Jimmy Carter

With just months to go in his presidency, George W. Bush isn't getting any increase in good vibes from the beleaguered Golden State.

According to a new Field Poll, Bush's approval rating in California is 25 percent, virtually unchanged from poll readings going back all the way to March 2007.

The Democratic National Convention will be called to order at 5:00 PM EST today, with a theme of "One Nation."  Featured speakers include Michelle Obama, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), former President Jimmy Carter, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who will introduce a tribute to her uncle, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). 

California lost a legend last week with the death of Hale Champion, a former Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle reporter who served as a top advisor to Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown between 1958 and 1966.  He was 85.  Champion was Brown’s press secretary when he ran for Governor in 1958 against Republican Bill Knowland, then the Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate.  He later served as the Governor’s press secretary, executive secretary (aka Chief of Staff), and as the state Finance Director.  He later taught at Harvard, served in the Carter Administration, and worked for Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.