2008 and counting

A weekly rundown of bite-sized news on the race for the White House.

A missing cosponsor

The venerable NAACP marks its 98th anniversary this week, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is marking the occasion with a concurrent resolution hailing the group’s historic advocacy for the black community. The measure had 30 cosponsors by Tuesday night, but missing from the roster was Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a recent NAACP Image Awards nominee and frequent partner of the group — who happens to be right behind Clinton in recent polls of the Democratic presidential field.

— Elana Schor

McCain steals endorsement from Romney’s backyard

Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential exploratory committee announced this week that former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift (R) will support McCain if he jumps into the race full-force.

Swift, who served as governor from 2001 to 2003, was the first female governor of the Commonwealth, and yet another in the ongoing, daily endorsement slug-fest between McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The committee said Swift will advise McCain on education issues.

— Sam Youngman

Rudy’s fuzzy marriage math

How many years did GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani’s first marriage last? If an internal dossier prepared by Giuliani aides during his first successful run for New York City mayor in 1993 can be believed, no one knows for sure.

The dossier, leaked to The Smoking Gun website by a Giuliani biographer and posted Tuesday, lists three separate timeframes Giuliani gave to reporters when discussing his marriage to his second cousin, Regina Peruggi, now president of the New York nonprofit Central Park Conservancy. One 1986 report states Giuliani was married for six years, a 1987 interview cites a 14-year marriage and a 1990 article estimates 15 years.

The dossier also gives a nod to former President Clinton’s “effective” parrying of Republican attacks on his character during the 1992 White House race, suggesting opposition-research leaks aimed at deflecting criticism of Giuliani’s past.

— Elana Schor

Eat at Mac’s

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign will swing through the early-primary bellwether state of South Carolina this weekend, appearing at a rally in Columbia and a town hall meeting in Orangeburg before returning north for an address to Virginia Democrats. Obama’s visit to Mac’s on Main, the Columbia jazz-and-blues caf