Presidential Elections 2004

At a rally marking the kickoff of his reelection campaign, President Bush on Saturday unleashed a blistering attack on John F. Kerry's domestic and foreign policy positions while portraying himself as a decisive leader who would keep America safe during troubled times. Returning to the heart of the state that delivered him the White House in the disputed 2000 election, Bush was greeted by a crowd of some 10,000 supporters at the Orange County Convention Center here.

George Clooney can't decide what role he'd like to play. This has nothing to do with his flourishing movie career and everything to do with the 2008 presidential campaign, where the involvement of even a widely admired star can be the subject of a serious dilemma. On the one hand, the actor said in an interview, he would love to throw himself into campaigning for his friend, Sen. Barack Obama, a politician he compares to President Kennedy.

He's watched seven presidential races roll by, and never voted in one. Reagan, Carter, Clinton, both Bushes -- they all won the White House without Warren Boyd's help. But this year, Boyd won't let a vestige of his past -- a prison term -- stand in the way. This year, Boyd, 49, will have a say. "I always figured my felony stayed with me, that I wasn't allowed to vote," said Boyd, a Vietnam veteran living at the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. "Now I know the truth.

The handful of people who have gathered on the patio of a Pasadena coffeehouse are either the answer, or the big question mark, in the upcoming presidential election. They have come at the behest of Mike Barako, a Los Angeles special-ed teacher who has been following Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Last month, Barako launched a website through Obama's online campaign to build a local committee of active supporters.

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.

With bombings in Baghdad and Madrid raising new challenges for the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John F. Kerry launched a furious debate Wednesday over who was best suited to lead the United States in the war against global terrorism. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, declared that President Bush had left U.S. troops vulnerable by overextending them and alienating the nation's allies.

For four years they have shunned the spotlight. No more. Barbara and Jenna Bush, now 22-year-old college graduates, are the stars of a Vogue magazine spread that hits newsstands today, in which they publicly embrace their status as scions of political royalty. Jenna, draped in a strapless, cranberry-colored Oscar de la Renta gown, poses with a half-grin and shows off a Harry Winston bracelet.

Amid this week's campaign clashes over the U.S. mission in Iraq and reports of beheadings of American civilians, President Bush turned Wednesday to a novel image to attack Sen. John F. Kerry: windsurfing. In a 30-second advertisement to debut today, Bush lampoons one of his Democratic challenger's favorite recreational pastimes while attacking him as indecisive on Iraq and other matters.

It certainly can't be a bad thing for a man with a political talk show called "Hardball" to be nearly challenged to a duel by a U.S. senator. MSNBC has quickly moved to take advantage of Sen. Zell Miller's combative GOP convention interview with Chris Matthews, featuring it in advertisements. It was Matthews' second eye-popping exchange with a guest in a month. Matthews is hot right now, and not just under the collar.

From coast to coast, political strategists, media consultants, lawyers and pollsters earned millions of dollars in the nation's most expensive presidential election in history. Olsen & Shuvalov, the direct marketing firm in Austin, Texas, that was founded by Karl Rove, President Bush's political strategist, received $34 million from the Bush campaign. Rove no longer has a financial interest in the firm. Integral Resources Inc., a Boston-area telemarketing firm begun by one of Sen. John F.

Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio's most populous county. Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct by an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure to perform their duty as elections employees.

In 2004, Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth played a highly visible role in the presidential campaign by running ads in key states questioning the Vietnam War record of the Democratic candidate, Sen. John F. Kerry, and charging that "he cannot be trusted." Likewise, the MoveOn.org Voter Fund criticized President Bush, repeatedly referring in its ads to his "failure of leadership." Both operated as "527" organizations independent of political parties.

A book about CBS' airing of a flawed story last fall about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, written by a former CBS producer who was fired in the fallout, will hit stores next month. "Truth and Duty: The Press, the President and the Privilege of Power," written by former producer Mary Mapes and published by St. Martin's Press, is scheduled to be released Nov. 8.

Ending one of the last fights from the contentious 2004 presidential campaign, Ohio's top judge declined Thursday to punish four lawyers who had challenged the results in court. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ruled against Ohio Atty. Gen. Jim Petro's attempt to have the lawyers sanctioned for filing a "meritless claim" against the vote that gave President Bush a win in Ohio and, as a result, enough electoral votes to win a second term in the White House.

Jewish voters remained overwhelmingly Democratic in the 2004 presidential election, but President Bush made inroads with those who attend religious services most often, according to a study to be released today. The study by a think tank associated with the National Jewish Democratic Council mostly confirmed the initial impression from exit polls in November that found little movement toward Bush among American Jews.

A large voter turnout and poll workers' confusion contributed to the invalidation of many provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election, the president of the League of Women Voters said Tuesday. In Ohio, 21% of provisional ballots were found to be invalid, compared with 13% statewide in the 2000 presidential election. Nationally, 32% of provisional ballots cast in last year's election were thrown out. Most states were using them for the first time. Last year, 5.

The first Republican-linked television ad attacking presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry depicts him as an old-fashioned liberal who, despite his avowed populism, favors expensive haircuts and designer shirts and owns a 42-foot yacht and several lavish residences. The advertisement is airing this week in about a dozen states, according to the head of Citizens United, the conservative group paying for it.

The conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose television outlets reach nearly a quarter of the nation's homes with TV, is ordering its stations to preempt regular programming just days before the Nov. 2 election to air a film that attacks Sen. John F. Kerry's activism against the Vietnam War, network and station executives familiar with the plan said Friday.

Documentary filmmakers James Stern and Adam Del Deo traveled to Ohio last November in search of a specific election story. When the presidential voting was completed, they ended up with a very different movie. Stern and Del Deo, both of whom voted for Sen. John F. Kerry, initially traveled to the battleground state to document how thousands of Republican poll watchers would challenge Ohio voters.

The battle for Ohio in last year's presidential campaign came with a huge price tag: $100 million for television advertising alone, according to a study released by political science professors from the universities of Cincinnati and Akron. Both sides also spent an estimated $50 million for mailings, door-to-door contacts and phone calls.