* Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman recently announced he would drop out of the race in Iowa and concentrate all his efforts on New Hampshire. Yet he's dropped back to sixth place in the latest poll, even though he's the candidate who came into this race with the highest name recognition.

* Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt has dropped from third place in New Hampshire to fifth, and he's fighting for his political life in Iowa, where the general consensus is that he must win or his second race for the presidency is over.

* Gen. Wesley Clark has also dropped out of Iowa and is concentrating on New Hampshire. But he lacks the organizational prowess of the other campaigns and has suffered from fuzzy and uncertain positions on key issues such as the war in Iraq.

The John Edwards for President weblog is here.

* Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry started his New Hampshire campaign as the "front-runner," and anything less than a New Hampshire win could kill his chances. Since his momentum has been stuck in reverse from the beginning, it 's hard to see that happening. It might be different if he were establishing a beachhead elsewhere in the country, but Kerry's doing horribly in places such as Iowa and South Carolina.

*Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and the Rev. Al Sharpton are intelligent, articulate spokesmen for the issues they're attempting to promote, but they know and we all know they have no chance of winning even a single state.

Which leaves former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Edwards - and that could be the two-man race the race for the Democratic nomination for president comes down to.