First-term battles transformed Obama

The president’s promise to raise American politics to a higher plane is but a faint echo, as Washington and its nasty partisanship remains — defiantly — untransformed.

The Democratic convention stage in Charlotte, N.C.

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Obama urged to draw sharp contrasts, come out swinging

President Obama needs to take advantage of the DNC and frame a crystal clear choice for voters, a group of top Democrats surveyed by the Globe said.

One economist says the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney is “too close to call.”

Formula has knack for picking presidents

Using two economic indicators and three political factors, a Lexington firm’s equation has predicted presidential winners with uncanny accuracy.

Camp unites transgender kids on outskirts

There are few places transgender youth feel accepted. Camp Aranu’tiq in Connecticut was created to change that.

Campers headed to the pool at Camp Aranu’tiq in Connecticut.

Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff

Campers headed to the pool at Camp Aranu’tiq in Connecticut.

Founder and director Nick Teich talked with a camper.

Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff

Founder and director Nick Teich talked with a camper.

During a team-building exercise, Damien Gabriel, 15, of Florida, walked the plank.

Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff

During a team-building exercise, Damien Gabriel, 15, of Florida, walked the plank.

Tyler Sanchez, 15, of San Diego, displayed his list of activities.

Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff

Tyler Sanchez, 15, of San Diego, displayed his list of activities.

Jordan Koronkowski, 13, of Santa Cruz, California, played kickball.

Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff

Jordan Koronkowski, 13, of Santa Cruz, California, played kickball.

Tyler Sanchez, 15, of San Diego, Chris Redick, 14, of Albany, and Nicole Maines, 14, of Maine, helped paint the banner for a talent show.

Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff

Tyler Sanchez, 15, of San Diego, Chris Redick, 14, of Albany, and Nicole Maines, 14, of Maine, helped paint the banner for a talent show.

Redick and Maines danced during a drama/arts and crafts class.

Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff

Redick and Maines danced during a drama/arts and crafts class.

Alec Baldwin (left) and Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld’s “Comedians.”

Online TV explodes as big names step into field

Large corporations and star actors, along with big-name directors, writers and producers, are building on what was already a tidal wave of new content.

Jumbo loan market shows signs of a thaw

The number of jumbo mortgages approved in Mass. nearly doubled last year, and is on pace this year to exceed 2011’s total, which is good news for the housing market.

Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo and family members of Lou Montgomery watched as they unveiled his retired jersey in the corner of the stadium during halftime.

BC’s first black football player honored

Denied his rightful place on the field when Boston College played Southern schools in 1939 and 1940, Lou Montgomery will now have a presence at every Eagles home game.

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From the Archives | Photo gallery

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/08/29/BostonGlobe.com/Enterprise/Advance/Images/Convention007-701.jpg Campaigns and conventions

The mad theater of campaigns, protests, rallies, and conventions that is our modern political process is not a recent phenomenon.

Globe exclusives

special section

Fall TV Preview
The Red Sox are keeping an eye on James Loney to see whether he could be their fulltime guy or even platoon with a righthanded hitter.

Sunday Baseball Notes

Phillies, Red Sox interesting study in rebuilding
“The general expectation among my friends was that I’d spend six months messing around with an acoustic guitar and join a hardcore band again and/or go get a job,” says Frank Turner about his turn to folk music.

Frank Turner’s punk roots take a troubadour turn
Magic Johnson, an NBA analyst for ESPN, keeps close tabs on the league and was thrilled that his former club acquired Dwight Howard.

Sunday Basketball Notes

Magic Johnson still happy to talk about Larry Bird
Apex Orchards in Shelburne Falls, on the edge of the Pioneer Valley, was founded in 1828.

Travel

7 favorite Massachusetts apple farms
The Mirbeau Inn & Spa in New York’s Finger Lakes region is a lure for wine lovers.

4 budget-friendly spas
William H. Chafe notes that the Clintons’s marriage blends the personal and the political.

Book review

‘Bill and Hillary’ by William H. Chafe

DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

Hole by hole at TPC Boston
Channing Tatum as a male stripper in “Magic Mike.’’

9 top summer movie moments of 2012
Despite the Red Sox’ dreadful season, and the public backlash, chairman Tom Werner (left) insists he and John Henry (right) have no plans to sell.

Tom Werner takes ownership for disappointing Red Sox

Ideas

How kids make friends — and why it matters
Michael McLaughlin

Murray donors queried in probe

Sports

Tags in this section:

Athletics 7, Red Sox 1

Felix Doubront got off to a rocky start when he gave up a leadoff home run to Coco Crisp.

Red Sox crushed again by A’s

The Red Sox have lost five straight and 10 of their last 13 games. They have been outscored, 48-13, on the first five games of this road trip.

Metro

Tags in this section:

Winda Moscat, 18, went through application papers. She wants to attend college and pursue a career.

Clinic guides immigrants hoping for reprieves

The El Salvador consulate in East Boston provided guidance for young people living in the US illegally as they applied for work permits and a temporary deportation reprieve.

Columnists

joanna weiss

Honor American Dream-builders today — with healthcare, hours
GrabCAD, where Roger Maranan, Grant Thomas-Lepore, and Gabe Blanchet work, picked Cambridge over California.

INNOVATION ECONOMY

7 factors that attract entrepreneurs to Boston

Yvonne Abraham

What Elizabeth Warren is missing
Balloons swirl in the air following Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech in Tampa Friday.

Jeff Jacoby

Time to shelve the political conventions
Jim Rooney, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority stood atop the roof of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Lawrence Harmon

Convention center needs a boost of solar power

Renée Loth

The value of public-sector jobs

Tiger Woods’s first-round 64 included six consecutive birdies.

Christopher L. Gasper

Is Tiger Woods back?
Bobby Valentine and the Red Sox were swept by the Angels in Anaheim this week.

Dan Shaughnessy

For Red Sox, a year of living dreadfully

Boston Capital

Steward finds road to R.I. is rocky

Scot Lehigh

Policy trumps personality in this election

Brian McGrory

Cape Cod rooster draws complaints
Ann Romney arrives on stage to deliver a speech Tuesday night.

joanna weiss

Ann Romney overstepped by playing poor

Business

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On the Hot Seat

Cape Wind fight isn’t over for staunch opponent

The offshore project keeps clearing regulatory hurdles, but that hasn’t shaken the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound CEO’s commitment to fighting Cape Wind’s construction.

Politics

Political Notebook

President Obama will be nominated for a new term on Wednesday, when President Clinton will also speak.

Obama grades GOP convention as regressive

President Obama lampooned the just-completed RNC as better-suited to an era of black-and-white TV and “trickle-down, you’re on your own’’ economics.

Nation & World

Tags in this section:

A security official reviewed damage from suicide attacks near an outpost in Afghanistan.

12 Afghans die in 2 suicide bombings

The attack just outside a US military outpost in Wardak province at daybreak Saturday killed at least a dozen Afghans and wounded 58 others, according to officials.

Arts

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Fall TV Preview

Sci-fi-tinged mythology? Last year’s “Terra Nova” (top left) has given way to this year’s “Revolution” (top right). For ’60s drama, “Pan Am” (above) was then, “Vegas” (left) is now. And man-child comedy “Man Up!” (far left) has been replaced by “Guys With Kids.”

Major networks rehash old tropes for fall TV season

Every year, like script-carrying minnows against the tide of the public taste, the major networks try the same material over and over again. The tropes emerge, and they do not fade away.

Travel

The author’s rental home in Begur, with its stone tower, and the view from town onto the Mediterranean Sea and northward along the Costa Brava.

Renting a house on Spain’s Costa Brava

There is no more enchanting a town for exploring the Costa Brava than Begur, with breathtaking views of the Mediterranean, especially from the 16th-century castle at the town’s highest point.

Books

Book review

‘Telegraph Avenue’ by Michael Chabon

Chabon’s saga of two couples running besieged vinyl and midwife businesses rocks a big multicultural mix of love, loss, change, and how we live now.

Message to readers

A change to commenting

We’ve launched new article comments on BostonGlobe.com, and want to explain some changes that you’ll see.

Magazine

The cover for the August 26 2012 issue

Did Beatrice Munyenyezi lie to get into this country?
The cover for the August 19 2012 issue

Can a Woburn company’s flying car someday be a fix for traffic?
The cover for the August 12 2012 issue

The man who nourished Boston’s literary scene
The cover for the August 5 2012 issue

Can GPS find you a mate?

Opinion

“Today, when each party’s nominee is chosen long before the delegates arrive, conventions are nothing but spectacle — hype and hoopla, a partisan pep rally on an outlandish scale.”

Jeff Jacoby 

Ideas

“In order to be a good friend, even a very young child must be not only fun to spend time with, but capable of being emotionally mature in ways that can be difficult even for grown-ups.”

—Leon Neyfakh on childhood friendship