Most expensive re-election campaigns

 President Barack Obama has announced he'll run for office again in 2012, launching speculation about how much he'll spend. We've rounded up past incumbents who spared no expense in defending their political posts.


Barack Obama

 The president has officially announced his 2012 re-election campaign, and some say it'll be the most expensive in history.

Michele Bachmann

 Last November, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. beat her challenger to retain this congressional district. The race earned a high-dollar distinction.

Barbara Boxer

 In last year's U.S. Senate race, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., beat her wealthy opponent. It's been reported that the senator spent nearly everything she'd raised

Michael Bloomberg

 Bloomberg was named mayor of New York City the third time in a row having bested his 2009 challenger.

Harry Reid

 Democrat Sen. Harry Reid went all out to secure his Nevada Senate seat last year. This meant aiming for a lofty goal. It was the second-most-expensive Senate race

George Pataki

 Pataki was re-elected New York's governor in 2002, after spending somewhere in the ballpark of this large sum.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

 Then-New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton reportedly spent more than any other Senate candidate when she ran against her 2006 opponent.

John McCain

 During the last midterm elections, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is estimated to have spent more on a successful bid than any other Senate candidate.

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Nearing a midnight deadline, leaders in Congress strike a deal to cut $38 billion from the budget

A last minute budget deal, forged amid bluster and tough bargaining, averted an embarrassing federal shutdown and cut billions in spending — the first major test of the divided government voters ushered in five months ago.
Working late into the evening Friday, congressional and White House negotiators struck an agreement to pay for government operations through the end of September while trimming $38.5 billion in spending. Lawmakers then approved a days-long stopgap measure to keep the government running while the details of the new spending plan were written into legislation.
Actual approval of the deal would come in mid-week.
"Today Americans of different beliefs came together again," President Barack Obama said from the White House Blue Room, a setting chosen to offer a clear view of the Washington Monument over his right shoulder.

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Biggest liars in history

 Did you know that April 4 is National Tell-a-Lie Day? Don’t try this at home.


Milli Vanilli

 Benedict Arnold

 Richard Nixon

 Janet Cooke

 Frank Abagnale

 Bill Clinton

 Baron Munchausen

 George W. Bush

 Victor Lustig

 Han van Meegeren

 Charles Ponzi

 Rosie Ruiz

 James Frey

 Bernie Madoff

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Ferraro, first woman vice president candidate, dies at 75

Former congresswoman was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1998

BOSTON—Geraldine Ferraro, who in 1984 became the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket, only to lose in a landslide, died Saturday. She was 75.

Ferraro died at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was being treated for blood cancer. She died just before 10 a.m., said Amanda Fuchs Miller, a family friend who worked for Ferraro in her 1998 Senate bid and was acting as a spokeswoman for the family.

An obscure Queens congresswoman, Ferraro catapulted to national prominence at the 1984 Democratic convention when she was chosen by presidential nominee Walter Mondale to join his ticket against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Delegates in San Francisco erupted in cheers at the first line of her speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination.

"My name is Geraldine Ferraro," she declared. "I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us."

Her acceptance speech launched eight minutes of cheers, foot-stamping and tears.

Ferraro sometimes overshadowed Mondale on the campaign trail, often drawing larger crowds and more media attention than the presidential candidate.

"No one asks anymore if women can raise the money, if women can take the heat, if women have the stamina for the toughest political campaigns in this country," Judy Goldsmith, then-president of the National Organization for Women told People Magazine in December, 1984. "Geraldine Ferraro did them all."

But controversy accompanied her acclaim. Frequent, vociferous protests of her favorable view of abortion rights marked the campaign.

Ferraro's run also was beset by ethical questions, first about her campaign finances and tax returns, then about the business dealings of her husband, John Zaccaro. Ferraro attributed much of the controversy to bias against Italian-Americans.

Mondale said he selected Ferraro as a bold stroke to counter his poor showing in polls against President Reagan and because he felt America lagged far behind other democracies in elevating women to top leadership roles.

"The time had come to eliminate the barriers to women of America and to reap the benefits of drawing talents from all Americans, including women," Mondale said.

In the end, Reagan won 49 of the 50 states, the largest landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt's first re-election, in 1936 over Alf Landon.

 
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