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Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is shown here attending a 2010 Capitol Hill hearing on the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is shown here attending a 2010 Capitol Hill hearing on the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren isn't backing down from her claim of Native American ancestry, despite the apparent lack of primary documents proving that she's 1/32nd Cherokee.

The controversy surrounding Warren's heritage led us to wonder — how much of a racial or ethnic heritage constitutes minority status? Should percentages of a bloodline matter at all?

The Census Bureau lets individuals self-identify. Since the 2000 count, people have been permitted to check multiple boxes for race or ethnicity. But history has shown a wide variance in how people of different backgrounds come to be identified as part of ethnic groups.

Notably, the issue of racial identity surfaced recently following the fatal shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, who was African-American. The boy's shooter, George Zimmerman, initially was identified as white, prompting accusations that he racially profiled Martin. Once it was reported that Zimmerman's mother is Latino and his father is white, he was identified as Hispanic and later as white Hispanic.

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The new political comedy team of Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie yuck it up in January 2011.

Julio Cortez/AP

The new political comedy team of Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie yuck it up in January 2011.

In our politically polarized age, we need to grab our moments of bipartisan bliss where we find them. Like in a comedic sketch by two New Jersey politicians with with soaring national reputations and who both are widely thought of as eventual White House prospects.

Gov. Chis Christie, the straight-talking former prosecutor widely assumed to be on all-but-official Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's short-list of vice presidential candidate choices, and Newark Mayor Corey Booker, appear in a Seinfeldian skit ("Newman!") that spoofs the hero status the Democratic mayor achieved a few weeks back when he rescued a neighbor from a fire. For good measure, it also takes a poke at Christie's vice presidential potential.

Besides an ability to laugh at themselves, both Booker and Christie have shown a willingness to cross partisan lines, with Christie working with Democratic leaders in the state even as he has clashed with New Jersey's teachers' union, a key constituency of the state's Democratic party.

The Obama campaign on Wednesday escalated its attack on Mitt Romney's business career, with Vice President Joe Biden scheduled to aggressively question how Romney's management of Bain Capital might translate into running the U.S. economy.

On Monday, Obama's re-election campaign unveiled a new swing state ad questioning Romney's assertion that he was a job creator while running the private equity firm. The Romney campaign countered later in the day with its own ad.

On Tuesday, the Obama campaign's mantra was picked up by the pro-Obama superPAC Priorities USA Action, in what was officially (and by law) an uncoordinated ad — albeit, one with a very similar storyline.

And on Wednesday, Biden is scheduled to take the fight directly to Romney during a speech in Youngstown, Ohio.

"He thinks that because he spent his career as a 'businessman,' he has the experience to run the economy. So let's take a look at a couple of things he did," Biden is to say, according to excerpts released by the campaign.

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Nebraska state Sen. Deb Fischer applauds supporters at her election party Tuesday in Lincoln, Neb. At right is Fischer's mother, Florence Strobel.

Nati Harnik/AP

Nebraska state Sen. Deb Fischer applauds supporters at her election party Tuesday in Lincoln, Neb. At right is Fischer's mother, Florence Strobel.

Republican voters in Nebraska on Tuesday defied the expectations of pundits and the intentions of outside groups, nominating a heretofore little-known rancher and state lawmaker to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by incumbent Democrat Ben Nelson.

Deb Fischer, 61, rode a last-minute surge in support to defeat the establishment-favored candidate, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. In the November general election, she will face a former governor and former senator — Bob Kerrey — who easily won the Democratic nomination.

Fischer had lagged behind Bruning and state Treasurer Don Stenberg in the polls and in fundraising for the race. But her candidacy caught fire going into the campaign's final days, after receiving an endorsement from Sarah Palin.

Fischer also benefited from a $200,000 ad buy last weekend from a superPAC led by Omaha businessman Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade and co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. The ad questioned Bruning's character and financial dealings.

Curtis Tate/MCT /Landov

Yard signs supporting U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock in Columbus, Ind., on April 23. Mourdock went on to beat incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar in a primary race that received national attention, and a flood of money from outside Indiana.

It's happening in several congressional races, in states like Nebraska, Montana and Ohio — millions of dollars from out-of-state donors and outside groups are fueling candidates' war chests.

Last week in Indiana, outside money helped Richard Mourdock beat out six-term incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar in the GOP primary.

On Wednesday, WCPN's David C. Barnett reports for NPR's Morning Edition about the congressional race in Ohio's 9th District. The Republican challenger there is Joe Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber," the guy who rose to fame in 2008 by tangling with then-candidate Barack Obama. The incumbent Democrat is Marcy Kaptur, and $3 out of every $4 in the race has come from donors who don't live in Ohio's 9th.

When did so many Americans decide races outside their backyards were important enough to back financially?

NPR's science correspondent, Shankar Vedantam stopped by Morning Edition with recent social science research that could provide some answers.

Nonprofit groups that want to run campaign ads within two months of the general election have to reveal the names of their donors. That's the result of a federal appeals court action on campaign finance law.

Several weeks ago, a federal court in Washington told the Federal Election Commission it could not allow the buyers of tens of millions of dollars' worth of ads to remain anonymous.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late Monday, on a 2-to-1 vote, refused to grant a stay of that decision pending appeal. It ordered the full appeal to be heard sometime this fall.

At issue is the ability of tax-exempt groups that run political ads within two months of the general election — or within one month of a primary — to keep secret the names of their donors. Such groups spent some $80 million in the 2010 congressional elections, primarily supporting conservative candidates or attacking their opponents. The donors behind less than 10 percent of that amount were ever disclosed.

Enlarge Romney campaign ad screenshot

The down-on-his-luck American may have been forgotten in times past but not by today's presidential-campaign video makers.

Romney campaign ad screenshot

The down-on-his-luck American may have been forgotten in times past but not by today's presidential-campaign video makers.

Forget about President Franklin Roosevelt's "Forgotten Man," the everyday American who's down on his luck economically and ignored by the powers that be.

When it comes to modern presidential campaigns and the ads they spawn, such Americans are front and center. And they are wielded like cudgels by the political contestants.

That reality can be seen in highly-produced, pathos-filled videos released this week by both the campaigns of President Obama and Mitt Romney, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee.

As NPR's Greg Henderson reported in a post Monday the day it went up on YouTube, the Obama ad, which criticizes Romney's years at private-equity company Bain Capital, may seem familiar.

That's because it reprises charges made by Newt Romney during the GOP primaries and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in his 1994 Senate campaign that Romney was complicit in the layoffs of hundreds of workers during his time as Bain's chief executive.

Team Romney on Tuesday made public a Tuesday featuring its own everyday Americans. specifically Iowans, meant to symbolize all those unemployed, underemployed or discouraged workers Romney lays at Obama's feet — 23 million, according to former Massachusetts senator.

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Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas (right), talks with chief strategist Jesse Benton in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 13.

Charles Dharapak/AP

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas (right), talks with chief strategist Jesse Benton in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 13.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul is not expected to ultimately endorse presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Paul's chief strategist said Tuesday.

"Never say never, but I don't believe that's likely," said Jesse Benton, during a half-hour-plus give-and-take with reporters.

And there's also no chance, he said, that Paul, who is remaining in the race in an effort to collect delegates to the Republican National Convention, will endorse Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Or that he would endorse anyone outside the Republican Party, he said. Unless his supporters are treated badly.

During the call, in what appeared to be a direct message to Paul supporters, Benton repeatedly emphasized that the campaign expects its delegates to the national convention to act with "decorum and respect."

"Our supporters are going to get an excessive amount of blame for problems that arise in heated moments" during the August convention in Tampa, Fla., he said, calling for "respect and civility" among those participating.

"They're going to be under a microscope," Benton said.

Americans Elect, the nationwide effort to launch a credible third-party presidential campaign, has money, media attention and — most importantly — access to the ballot in dozens of states.

What it doesn't have is a candidate for president.

So if it follows its own rules, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization won't field a presidential candidate alongside President Obama and presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney on Nov. 6, it announced Tuesday.

But the group also left the door open to bending those rules.

"As of today, no candidate has reached the national support threshold required to enter the 'Americans Elect Online Convention' this June," Americans Elect CEO Kahlil Byrd said in a statement.

"Because of this, under the rules that AE delegates ratified, the primary process would end today. There is, however, an almost universal desire among delegates, leadership and millions of Americans who have supported AE to see a credible candidate emerge from this process."

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President Obama delivers the commencement address at Barnard College in New York on Monday.

Richard Drew/AP

President Obama delivers the commencement address at Barnard College in New York on Monday.

As close as the general election is expected to be, virtually everything the presidential candidates do from here until November is about maximizing the turnout of voters in their respective bases without repelling independents or moderates.

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Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speaks to graduates Saturday at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speaks to graduates Saturday at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

So that's the lens through which to read President Obama's commencement address Monday to the graduates of Barnard College at Columbia University in New York and Mitt Romney's speech Saturday at Liberty University, the evangelical institution founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.

While the two speeches had the same end, giving their voters reasons to get excited enough to get out and vote for them in several months, they took completely different routes to get there.

Obama was, after all, in exceedingly friendly territory as a Columbia alumnus returning as a conquering hero. That helped explain the enthusiastic reception he received, with students and their guests cheering and screaming repeatedly throughout his speech.

Romney, meanwhile, wasn't quite Daniel in the lion's den — but the fact that there were some evangelical Liberty seniors who questioned why a Mormon was chosen to be their commencement speaker gives a sense of what he had to deal with.