John Kerry

Imagine the scene here a year from now if this genteel village enters U.S. history. On Aug. 15, 2005, President John F. Kerry returns with great fanfare to St.-Briac-sur-Mer, where his parents met and where he spent childhood vacations in a Breton coastal landscape immortalized by Renoir. Escorted by his cousin, Mayor Brice Lalonde -- a former candidate for the French presidency -- Kerry leads the celebration of the 61st anniversary of the Allied liberation of the village from the Nazis.

While many Americans know her as an Oscar-winning actress and onetime queen of aerobics videos, some Republicans hope voters will also remember Jane Fonda for a more controversial association: "Hanoi Jane." A 1970 photograph showing Fonda and Democratic presidential candidate John F.

The heartthrob potential is there, definitely. It's in the full head of dark brown hair, the easy laugh, the dreamy stock portfolio. But let's not be shallow. Christopher Heinz, after all, is a grown man, a 31-year-old investment banker whose stepfather, Sen. John F. Kerry, is running for president. A Yale graduate who majored in history, Heinz cares deeply about the environment, the polarization of wealth in this country and ... he's tall. Smart. And funny. Did we mention rich and single?

A Vietnam veterans group opposed to John F. Kerry launched a television commercial in Florida on Tuesday that condemns the Democratic presidential nominee for tossing away medals during a Vietnam War protest more than 30 years ago. The expansion of the anti-Kerry advertising came a day after Republicans gathered for their convention sought to stoke the debate over Kerry's service in Vietnam and his antiwar activities afterward.

President-elect Kennedy strode out to the front of his house on N Street after winning the 1960 election and announced that Robert S. McNamara had agreed to be his secretary of Defense. Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, welcomed guests in the 1980s and '90s to her home on R Street, giving new meaning to the term power dinner. And in the 1930s, lobbyist Thomas G.

Sen. John F. Kerry chose fellow Sen. John Edwards as his vice presidential running mate Tuesday, hoping to infuse his campaign with the buoyancy and charisma Edwards brought to his own White House bid. Kerry's selection of his former campaign rival, after months of stringent secrecy, delighted many Democrats, who think Edwards will broaden the ticket's appeal to his native South, as well as to independents and voters who share his small-town, blue-collar upbringing.

They say teach your children well. And so the father schooled his daughters: Be your own person. Pursue your passion. Don't stand in someone else's shadow. The two girls learned. They grew into women and, by all accounts, they thrived. But just as they seemed poised to blossom in their own careers, something happened. The teacher, himself, cast the shadow. And it was wide.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry got a boost last week when 27 retired U.S. diplomats, admirals and four-star generals, including a number of prominent Republican appointees from former Bush and Reagan administrations, publicly urged Americans to vote President Bush out of office. They did not explicitly endorse Kerry, but the old warriors and insiders find themselves far more comfortable with the Massachusetts senator than with Bush when it comes to their favorite subject.

Only months ago, Democrats were targeting the controversial USA Patriot Act as an ideal issue to use in their campaign against President Bush, assailing the law as an intrusion on civil rights. But in a turnabout, the act has suddenly emerged as a cornerstone of Bush's reelection campaign, while Democratic rival Sen. John F. Kerry and others have toned down their criticism. The Patriot Act is proving to be more popular in opinion polls than once expected, given its diverse range of critics.

Sen. John F. Kerry caught President Bush off guard during their final debate Wednesday night, asserting that the president once said he was "not concerned" about hunting down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In one of the testiest moments of the evening, Bush protested, "I don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. That's kind of one of those exaggerations." But during a news conference at the White House on March 13, 2002, Bush said something close to what Kerry quoted.

Campaign charge: An article in Tuesday's Section A about the dismissal of a federal campaign finance charge against Los Angeles attorney Pierce O'Donnell said the case involved contributions to John Kerry's presidential campaign. The case involved contributions to John Edwards' presidential campaign.

It's not a wrap yet on Sen. John Kerry's plans to become a movie producer. The Federal Election Commission failed to reach a decision Thursday on the Massachusetts Democrat's request to use $300,000 from his campaign funds to invest in a documentary on injured Iraq war veterans. The panel will not issue an advisory opinion on it. "The FEC is now done considering this request," said FEC spokeswoman Judith Ingram.

In their contest for the White House, Barack Obama and John McCain are expanding the campaign battlefield. Paradoxically, that may be the first step toward taming the partisan warfare in Washington that has blocked progress on the country's most pressing problems. One key reason Washington is so polarized is that American politics is so balkanized. Each party has retreated from the ambition of competing nationwide in presidential elections. After some early feints, George W. Bush eventually ceded the Northeast and the West Coast to the Democrats in both 2000 and 2004; Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry eventually wrote off the South, the Plains states and much of the Mountain West.

There is something charming about a man who loses the race for president and can joke about it. After the sting of his 2000 loss, Al Gore often told audiences, "I used to be the next president of the United States." And after Bob Dole lost to President Clinton in 1996, the former Kansas senator would say, "I slept like a baby. Woke up crying every two hours." Into that fine tradition comes Sen. John F.

John Kerry went to John Edwards' home state the other day to endorse someone else in the Democratic presidential race: Barack Obama. A major-league diss? Yes. A surprise? Hardly. Our colleague James Rainey recently spent time with Kerry to produce a rich piece updating the activities -- and aspirations -- of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.

The SUV shuttling John F. Kerry through the frigid streets of the capital stops at a light. A burly young man pulls alongside but Kerry doesn't notice. He is busy answering a reporter's questions, reiterating a point from a speech he has just delivered about Afghanistan. In the next lane, the man stuffed behind the wheel of the panel truck keeps waving and giving a thumbs up. Finally, Kerry sees him and lowers his window. "I wish you were the president," the admirer calls out.

Renewing a debate that raged through much of the 2004 presidential race, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) on Friday accepted Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens' offer to pay $1 million to anyone who can disprove allegations by veterans who disparaged Kerry's Vietnam War record.

A day after a congressional subcommittee held a hearing to scrutinize safety on the high seas, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced plans Thursday to sponsor legislation that would force cruise lines to report crimes and develop better methods of collecting crime scene evidence. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) will sponsor similar legislation in the House.

Three weeks ago, presidential hopeful-turned-documentary film star Al Gore brought some Oscar glamour to Capitol Hill as he testified about the perils of unchecked global warming, an issue gaining traction with both lawmakers and the public. On Tuesday, two other prominent politicians -- one a former presidential nominee, another toying with the idea of becoming one -- faced off before a packed house in an opulent Senate hearing room to discuss the same topic. During their two-hour debate, Sen.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), whose 2 percentage-point loss in Ohio cost him the White House in 2004, announced on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday that he would not seek the presidency in 2008. "This isn't the time for me to mount a presidential campaign," Kerry said. "It is the time to put my energy to work as part of the majority in the Senate to do all I can to end this war." Referring to his 2004 campaign, he noted: "We came close, certainly close enough to be tempted to try again."