Political Campaigns

Barack Obama announced Saturday that he and his wife had resigned as members of their Chicago church in the wake of controversial remarks from its pulpit that have become a serious distraction to his presidential campaign. In a letter dated Friday to the pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, had come to the decision "with some sadness."

No matter how you feel about Meg Whitman, head of Hewlett-Packard, former head of eBay, you'd have to concede that one of her biggest contributions to the California economy was as candidate for California governor. She lavished about $160 million on her failed campaign, and we'd have to guess that most or all of that was spent within the state. It might be hard to get the engine of California's economy revving again, but we do get a good, if short-term, cough out of political campaigns, and the most recent proof of this is the spending on Proposition 29, the initiative that would impose an extra dollar-per-pack tax on cigarettes and use most of the proceeds on medical research for cancer and cardiovascular and lung diseases.

24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Name: Catherine Carter Political affiliation: Natural Law Born: Oct.

Once upon a time there was something called "educational television," which harnessed the technological marvel of a new medium to provide children and adults with edifying programming uncorrupted by advertising. Today, public radio and television continue to devote more attention to educational programs than commercial broadcasters do, but they also seek to entertain viewers of all ages with features - such as British sitcoms, quiz shows, animal adventures and rock 'n' roll retrospectives - that duplicate those on commercial stations.

John McCain may not be a BlackBerry user. But Tuesday, one of his aides was ready to give the Republican presidential nominee credit for one of the technological marvels of the modern age. In a comment that brought to mind the 2000 presidential campaign flap over whether Al Gore had invented the Internet, McCain's senior policy advisor said the candidate was responsible for the BlackBerry. Douglas Holtz-Eakin held up his little device to show reporters in Miami as he sought to explain why McCain was qualified to lead the nation out of its economic morass.

When presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain turns 72 on Friday, it's likely his Democratic opponents will make sure no one forgets his birthday. But McCain beat them to the punch line Monday night with his own jokes during a return appearance to NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." McCain had barely taken his seat when Leno offered him early birthday wishes: "We were going to have a cake, but the fire marshal said 'that many candles?' " The late-night host added that they'd ribbed McCain with "a few jokes" about his age during the campaign.

Kerry Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo were married Saturday in a ceremony that merged two of America's most powerful political families. They swore mutual commitment to the oppressed--"the people who have disappeared in El Salvador, the children in shelters in New York." The bride, 30, is the daughter of Ethel Kennedy and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and is executive director of the human rights center in New York City that bears his name. The groom, 32, is New York Gov. Mario M.

A political insider tapped by Barack Obama to vet potential running mates resigned Wednesday, saying he wanted to prevent a controversy over his personal finances from hurting the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign. The unpaid advisor, Jim Johnson, was chosen by Obama last month to serve on a three-member team screening prospective nominees for vice president.

California, the ATM for politicians nationwide, has spit out cash for Barack Obama at an extraordinary clip. One of every five dollars he has raised in itemized contributions to his campaign has come from the Golden State. At last count, in mid-October, the Democratic presidential nominee had withdrawn $84 million from California, or 20% of his contributions of more than $200 -- the threshold at which campaigns must disclose detailed information about donors.

Race has bedeviled this country from the start, when the Founding Fathers ducked the slavery issue for fear of killing the nation in its cradle. Obviously, much has changed. For one thing, Americans are seriously weighing the prospect of elevating a black man to the White House in November. But as this past week's debate over "the race card" illustrates, there is still no subject in American politics as fraught as the color of a candidate's skin.

Mitt Romney was probably surprised to learn Tuesday that his native state's most famous rock guitarist, Ted Nugent , had officially joined his campaign as a spokesman. Oh wait -- he didn't. But you wouldn't know that from the news release put out Tuesday by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, who railed, "Mitt Romney surrogate Ted Nugent made offensive comments about President Obama and November's elections this weekend that are despicable, deplorable and completely beyond the pale.

CAIRO - Egypt's volatile presidential race was jolted Saturday when the election commission disqualified three controversial front-runners - the nation's former spy chief and two impassioned Islamists - just five weeks before voters go to the polls. The commission removed Omar Suleiman, the intelligence director under deposed President Hosni Mubarak; Khairat Shater, a leading voice for the ascendant Muslim Brotherhood; and Hazem Salah abu Ismail, an ultraconservative Salafi Islamist with wide populist appeal.

Recent weeks have brought sharply different perspectives on the state of women in America today. A new study on the status of women and girls in California, just released by Mount St. Mary's College, concludes that women here earn degrees at a higher rate than men. Nearly a third of the state's businesses are solely owned by women, and 38% of its elected representatives are women. Those are encouraging, if still developing, indicators that an equal society is under construction. And yet the same survey produces reminders of persistent inequity.

Republican presidential candidates renewed their criticism of President Obama's healthcare program Monday in a double-barreled assault from both coasts. Standing before a "Repeal and Replace Obamacare" banner at a medical device manufacturer in San Diego as he opened a campaign swing in the state, Mitt Romney called the president's policies "an attack on free enterprise, an attack on economic freedom unlike anything we have ever seen before. " "We've got to make sure that we replace President Obama with someone who truly understands what it is that makes America's economy work," Romney said.

NationBuilder — a Los Angeles start-up that helps politicos and social causes build support for their campaigns — has gotten some big backing of its own. The company this week announced that it got a $6.25-million investment led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Former Facebook executive and Silicon Valley veteran Sean Parker participated in the investment and joined the board of NationBuilder along with Andreessen Horowitz's Ben Horowitz. Founded by Jim Gilliam of Brave New Media, NationBuilder combines technology and the Internet to help politicians and others organize and gather support for their campaigns or causes.

  It was not just another day on Alexei Burkov's little dairy farm west of Moscow. In a country where political campaigns are conducted with scripted television events and carefully orchestrated public appearances, a presidential candidate was coming to share a hearty winter lunch of homemade dumplings, pork chops, herb-seasoned cheeses and a raspberry drink. To the delight of half a dozen photographers, Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets NBA basketball team, visited Burkov's barn and awkwardly touched the horn of one of his cows.

With 197 countries participating and perhaps as many as 100 heads of state attending, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games will be one of the most widely watched events of all time. Massive television coverage will mean that much of America and the rest of the world will be watching on July 20 when President Clinton says, "Let the Games begin," at opening ceremonies. In many other ways, Clinton will reap a rich harvest of publicity from the Games.

An increasingly militant series of anti-abortion demonstrations aimed at Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis turned violent for the first time Tuesday as shouting demonstrators and Dukakis supporters engaged in a shoving match here, partially disrupting Dukakis' speech. Ignoring the candidate's appeals for calm, roughly a dozen demonstrators shouted "Abortion is murder!" at Dukakis, preventing him from being heard in a crowded Polish union hall in this Chicago suburb.

Lots of candidates need a Rob Katherman this year. He was a Democrat. Then he was a Republican. Now he's unattached. The South Bay area he lives in, bordered by sparkling ocean on the west and gritty manufacturing sites on the east, is much the same. Voters here have toggled for decades across the political divide. Such swing districts and Californians like Katherman -- who sits smack in the political center -- are exactly what reformers had in mind when they pushed in recent years to change state elections.

When the Supreme Court handed down its 2010 decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, reaction tended to break along familiar lines: Conservatives saw it as an affirmation of free speech, while liberals warned of the effects of lifting restrictions on corporate contributions to campaigns. (The political reaction mirrored the court's own split, which was 5 to 4, with the more liberal justices dissenting.) If contributions are a form of speech, conservatives reasoned, then the Constitution can't permit restrictions on speech by corporations — or unions, for that matter — any more than it can on individuals.