Political Endorsements

Politicos, start your engines! The race to the White House may be coming to a speedway near you. But don't look for a race car with Barack Obama's name on it. NASCAR's BAM Racing team approached the presidential campaigns of Obama, John McCain and at least one third-party candidate about a sponsorship deal in the Sprint Cup series. A presidential campaign has never before sponsored a car in NASCAR's top series. The offer was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

Conservative Christian leader James C. Dobson has softened his stance against Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, saying he could reverse his position and endorse the Arizona senator. "I never thought I would hear myself saying this," Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air today. " . . . While I am not endorsing Sen. John McCain, the possibility is there that I might." Dobson and other evangelical leaders increasingly are taking a lesser-of-two-evils approach to the 2008 race.

After endorsing Jim Hahn for mayor in 2001 and 2005, the Central City Assn. has decided to come out early and back incumbent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in his 2009 reelection bid. "We think he has brought new energy to the city," said Carol Schatz, president of the business advocacy group whose members include some major Hollywood studios. "He has been able to bring some transportation dollars here. He supports the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles."

SOMETIMES life really does imitate art. As the Democratic National Convention was kicking off, actor Richard Schiff, who played the White House communications director on "West Wing," was holding court with a pack of reporters on a concrete version of a red carpet outside of a restaurant here. The Emmy Award-winning actor was completely at ease talking about real-life politics and his favorite politician, Sen. Joe Biden.

Iran's supreme leader appears to have strongly endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term as president, a development sure to unsettle Iranian liberals and Western officials hoping for an end to his term in elections next spring. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the cleric who is the nation's ultimate authority on matters of religion and security, told Iranian officials to begin planning for another four-year term, Iranian state media reported Monday.

The big question of the presidential election, says L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, is not whether America is ready for a black president. Rather, he asks, "Are the Clintons ready?" What Democratic candidate Barack Obama needs, says Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., is for Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton to provide a "Pee Wee Reese moment," referring to the white ballplayer who embraced Jackie Robinson when white baseball fans rained abuse on the pioneering Dodger.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, accepting defeat with grace and generosity, moved to close the divide among fellow Democrats on Tuesday night by offering a forceful and unequivocal endorsement of her fierce rival, Barack Obama. "Barack Obama is my candidate," she said to a thunderous roar from Democratic convention delegates, whose allegiance was split nearly evenly during a long and contentious primary season. "And he must be our president."

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has never been shy about bucking his Republican Party. And Wednesday he did it again by endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Riordan said the Illinois senator was by far the best choice for the White House and the only one with the intellect to shepherd the country through troubled economic times.

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild is an ardent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter who raised scads of money for the New York senator's failed presidential campaign. She and her husband, Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England, split their time between New York and a British country estate. It's not a bad life, she says, and she'd like you to have one just like it. Which is why she's backing Sen. John McCain for president, not her party's nominee.

Perhaps you've seen oilman T. Boone Pickens on television advertising the "Pickens Plan" for alternative energy, urging Americans to wean themselves from foreign fuel by adopting natural gas and wind power. Pickens has another plan he isn't advertising and from which he also stands to profit. He wants Californians to borrow $5 billion to invest in natural gas and alternative energy by voting yes on Proposition 10 on the November ballot.