'As many as four big states - California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey - are likely to move up their 2008 presidential primaries to early next February, further upending an already unsettled nominating process and forcing candidates of both parties to rethink their campaign strategies,' the New York Times reports.

'The man who spent the past four years gunning for the presidency turned his attention to building a statesmanlike legacy in the Senate.'

'A tearful' John Kerry 'launched the next phase of his Senate career yesterday with a vow to hasten an end to the Iraq war,' the Boston Globe reports.

The SOTU also 'aggravated' the 'underlying fear' of social and economic conservatives: 'that the president might become so consumed by the worsening conflict in Iraq - and chastened by Democrats' takeover of Congress - that he will give up on the issues they care about,' the Wall Street Journal reports.

'I guess the pains of the hurricane are yesterday's news in Washington,' Blanco said. Kathleen Blanco 'angrily criticized President Bush on Wednesday for not mentioning 2005's destructive hurricanes in his State of the Union speech,' AP reports.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 12-9 vote in favor of a resolution opposing Bush's planned troop buildup sets up 'what could be the most dramatic confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration since the war was launched four years ago,' the Washington Post reports.

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