratings for January 19, which featured returns from the Nevada caucus coming in during the late afternoon, and then fresh returns from the South Carolina Republican primary being posted during prime time that night. In the past, Fox News would have absolutely owned that night of coverage, as conservative news junkies flocked to their home team -- Fox News -- to see the results. But no more. CNN grabbed nearly just as many prime-time viewers for the Republican South Carolina returns as did Fox News.

The problem for Fox News is that it's the Democratic race that's creating most of the excitement, yet Fox News has been forced to mostly watch the race from the sidelines. That's because last winter, after Fox News tried to smear Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for purportedly attending a radical Muslim school as a child, liberal bloggers launched an initiative to get Democratic candidates to boycott a debate co-sponsored by Fox News and the Nevada Democratic Party. (The boycott, powered by Foxattacks.com, was later extended to any and all Fox News debates.)

The point of the online crusade was not to simply embarrass Fox News or rattle Nevada Democrats for being out of touch with the grassroots masses that distrusted and despised Fox News. The point, instead, was to begin chipping away, in a serious, consistent method, at Fox News' reputation. To spell out that Fox News was nothing more than a Republican mouthpiece and that Democrats need not engage with the News Corp. giant.

The lack of Democratic debates for Fox News has meant a huge setback for the news organization from a ratings perspective. Just look at the grand slam CNN hit last week when, on January 21, it broadcast the much-talked-about Democratic debate from South Carolina. The CNN event not only creamed Fox News in the ratings, nearly tripling its audience that night, but the debate set a new cable news mark for the most viewers ever to watch a primary debate.

In fact, of the 10 most-watched debates this election season, Fox has aired just two, compared to CNN's five. Of the 10 most-watched debates, six have featured Democrats; four Republicans.

CNN is virtually guaranteed another monster ratings win this week with a pair of high-profile debates staged in California -- the Republicans on Wednesday night and Democrats on Thursday.

No wonder CNN's so giddy these days. Here's the spin CNN president Jonathan Klein put out following its New Hampshire ratings win: "There's a freshness and exuberance to our coverage that the others just aren't matching. ... Fox almost seems downright despondent in their coverage."

So I'm not the only one who feels like Fox News coverage, especially of the Republican field, often feels like a televised wake. Or maybe that's just been Fox News' collective, subconscious mourning of the Giuliani campaign.

After all, Sean Hannity serves as Fox News' official ambassador to the Giuliani campaign; a campaign that Ailes and Fox News were hoping to ride back into the White House. Yet despite showering Giuliani with all kinds of laudatory coverage, both Hannity and Ailes have been powerless, as they've watched Giuliani's rudderless campaign go nowhere for months.

Even an all-out Fox News marketing blitz to label Giuliani "America's Mayor" never got traction. In fact, it ranked right up there with the launch of New Coke, in terms of branding success. (Watch this clip to see the Fox News absurdity up-close.)

In the meantime, the rise of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and especially Mike Huckabee, with his populist streak, has caused all sorts of consternation at Fox News. Even the conservative Weekly Standard took noticed. The magazine recently wrote that "A lot of conservatives have problems with both Huckabee and McCain. Last night on Fox, for example, Sean Hannity could barely conceal his distaste for both pols."

And don't even mention Ron Paul's name to the folks at Fox News, who have stepped outside their role as journalists to try to kneecap the anti-war GOP candidate. The most blatant slap came right before the New Hampshire primary, when Fox News refused to include Paul in a televised GOP debate, despite the fact that just days earlier Paul grabbed 10 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucus, nearly doubling the tally Giuliani posted.

Paul's Republican supporters became so incensed by the snub that they literally chased Sean Hannity through the New Hampshire night chanting "Fox News sucks!" and captured the scene in a homemade clip that really has to be seen to be believed. (To recap New Hampshire for Fox News: Hannity was pursued by a Republican mob, O'Reilly got into a shoving match with an Obama aide, and CNN grabbed more viewers. Now that's a week to remember!)

Oh, and we can't forget the wildly hyped launch of the Fox Business Network, which, News Corp. execs bragged, would dethrone longtime cable business news champ CNBC. Of course, that might happen one day. But the early ratings for Fox Business Network have been unbelievably weak.

After two months on the air, Fox Business Network, available in 30 million homes, was attracting, on average, just 6,300 viewers on any given weekday, according to Nielsen Media Research. That was good for a nearly invisible .05 rating. (By comparison, CNBC during that period was attracting 265,000 viewers.)

Making matters worse for Ailes was the fact that on January 22, as fears mounted about a possible global financial crisis, CNBC posted its best ratings in seven years, attracting 401,000 viewers that day.

The hurdle for Fox Business Network has always been simple: Why would investors and day traders in search of reliable business information turn from CNBC over to the Fox brand, which is so well-known for passing along one-sided information? News Corp. always assumed Fox News would help launch the business channel. But Fox News is taken seriously by so few people, it may be hurting the business launch.

After all, Fox News continues to embarrass itself with a type of journalism that nobody else in the industry would dare call professional. And for proof of that look no further than Major Garrett, who is supposed to be one of the channel's nonpartisan, serious journalists. He landed a recent scoop about how former advisers to Bill Clinton, Paul Begala and James Carville, were getting set to join Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Carville immediately shot the story down, telling Talking Points Memo's Greg Sargent that very same day, "Fox was, is and will continue to be an asinine and ignorant network. I have not spoken to anyone in the Clinton campaign about this. I'm not getting back into domestic political consulting."

Begala did Carville one better and directly emailed Garrett to deny the story -- a story Garrett never bothered trying to check with Begala or Carville before it was broadcast. Garrett's response to Begala's blanket denial? Garrett told the Democratic operative that he would take his denial "under advisement." [Emphasis added.]

Garrett then went back on the air and repeated the same story, and added the fact that Begala had been on a conference call the day before with Clinton advisers, which was also false. And no, despite his earlier email exchange with Begala, Garrett never bothered to try to confirm the conference call story with him before reporting it on Fox News.

On his Fox News blog, Garrett did acknowledge the Begala email and claimed he'd be updating the fast-moving story soon -- which, he told readers, would likely be confirmed the next day when the Clinton campaign made the Begala/Carville announcement. But the next day when the story imploded, Garrett simply ignored the embarrassing gaffe.

Recounting the whole Kafka-esque charade at the Huffington Post, Begala wrote, "I've never had a more surrealistic day. If this is what one of Fox's best and most respected reporters is doing, what are the hacks up to?"

They're watching CNN capture the campaign ratings crown.