By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One may wind up as the first woman to lead the U.S. Senate. Another is relatively young and could run again for president. The third may simply resume his role as a congressional maverick and retire in two years.

These are among the options that await the losers in the three-way race for the White House.

John McCain, who has wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination, will square off in November against Hillary Clinton, 60, or Barack Obama, 46, both fellow senators locked in a battle for the Democratic nomination.

McCain, who turns 72 in August, would be the oldest first-term U.S. president. Clinton would be the first female president; Obama would be the first black president and one of the youngest.

“The three face very different situations, but in each case they have to show some grace if they lose — or they will be in trouble,” said James Thurber of American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

The first test will be how quickly they are able to set aside the disappointment of failing to capture the White House. It’s not easy.

“Who says I’ve let go yet?” Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats’ failed 2004 presidential nominee, said with a chuckle and a shrug.

“It’s difficult. But you have to move on. Being a senator is a great job. You can do a lot of good,” Kerry said.

For the first couple of years after his 2004 defeat, Kerry kept a relatively low profile. He emerged much more in the past year or so, criticizing the handling of the U.S. war on terrorism.

This year’s election will be the first in which two sitting U.S. senators will face each other in the general presidential election. The last sitting senator to win the White House was John F. Kennedy in 1960.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR ONE LOSER

Al Gore, a former senator turned vice president, rebounded from a gut-wrenching loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 White House race to win a share of the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his efforts as a private citizen to combat global warming.

George McGovern, another former Democratic nominee, recalls the silence after President Richard Nixon defeated him in a 1972 landslide.

“Suddenly it’s quiet and you feel a little lonely. Everyone vanishes. The national press corps leaves. The Secret Service (protective detail) says goodbye. You are no longer on the front page of the newspaper every day,” said McGovern, 85.

In a telephone interview from his home in Mitchell, South Dakota, McGovern said after a period of readjustment he decided to remain in the Senate and won re-election in 1974.

“I’m glad I stayed,” McGovern said, citing major legislation he helped craft to combat hunger and help needy children, women and families. “It gave me great satisfaction.”

What advice would McGovern give to whoever loses the White House this year?

“Be thankful for the shot you got.”

FUTURE MAJORITY LEADER?

Clinton of New York and Obama of Illinois now snipe at one another. But whoever loses the nomination must enthusiastically back the winner, according to a number of congressional scholars and senators.

If Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton, ends up conceding defeat to Obama and campaigns hard for him, she would win party support and appreciation and could eventually lead the Senate.

“If she wants to make the Senate a career, I can see her, before her career is over, become majority leader,” Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Clinton “could become one of the most powerful and influential members of the Senate,” but might not want to be confined by the job of majority leader, and prefer instead to push her own agenda.

Obama — a first-term senator, charismatic figure and gifted orator — could make another run for the White House, perhaps in 2012 or 2016.

“Even if he loses the (2008) nomination, I think he continues on an upward trajectory and would be a strong candidate to run for president again,” said Paul Light of New York University’s Center for the Study of the Congress.

“Say Clinton wins two terms, at that point Obama (in 2016), would be 54. That’s still young for a presidential candidate,” Light said.

If McCain loses, he would likely resume his outspoken defense in the Senate of the Iraq war and oppose any attempt by a new Democratic president to quickly withdraw U.S. troops.

“I’d assume McCain would keep doing what he’s doing and fighting for what he believes in,” said a top Republican aide.

McCain is in his fourth six-year Senate term. He’s up for re-election in 2010 when he will be 74.

“At that point, I think he retires,” said Thurber of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, adding McCain may decide by then he has had enough of bucking his own Republican leadership.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters “Tales from the Trail: 2008″ online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)

WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) - Middle-income families can expect to spend $204,060 on feeding, housing and schooling a child born in 2007 until his or her 18th birthday, the U.S. government reported on Monday.

Child care and education costs will represent a larger share of costs for raising the ‘07 baby through adulthood than they have in the past, the Agriculture Department said in an annual study on child-rearing costs.

“The cost of providing food decreased from 24 percent to 17 percent of total child-rearing costs, while child care and education expenses increased from 2 percent to 12 percent,” the department said.

Housing will be the single largest cost for U.S. families — making up 33 to 27 percent of total expenses across income groups, USDA said.

Factoring in inflation, the grand total for middle-income families comes to $269,040, USDA said. Total costs also include transportation, health care, and other necessities.

Child-rearing costs have soared since USDA began conducting its annual study in 1960, and can vary dramatically according to a family’s income.

Families making less than $45,800 before taxes can expect to spend less, $148,320 in real terms over the course of their child’s first 17 years. Those on the other end of the income spectrum, making more than $77,100 a year, will spend $298,680 in 2007 dollars on raising their ‘07 child.

Even though the study does not include the cost of college, USDA found that children get more expensive as they get older. Teenagers were the most costly.

The department also noted that child-rearing costs are the greatest in the urban West, and lowest in the urban Midwest and rural areas across the country.

By Jessica Hall
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The emergency rescue of Bear Stearns Co Inc (BSC.N) on Friday left observers from all quarters wondering who would be the last man standing at the Wall Street bank.

When a Bear Stearns analyst moved to ask a question at a biotechnology investor meeting, Genentech Chief Executive Arthur Levinson quipped, “There’s still somebody here from Bear? Let’s give him a hand.”

“I’m still here,” said Bear Stearns analyst Mark Schoenebaum. But pointing to a JPMorgan analyst, he said, “I think I work for Geoff Meacham now.”

The rescue by JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and the Federal Reserve Bank after Bear said its cash position had deteriorated sharply put the word takeover on the tip of tongues all over Wall Street, with JPMorgan seen as a leading contender to buy out Bear Stearns.

But while Bear’s cheap stock price could attract some suitors keen to buy its mortgage finance and trading assets, its liquidity problems may prevent a deal from being consummated, analysts and bankers said.

Shares of Bear Stearns, the fifth largest U.S. investment bank which has been hard-hit by its heavy exposure to the faltering U.S. mortgage market, fell 45 percent, reducing its market value by $3.2 billion to $3.64 billion.

Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz said the company is working with Lazard Ltd. (LAZ.N) to examine its alternatives, but it will focus on protecting customers and “maximizing shareholder value.”

He said Bear’s first-quarter earnings would meet Wall Street expectations.

CNBC reported that Bear Stearns “is actively being shopped.” While JPMorgan is “the most likely suspect,” CNBC said it was not the only company to receive a pitch to buy the company.

“Our view is it would not be a surprise to see a merger announced over the weekend,” said Andrew Brenner, senior vice president of MF Global in New York.

A person familiar with JPMorgan said the bank, which has previously expressed interest in expanding its prime brokerage business, is interested, at the right price, in buying the Bear division that provides loans and handles trades for hedge funds.

The concern for any buyer would be whether Bear Stearns has fully exposed all of its problems or if there is another debacle in the offing.

“Looking from the outside you have to ask, Are they at the end of their troubles? That’s a very difficult question,” said Anthony Sabino, professor of law and business at St. John’s University, in New York.

Bankers and analysts rattled off a list of potential suitors but suggested them with caution, saying it’s unclear why any company would buy Bear Stearns when they could pursue stronger assets at other banks.

“The question someone would ask if they were in a potential M&A position would be, Shouldn’t we just go after the people? Bring the people in rather than by the firm,” said Michael Holland, chairman of private investment firm Holland & Co.

In addition to JP Morgan, potential buyers include Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N) and foreign companies such as HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L), Barclays Plc (BARC.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (RBS.L), some bankers and analysts said.

“If you think about a company like Bear, they don’t have hard assets, just computers, office space and people, and one would imagine that people at Bear are polishing up their resumes,” said James Ellman, portfolio manager at Seacliff Capital in San Francisco.

“That’s how Wall Street works — when a firm is in trouble, clients leave and your best employees leave. We’ve seen this story many times before,” Ellman said.

Bear Stearns currently trades at 4.9-times fiscal 2008 earnings estimates, compared with the sector average of 18.5-times earnings.

In addition, foreign banks could face some regulatory problems that would add headaches to the purchase of an already ailing company, analysts said. And U.S. banks could try to buy the bank in pieces instead of as a whole, analysts said.

“As far as who in the U.S. would look to take them over — there are possibilities but I think every American outfit would say, ‘We’ve got our own headaches’,” Sabino said.

Bear Stearns’ problems emerged because it has more exposure to the U.S. bond markets than its competitors and has a large mortgage-backed securities business.

It’s unclear whether Bear Stearns will be able to survive the “run on the bank” that Schwartz described if customers continue to flee and its businesses deteriorate further.

“JPMorgan might buy it for a dollar. I mean you’re going to get a good price. Ultimately you have to ascertain if the assets are worth more than the liabilities,” Barish said.

Bears’ cheap stock price might entice some suitors to take a risk in buying the firm, some investment bankers said. “Just because someone wasn’t interested at $120 might doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested at $34,” said one head of investment banking at a U.S. brokerage firm. “Bear Stearns now is under pressure to preserve what assets they have, protect their people, protect their clients.

“They might be forced to sell at a price that would have been unthinkable before.”

(Additional reporting by Jui Chakravorty, Megan Davies, Dan Wilchins and Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

WASHINGTON - Andy Roddick won’t be going for gold this summer. The highest-ranked American tennis player is skipping the Beijing Olympics, choosing instead to focus on preparing for the U.S. Open by playing at the hard-court Legg Mason Tennis Classic.

“My goal every summer is to win the U.S. Open,” Roddick said in a statement released by Legg Mason organizers. “I have won the Legg Mason Tennis Classic three times and feel defending my title in Washington best prepares me for another Grand Slam title.”

The Washington tournament runs Aug. 11-17, the same dates as the Olympic tennis event. The U.S. Open begins Aug. 25.

Roddick, ranked No. 6, won his lone major championship at the 2003 U.S. Open. He won Legg Mason titles in 2001, 2005 and 2007.

Roddick has been a regular on the U.S. Davis Cup team, which won the championship last year.

He lost in the third round at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and said at the time: “Some guys really don’t care that much. I cared a lot. It’s not the biggest thing in our sport, but it’s the biggest thing in sports.”

[Source: Yahoo News]

PC World

Apple is readying significant enhancements to the software in its iPhone handset for later this year. The company takes cues from both the business and consumer worlds, finally letting third-party developers in on the action to bring games, utilities, and other apps to the phone.

These impending changes promise to radically transform the daily experience for iPhone users. Based on what we’ve seen of Apple’s Microsoft Exchange integration and our first-hand look at the new development kit, here’s what you can expect to see when the upgrade becomes available in June.

Within a few minutes after the initial wave of iPhone hysteria ran its course, business users began debating whether the iPhone was really ready to take on the corporate enterprise. The general consensus: it wasn’t, owing to incomplete networking and security tools, and an inability to support the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol that keeps handsets connected to the central server. But the phone’s widespread appeal kept interest alive in the business world, and Apple has responded bybuilding Exchange ActiveSync directly into the phone, and revamping the iPhone’s native e-mail and calendar apps. In addition, the company has added Cisco IPsec VPN support.

What does all this mean to you? If you’re an IT professional, it could mean a lot. (At present,IT types are ambivalent about whether to trust the iPhone on their networks.) But even if you’re not a network admin, or your company doesn’t want to support iPhones, the update could still make your iPhone more functional at work: It makes it easy to configure your own corporate e-mail.

Apple recently demonstrated the phone’s upcoming Exchange ActiveSync features, and even in its beta form the software looks simple enough for moderately savvy end users to set up without necessarily needing to call up their company’s IT department. Like existing iPhones, the updated devices will display a selection of e-mail services to choose from. If a user selects Microsoft Exchange from that list–as opposed to, say, Gmail or Yahoo–the interface will present a standard Exchange settings menu.

From there, all you’d have to do is copy your login info and settings from your desktop or laptop’s Outlook preferences and you’d be ready to receive push e-mail from the server, schedule and accept meetings, and browse the company’s shared contact list as you would from the computer at your desk.

The basic Exchange features will be accessible to pretty much anybody with access to an Exchange server. However, some advanced features, such as the ability to remotely wipe the company’s data off a misplaced handset or to use VPN, would clearly require your IT department’s involvement.

VPN is particularly noteworthy: If your job involves a lot of work from the road, using sales leads, templates, or other data stored on a corporate server, you need VPN access. With Cisco IPsec VPN on the iPhone, getting to that data could prove a whole lot easier.

Currently, the iPhone’s L2TP and PPTP VPN software requires users to get a lot of hands-on assistance from their corporate help desk to get a remote connection to their company’s network (that is, if they’re willing and able to do so). The popular Cisco VPN software should streamline VPN connections, requiring little more than a passcode from the end user once the device is configured. Setting up your VPN connection with IPsec will still require some help from your IT person, but it will make their job a lot easier.

Apps Galore

For most users, business data support may not be the biggest thing coming out of Apple’s new software update. In fact, the biggest news may not even come from Apple itself.Apple has released its own software development kit (SDK) into the wild, giving programmers the tools they need to write native software–rather than just Web apps–to run directly on the iPhone.

The iPhone 2.0 update will include aniTunes App Store utility. Tap it, and you’ll see a library of downloadable titles. Apple CEO Steve Jobs indicated that, while the purpose of the App Store will be to sell software for the iPhone, many of these apps will likely be free. Of course, that depends entirely on what developers decide to do. To get a better idea of what kinds of apps you’ll be likely to see come June, we downloaded the SDK ourselves and took a look at the tools Apple is offering.

The iPhone SDK will give developers access to most aspects of the device, from the touch screen to the camera to the accelerometer that is responsible for sensing when you tilt the device. Sample code available on Apple’s iPhone Dev Center site includes examples of how to do many of these things. What’s clear from these examples–and from the developer demos at yesterday’s briefing–is that games will be a major factor on the second-gen iPhone platform.

With the SDK, game developers will be able to tap into the iPhone’s accelerometer and discover new ways to control the on-screen action. By tilting the device in various directions, or with combinations of tilts and screen taps, you’ll be able to navigate heads-up displays, virtual environments, and anything else game makers can dream up. We may even see games that take advantage of the phone’s geolocation capabilities in new, innovative ways.

Meanwhile, with the Wi-Fi hardware readily accessible, new apps will be able to do everything from conventional Web surfing and messaging to device-to-device data and media sharing. And most of these development tools will have benefits for iPod Touch users also. So while Apple never implemented a Zune-like squirting feature for music–letting users send songs from one device to another for temporary sharing–such a feature could easily come from a third-party developer (if Apple doesn’t kill it first).

Ultimately, the iPhone may very well shape up to be a major platform in its own right if programmers take to the SDK en masse. And if the App Store fills up quickly with cool tools and games, yesterday’s announcement may prove to be a major one, even for those who have no interest in creating their own software.