Sam Levin

Adam Clayton Powell IV and Charlie Rangel on 125th Street today.

It's just politics!

That's how Adam Clayton Powell IV brushed aside questions today about why he is endorsing longtime Congressman Charlie Rangel for re-election -- after running against him (and thus frequently and harshly criticizing him) in a crowded race two years ago.

In one of the most watched local congressional races, Rangel, the incumbent who has held his Harlem seat for 40 years, is facing tough opposition in the primary as he fights to be re-elected to Congress to represent a newly-drawn district that now includes parts of the Bronx and has a larger Latino population.

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This just in: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has called into question Barack Obama's history with lemonade stands.

Jindal, a Republican and potential running mate for Mitt Romney, said Tuesday morning on Fox News's America's Newsroom that Obama: "hasn't run anything before he was elected President of the United States...never ran a state, never a business, never ran a lemonade stand." Jindal's criticism echoes that of Ted Nugent, who also argued in June 2011 that Obama couldn't sell the popular, citrusy drink.

Indeed, details about Obama's background with lemonade -- via stand or otherwise -- remain unclear, though evidence suggests that the president's backers have in fact used this summery, semisweet beverage during campaign fundraising.

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Sam Levin

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio at an immigration event earlier this year.

The debate over the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk policy is in full swing this week with a proposal from the public advocate prompting a badmouthing match between the mayor and the elected official who hopes to replace him in 2013.

Yesterday, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, an expected mayoral candidate, launched a campaign to reform stop-and-frisk, urging Mayor Bloomberg to dramatically reduce the number of unwarranted stops. That led Bloomberg, via a statement from his deputy mayor, to criticize de Blasio and dismiss his ideas as out of touch with the realities of crime in the city. De Blasio kept the momentum going this morning with a conference call with reporters to, well, respond to the mayor's response to him.

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Sam Levin

Mayor Bloomberg, on the SNL set today, takes questions from reporters.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, decided not to take a position today on President Obama's stance on marriage equality, which has made headlines this week.

But Bloomberg is still a big fan of gay marriage!

After a reporter from BuzzFeed asked the mayor -- who was holding a press conference at (where else?) the set of Saturday Night Live -- whether it's time Obama openly supports same-sex marriage, Bloomberg said, "You have to ask the president. He's gotta decide what he believes and what he wants to do."

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Sam Levin

Mayor Bloomberg taking questions from reporters outside City Hall today.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg today declined to give an endorsement to Charlie Rangel, a longtime incumbent fighting to keep his Harlem seat in one of the more heated congressional races in New York City this election season.

But the mayor still had (somewhat) nice things to say, and left the door open for a possible endorsement closer to voting day.

Rangel, 81, is facing what is shaping up to be the toughest opposition he has encountered since the 1970s, including campaigns from State Senator Adriano Espaillat and Clyde Williams, who is a former political director of the Democratic National Committee.

Today, a reporter asked Bloomberg -- who was at City Hall to discuss the new bike share program -- for his thoughts on Rangel's candidacy, noting that Espaillat has nabbed the endorsement of former Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer, who was also a Democratic mayoral nominee in 2005.

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Sam Levin

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, at a press conference on Iran, in March.

Public Advocate and mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio has gotten some headlines recently about his campaign against car companies that do business with Iran.

In March, he created the website IranWatchList.com, designed to target companies that work with Iran and in some cases allegedly sell directly to Iran's military. We noted at the time that his involvement in the foreign policy matter was a likely appeal to Jewish voters as he preps for the 2013 mayoral race.

Well today, de Blasio is out with another website that it about another fairly not-local issue: Wal-Mart and its covert political spending.

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cordobainitiative.org

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

Remember the "Ground Zero mosque" that wasn't just a mosque but actually a community center but still had people enraged back in 2010 because they thought it would be a victory monument to terrorism?

We hadn't really thought about it much recently, either -- until today, when we heard that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of the original religious leaders behind the project, would be involved in a new local effort: campaign finance reform.

Tomorrow, religion and politics are mixing at an event hosted by a local good government group that is pushing to get campaign finance reform underway this year in the state -- and as part of their efforts, they're bringing together high-profile religious figures to discuss politics.

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He sure knows how to appeal to the youth! Wealthy youth, that is.

A video is circulating today of Mitt Romney giving some useful entrepreneurial advice to the young people of our country and one part of his tips is about, of course, money.

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Sam Levin

City Comptroller John Liu, front, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, right, at event earlier this month.

In the race to replace Mike Bloomberg as mayor, two expected candidates -- who are trailing behind two frontrunners, according to a recent NY1 poll -- have made headlines this week that are of interest.

City Comptroller John Liu has tried to stay on-task and on-message since he was dealt a major blow with the arrest of his campaign treasurer in February. This fundraising controversy has raised questions about whether Liu will actually have a fighting chance next year, and Liu -- who is trudging along with different initiatives and audits in his current job, frequently dodges questions about his campaign. Maybe with some help from his new communications director -- who appears to be focused on controlling Liu's public appearances and keeping them on-topic -- the fundraising drama has somewhat stayed out of the news in recent weeks.

That changed, though, yesterday when the New York Times reported that a federal grand jury has officially indicted the former campaign treasurer for Liu on the charges that she helped funnel illegal campaign dollars to his 2013 campaign.

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In keeping with the great American tradition of blowing smoke up voters' asses, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney do not appear like they're going to level with us anytime soon -- though our country sorely needs it, as Slate's John Dickerson pointed out.

But what they lack in candor they might try substituting with coolness and seriousness, respectively.

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