From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

National Policy, the presidency, and state governors.

Hello again, I'm Mormon Olney, and this is To the Point.

From Public Radio International, a daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Virginia's former governor, Mark Warner, won't be challenging Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Now other governors will be running harder than ever. U.S. senators get a lot of national press coverage,

but historically governors are more likely to wind up as president.

On to the point, Democrats are poised to take a majority of governorships this year for the first time since 1994.

We'll look at some key states and find out why governors matter even if they're not running for president.

On reporter's notebook later on, microlending produces a Nobel Peace Prize for Bangladesh.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hello again, Mormon-A-N-Ale, back with To the Poet. Virginia's former

Governor Mark Warner has shaken up the Democratic race for president by withdrawing. That demonstrates

the importance of governorships in the race for the White House. On To the Poet, we'll find out

why governors matter,

even if they're not running nationwide, and we'll look at some of this year's most interesting

contests. On reporter's notebook, we'll hear about Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh and the Nobel Peace Prize

for microlending. First, this news update, the head of the British Army, has caused an uproar by saying

we should get ourselves

out of Iraq sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems. General Sir

Richard Dennett now says he did not mean to contradict government policy and Prime Minister

...