Candidate For President

An article in yesterday's Today section about campaign advertising on cable television incorrectly identified a candidate for president of the Harford County Council. The candidate is Joanne S. Parrott.The Sun regrets the error.

Maryland's Republican Party seems to be solidly behind presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, but the party raised some eyebrows today with an email solicitation. The missive advertises an upcoming pig roast. Among expected attendees it lists "our Romeny delegation to Tampa. " "It is simple error," said GOP Executive Director David Ferguson. "Maybe you should find something better to do. " Perhaps he's right. But it is a good thing for the GOP that the presidential race in Maryland won't be decided by write-in.

* Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, a Democratic candidate for president, will speak at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, 2110 Madison Ave. At 12:30 p.m. he is scheduled to speak during a union rally at the AFSCME headquarters at 175 W. Ostend St.

Maryland's primary is now just two weeks away (with early voting starting this Saturday) and - surprise - ballots cast here might even be relevant to the presidential selection process. On Wednesday, Mitt Romney is scheduled to be the first of the Republican candidates to traipse into the Old Line State to state his case for taking home 37 delegates in the winner-take-all event with appearances at theU.S. Naval Academy and in Arbutus and Frederick. For a state dominated by Democrats, this is a rarity that GOP voters should savor.

McCain, a likely Republican candidate for president, was speaking during a visit to Iraq last week. He said he recognized the political danger of his call, with which many Americans disagree. ?I believe there is still a compelling reason to have an increase in troops here in Baghdad and in Anbar province in order to bring the sectarian violence under control [and to] allow the political process to proceed.? , --Sen. John McCain

O'Malley, not Gore, for president Al Gore's new movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is interesting and creative. It is not enough, however, to make him a serious future candidate for president. I served with him in Congress and campaigned for him for vice president and president. I now finally know him well enough to say he should not be the Democratic candidate in 2008 or 2012. My candidate at that time will be Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland. Bill D. Burlison Odenton The writer is member of the Anne Arundel County Council.

The Supreme Court has decided there are worse things than segregation, such as desegregation.George has agreed to aid Russia, and will discuss paying for it after the election.Democrats had better start thinking of Brown as a candidate for president and not just as a vehicle for angst about Clinton.The people of Maryland cannot pay another dime of taxes. Off-track betting in the millions, they can afford.No stadium can be as good as the anticipation and hype for this one.The Greens replaced the Reds as the great threat to French politics.

MEXICO CITY -- More than 100,000 supporters of the losing leftist candidate for president flooded into the capital's historic square yesterday to start a movement they hope will change the constitution. The candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, narrowly lost the July 2 election to a conservative from President Vicente Fox's party. He has said that there was a broad conspiracy of business leaders, the Fox administration and media barons to rob him of victory.

150 years ago in The SunDec. 29: The Telegraph to York -- The work of putting up the wires on this new line of telegraph was commenced on Monday. The wire is a twisted cord, of iron, and will, no doubt, be most durable.Jan. 1: NEW YEAR'S DAY -- A happy new year to the readers of the Sun. And let not our salutation enter thy household most courteous reader as a thing of course, a mere customary expression; nor imagine for a moment that we bid thee a happy new year, because we could hardly do no less and be decently polite.

Ross Perot returns today to the old Annapolis haunts he knew as a Naval Academy midshipman, Class of '53, for the ceremonial presentation of petitions putting him on the Maryland ballot as a candidate for president. At the City Dock, the billionaire Texan is to arrive in a flotilla of 24 boats, one for each of the 23 counties and Baltimore City, for one of his well-crafted pep rallies.Marylanders probably won't know any more about what Mr. Perot would do as president after hearing his twangy tub-thumpers than before.

I was surprised to read in The New York Times that Sen. Hillary Clinton was the "first woman with a real shot at the presidency." I thought that honor had gone to Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2000. In that year, the Times described Mrs. Dole as "the first woman to become a really serious candidate for president of the United States." Of course, back in 1972, the Seattle Times penned, "Representative Shirley Chisholm today became the first black woman to begin a serious bid for the presidency of the United States."

BOSTON -- Among the endless reasons I will never run for public office is a deep-seated fear of having my wardrobe subject to the fashion police. Excuse me, the fashion shrinks - those media monitors who seek deep meaning in every shoe, sexual clues in every hemline, and psychological insights in every shirt collar. Just imagine the casual summer wardrobe that I am modeling so stylishly at this very moment. What would the fashionbabblers have to say about my well-worn khaki capris? That they display a certain comfort-first sensibility?

A young man with a mop of curly, light-brown hair ambled up my driveway as I sweated over my gardens one Saturday morning. He was covered with stickers, like a toddler who'd behaved at the dentist's office. As he got closer I could see through the sweat in my eyes that the stickers said "Obama." Another sticker on his shirt said his name was "Lars." When he asked if he could have a few minutes of my time, he was as earnest as any of Bobby Kennedy's young army might have been. Lars asked if I had been thinking about the 2008 election and if I would like to learn more about his candidate.

BOSTON -- It's been almost a year since that well-known political pundit, Sharon Stone, explained why Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton couldn't win the presidency. "A woman should be past her sexuality when she runs," intoned Ms. Stone. "Hillary still has sexual power, and I don't think people will accept that." I never figured out whether this was a compliment or an insult to the 59-year-old New York Democrat. Of course, this was only one of innumerable pink grids put over Senator Clinton's campaign.

McCain, a likely Republican candidate for president, was speaking during a visit to Iraq last week. He said he recognized the political danger of his call, with which many Americans disagree. ?I believe there is still a compelling reason to have an increase in troops here in Baghdad and in Anbar province in order to bring the sectarian violence under control [and to] allow the political process to proceed.? , --Sen. John McCain

MEXICO CITY -- More than 100,000 supporters of the losing leftist candidate for president flooded into the capital's historic square yesterday to start a movement they hope will change the constitution. The candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, narrowly lost the July 2 election to a conservative from President Vicente Fox's party. He has said that there was a broad conspiracy of business leaders, the Fox administration and media barons to rob him of victory.

The sign promised a speech that would explore "Government's Role in e-Learning." "The answer is: Government should have no role in e-learning," said presidential candidate Harry Browne. "Now, are there any questions?" No, the Libertarian Party's candidate for president did not give the shortest speech in the history of U.S. politics. His line drew laughs. But as Browne addressed about 150 people gathered yesterday in Baltimore for a conference on using the Internet, he never backed off from his party's vision of a federal government that would be small, smaller, smallest.

BOSTON -- It's been almost a year since that well-known political pundit, Sharon Stone, explained why Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton couldn't win the presidency. "A woman should be past her sexuality when she runs," intoned Ms. Stone. "Hillary still has sexual power, and I don't think people will accept that." I never figured out whether this was a compliment or an insult to the 59-year-old New York Democrat. Of course, this was only one of innumerable pink grids put over Senator Clinton's campaign.

O'Malley, not Gore, for president Al Gore's new movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is interesting and creative. It is not enough, however, to make him a serious future candidate for president. I served with him in Congress and campaigned for him for vice president and president. I now finally know him well enough to say he should not be the Democratic candidate in 2008 or 2012. My candidate at that time will be Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland. Bill D. Burlison Odenton The writer is member of the Anne Arundel County Council.

Former vice president is no General ShermanWASHINGTON -- Nobody has done more to bring Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman back into the news lately than former Vice President Al Gore, simply by saying he's not going to repeat the general's famous rejection of interest in the presidency. On the ABC News talk show last Sunday, Gore said he has "no plans" to run in 2008 and doesn't "expect to ever be a candidate for president again," but that he sees no reason to voice Sherman's observation that, "if nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve."