Morning Buzz: Feb. 28, 2008

Fuhgedaboudit. That's the official verdict this morning from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the possibility of a third-party presidential run. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Bloomberg writes: "I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be -- a candidate for president. I have watched this campaign unfold, and I am hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership."

Hillary Clinton is expected to unveil a new multibillion-dollar child poverty plan at a speech today in Ohio. The plan will call for new initiatives to improve child nutrition, especially in schools, and will seek to cut the number of children living in poverty — currently 12 million — in half by 2020.

One more grim figure to add to the festering pile of economic bad news: In a new report, the Commerce Department finds that the U.S. economy was nearly stagnant at the end of last year. From October to December, the GDP rose just 0.6 percent, down from a rise of 4.9 percent in the previous three-month period.