SIMI VALLEY - In independent moves Presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney surprised supporters by dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination tonight.  Their announcements closely followed the conclusion of the debate between Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

"I watched the debate and I realized there's just no hope" Senator McCain told a crowd of tens of supporters in a bowling alley this evening.  "I was in Vietnam, I might have mentioned that, and I'll tell you my dear friends that I'd rather be back in the Hanoi Hilton than on stage debating either of those two.  My friends, it made me tired just watching them.  I've been shot down once in my life, I don't want to go through it again.

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NPR is right now replaying Barack Obama's victory speech from last night:

But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do.

I count myself as a cynic, although being equally cynical about my own predictive powers I don't presume to say what will or won't happen in a close election.  But certainly I was as aware as anyone who is not a starry-eyed Obama supporter of the barrier that Senator Obama faced in attempting to win an electorate that is 93% white, 2.5% black, and largely rural.

But last night Barack Obama won a decisive victory in that state, and another 30% of the vote went to the first serious female candidate for the Presidency.  Whatever happens from here on out, inclusivity in America won big last night.  

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Hot off the wires, no link yet:

In a surprise move last this afternoon Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced the cancellation of the caucuses that had been scheduled for this evening to allocate Iowa's delegates to the national nominating conventions of the two major political parties.

"I'd been mulling this action for several days," Miller said in a prepared statement.  "Really, when you think about the amount of influence Iowa has on the nominating process is out of all proportion to our importance in the nation.  Also, the whole caucus system, especially on the Democratic side, really doesn't do a good job of engaging the electorate or accurately reflecting the feelings of those who do attend."

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With polls showing an absolutely even division of voters among the top three Democratic candidates going into the Iowa caucuses this week you're beginning to hear a lot of talk that "Iowa might not decide anything" on the Democratic side of the primary ledger.  In addition to many comments here at dKos that are beginning to toe that line, the NY Times has an analysis piece discussing the issue tonight.  In the piece even a senior Obama staffer says:

"It would be like a six-month trial and a hung jury," said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama. "I think it is really possible."

But the fact is, Iowa will have a clear winner. . .

I love to see the anti-Republican slam diaries and front page posts here at dKos.  The latest Giuliani scandal, Willard Romney exposed as a serial liar and flip-flopper, a video of Fred Thompson waking up and saying "Waa?  Hmm." and dozing back off. That's all a lot of fun.  Keep 'em coming!

But it's also all kind of pointless.  Because the Republican race is down to  two candidates, and they're not the ones you regularly see lambasted here at dKos.  The Republican nominee will be either Mike Huckabee or John McCain and it's time we start thinking about them.

Update: Title changed from New Fuel Standards Agreed In Congress to attract more attention.

From the New York Times comes word that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has prevailed in a battle over increasing fuel standards and regulation of mileage standards.  The opposition was lead by fellow Democrat John Dingell of Michigan.

The agreement will require automobiles and light trucks sold in the United States to average 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020 while allowing the EPA significant control of mileage standards (reflecting recent court decisions) and allowing individual states -- notably California -- to enact more stringent legislation.

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At the close of business today, the Dow Jones stock average is down another 237 points, now closing in an a ten percent drop from the highs it experienced earlier this year.  I watch the stock market because the figures are on the front page of the NY Times website that I read regularly and because I know the market will affect politics and social issues.

But I have a dirty little secret.  I actually like to see the stock market go down.

One of the least attractive features of the blogosphere -- left or right -- is its ability to get outraged very quickly over very little.  In a community with an outrage addiction, Bob Novak (of Plame outing fame) was able to set off a fire storm of righteous indignation with three paragraphs of unsourced material.

You don't need a Ph.D in political theory or American history to know that Republicans win when Democrats -- as they sadly so often do -- fight amongst themselves.  Does anyone think that Novak had any Democrat's interest at heart in his piece?

Novak's claim was made in his column in the conservative magazine Human Events.  When in the pages of Human Events you read an article that disparages Democrats a decent respect for truth and accuracy requires that we should carefully parse the actual claims therein.

Why and how you were pwnd -->

Of all you learn here remember this the best:
Don't hurt each other and clean up your mess
Take a nap everyday, wash before you eat
Hold hands, stick together, look before you cross the street
And remember the seed in the little paper cup:
First the root goes down and then the plant grows up!

John McCutcheon

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Several diaries today have lauded the awarding of $10.9 million to the father of a marine whose son's funeral was picketed by the rabidly insane Westboro Baptist Church led by the congenitally insane Phelps family.  The award was for "defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress" according the story currently running on CNN.com.

As much as I dislike the Phelps family this is a truly terrible verdict and it's hard to imagine that it will not be overturned.

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Hello, America, we're the Democratic Party.  We're here today to urge you not to vote for us in 2008.  You may be thoroughly fed up with Republican misrule.  You may be with us on any number of issues.  But we want to encourage you to overlook our areas of agreement.

We're absolutely certain that if you give it enough consideration, you'll find a reason to vote against us.  If nothing occurs to you, we'll help!  And if, for some reason, you still decide to give us your impure, defective vote in 2008 -- we'll reject it!  We're the Democrats, we don't want your stinking votes.

Reasons to vote against us -->

Everyone is all in a tizzy over the inclusion in a South Carolina Obama campaign event of a gospel singer with a history of anti-gay statements.  This despite Obama's history of being in the right place himself on gay and lesbian issues.

Obama has always said he'd meet with anyone -- Ahmedinejad, Chavez, Kim Jung-Il -- without "preconditions".  Did you think he was joking?  Why act so surprised when Obama acts on his convictions?

And what's wrong with letting this guy support him, anyway? -->

Fron the Washington Post, via the every great TalkingPointsMemo comes news that Rudy Giuliani is living the good life courtesy of his campaign contributors.

Giuliani is one of the candidates who burned through more money in the last quarter than her raised (Romney and Obama are the others).  Unlike Romney and Obama, Giuliani managed to do so without making significant media buys.  Where did the money go?  As Max Bialystock famously said -- If you've got it, baby, flaunt it!

Giuliani's spendthrift ways echo his past and have to make Americans wonder if he can be trusted with their hard earned money.

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One thing that Republicans have figured out about the electoral process is the role that primaries play.  Rather than treating primaries as intra-party bloodbaths they use them as auditions for the general election.  The candidate who convinces the primary electorate that he will best carry the Republican banner in the general election gets the nomination.

It's true that Republicans don't always follow this rule, which Ronald Reagan summarized as the 11th Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Attack Another Republican".  For instance, I remember commenting during the 1996 Republican primary debate that I loved to hear the sound of Republicans eating their own.  Of course, things didn't work out so well for them that year.

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Josh Marshall wrote an outstanding essay yesterday on his disappointment that Obama has not seemed to be able to rally a challenge to Clinton in the Democratic primary race (Pretty much everything Marshall writes is outstanding in my book).

As someone initially inclined towards Obama, Josh pretty much summed up my feelings as well.  We're now almost six weeks into the "real" primary election and Obama is running out of time to make his move, at least with voters like me.

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Pretty much everyone here at dKos is probably aware of the recent Republican attempt to steal the 2008 election using a ballot initiative in California that would have wound up allocating that state's electoral votes by Congressional district rather than on a winner take all basis.  The result would have been twenty or so "free" electoral votes for the Republican candidate.

If you were following this now-defeated plot you probably know that when the dust settled it became clear that it was being funded by a small number of Giuliani backers.  What I only learned tonight from an article republished on truthout.org is that this may have been the first scuffle in a possible general election fight between Giuliani and the Clinton campaign.

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Well, I think we can all agree that the primary ended this week.  Who would have thought we'd have a nominee in December, almost a full month before the first caucus will be held?

And you have to admit, it's pretty decisive.  The front runner is leading in all the polls and piling up the money.  And the media's certainly made its decision.  Things have gotten so bad that one of the also-rans has had to mortgage his own home to keep his campaign limping along.

Yes, it's certainly time to get behind the Democratic Party's certain Presidential nominee.  Howard Dean.

Via the New York Times, the AP reports McCain Backs Off Clinton Critique.  The critique?  That Clinton is too indecisive on Iraq.  Now McCain has decided not to include his remarks in a speech he will give today -- remarks that, apparently, he had not even seen before his campaign announced them to the press.

more about John "Mr. Decisive" McCain after the jump -->