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April 15, 2012 | | THE CANDIDATE’S WIFE Does history suggest that first ladies tilt elections? A crack about stay-at-home mom Ann Romney not working a day in her life has made her a hero to housewives everywhere. Mark McKinnon says it may not do her husband much good. FIREFIGHT Kabul was cast into chaos Sunday as the Taliban attacked diplomatic and government targets in the Afghan capital, the most prominent of a series of coordinated strikes across the country. Gunfire and explosions broke out near the Presidential Palace and Parliament, and militants seized a hotel in the city as part of a wave of attacks. Occupants of the British and German embassies were warned to “duck and cover and get away from the windows” as several rockets screamed through the air. The Taliban, who called this the beginning of a new season of strikes, claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it had sent suicide bombers into the city. OVERSHADOWED President Obama was focused on the job at hand in Colombia Sunday despite a red-hot scandal that’s embroiled about a dozen Secret Service agents and five military service members. News that agents assigned to the president’s protection detail had been involved in a payment dispute with a Colombian prostitute earlier in the week leaked Friday, and the agents were sent home. “I think it’s been much more of a distraction for the press,” said Press Secretary Jay Carney, who added that Obama’s mind was on work as he attended the Summit of the Americas, a 33-country gathering of heads of state. TWISTER Tornado funnels darkened skies in the Midwest and plains states Sunday, killing five people in the Oklahoma town of Woodward. There was no warning of the impending disaster, the town’s mayor said. “When this one came in, our sirens weren’t working,” Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill told reporters. “We didn’t have a very good storm alert.” The town of about 12,000 people was struck by one of a number of tornadoes that appeared in the region over the weekend, damaging an Air Force base and homes and knocking out electricity for thousands. COMMEMORATION On Sunday the city that set the Titanic on its fated voyage a century ago plans to remember the lives lost. The ship left Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, and sank five days later. The seaside city is set to commemorate the maritime catastrophe with religious services in one of many observances across the country. In Liverpool, where the ship was registered, commemorative events will take place at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, and a memorial will be observed at the Stoke-on-Trent home of Capt. Edward Smith. The city of Southampton has more memorials to the lives lost in the sinking of the Titanic than any other place in the world has. HOMETOWN Politicians’ Geography Is Becoming Irrelevant Is Romney from Michigan or Massachusetts? Obama’s Chicago—or Hawaii? Michael Medved on why geography seems to be increasingly irrelevant when it comes to a presidential candidate’s background. | | 
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