Byline: By richard siklos section: Section C; Column ; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. Length

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: WEB SITES (90%); NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING (89%); MARKETING & ADVERTISING (89%); HOLDING COMPANIES (89%); MUSIC INDUSTRY (78%); BROADCAST ADVERTISING (78%); ONLINE CONTENT & INFORMATION SERVICES (78%); INTERNET & WWW (78%); NEW CAR DEALERS (74%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (71%); BRANDING (70%); OUTDOOR ADVERTISING (69%); RADIO ADVERTISING (67%); BASEBALL (89%) Terms not available from NYTimes
COMPANY: PHILADELPHIA BOURSE INC (92%); MCCLATCHY CO (83%); WILLIAM GRANT & SONS LTD (54%)
ORGANIZATION: PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES (84%)
TICKER: MNI (NYSE) (83%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS312140 DISTILLERIES (54%); SIC2085 DISTILLED & BLENDED LIQUORS (54%)
PERSON: MICHAEL MCMAHON (52%)
GEOGRAPHIC: PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA (90%) PENNSYLVANIA, USA (90%); MONTANA, USA (51%) UNITED STATES (90%)
LOAD-DATE: January 30, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: TV and radio commercials for Phillycars.com feature a song, "Philadelphia," by a local singer, Kevin Michael, signed to a local label, Downtown Records. (Photo by )

The homepage of Phillycars.com. (Photo by )

The TV spots are styled like music videos clips, intercutting scenes of Kevin Michael performing with local sights like the Schuykill Expressway. (Photo by )
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1201 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 22, 2007 Monday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section C; Column 1; Business/Financial Desk; LOOKING AHEAD; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 369 words

DAVOS, ANYONE? -- The annual World Economic Forum will take place Wednesday through Sunday in Davos, Switzerland, drawing political and business leaders -- plus a celebrity or two -- to brainstorm solutions to world problems. Among the top issues on the agenda are climate change and the role of emerging markets. Klaus Schwab, right, the founder and executive chairman of the forum, said he hoped that this year's conference would address a ''schizophrenic world'' in which there are both broad prosperity and tremendous risks from many directions.

NEWS FROM PFIZER -- Jeffrey B. Kindler, who was named chief executive of Pfizer in July, will lead a presentation for analysts and investors on Monday. The drug maker says it will discuss its ''strategic direction,'' which Wall Street analysts widely expect will include a goodly number of job cuts. Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies are under pressure to reduce costs, and Pfizer said in November that it was laying off a fifth of its United States sales force. Mr. Kindler has called for Pfizer to become more entrepreneurial.
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE -- President Bush will give the State of the Union address on Tuesday. He is expected to announce a tax plan aimed at making health insurance more affordable for low-income people and to discuss energy initiatives to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
MEASURING THE ECONOMY -- The main economic news of the week will be about housing, with existing-home sales for December (Thursday) and new-home sales for December (Friday). Other reports include leading economic indicators (Monday) and durable goods for December (Friday).
MANY EARNINGS REPORTS -- This week falls in the heart of earnings season. Among the many large companies reporting will be American Express, Pfizer and Texas Instruments (Monday); Advanced Micro Devices, Bank of America, DuPont, EMC, Johnson & Johnson, Sun Microsystems, UAL, Wachovia, Xerox and Yahoo (Tuesday); Abbott Laboratories, ConocoPhillips, Corning, eBay, General Dynamics and McDonald's (Wednesday); AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Nokia and Northrop Grumman (Thursday); and Caterpillar and Honeywell International (Friday).
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: LAYOFFS (90%); ECONOMIC NEWS (90%); PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATION MFG (90%); PHARMACEUTICALS INDUSTRY (90%); HOUSING MARKET (89%); COMPANY EARNINGS (88%); US PRESIDENTS (78%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (78%); NEW HOME SALES (78%); INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS (78%); INDUSTRY ANALYSTS (74%); MANUFACTURING OUTPUT (73%); EXECUTIVE MOVES (72%); EMERGING MARKETS (72%); EXISTING HOME SALES (71%); HEALTH INSURANCE (69%); TAXES & TAXATION (68%); SALES FORCE (67%); DURABLE GOODS (64%); ECONOMIC INDICATORS (64%); LOW INCOME PERSONS (70%) Terms not available from NYTimes
COMPANY: PFIZER INC (91%); ABBOTT LABORATORIES (83%); JOHNSON & JOHNSON (64%); CONOCOPHILLIPS (82%); BANK OF AMERICA CORP (58%); AMERICAN EXPRESS CO (53%); BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB CO (56%); ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC (53%); NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP (52%); LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP (52%); MICROSOFT CORP (52%); KIMBERLY-CLARK CORP (55%); HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC (52%); GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP (52%); SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC (52%); TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC (53%); LOCKHEED MARTIN AEROSTRUCTURES (52%); BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB SRL (52%); BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB FRANCE (52%)
ORGANIZATION: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (84%)
TICKER: PFZ (LSE) (91%); PFE (NYSE) (91%); ABT (NYSE) (83%); ABT (LSE) (83%); ABL (FRA) (83%); JNJ (NYSE) (64%); JJJ (LSE) (64%); COP (NYSE) (82%); BAC (NYSE) (58%); BAC (LSE) (58%); 8648 (TSE) (58%); AXP (NYSE) (53%); AMX (LSE) (53%); AMEXP (PAR) (53%); BMY (NYSE) (56%); AMD (NYSE) (53%); AMD (FRA) (53%); NOC (NYSE) (52%); LMT (NYSE) (52%); MSFT (NASDAQ) (52%); KMB (NYSE) (55%); HON (NYSE) (52%); HON (LSE) (52%); GD (NYSE) (52%); SUW (LSE) (52%); SUNW (NASDAQ) (52%); TXN (NYSE) (53%); PFEB (BRU) (91%); ABT (LSE)C (83%); JAVA (NASDAQ) (52%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS325412 PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATION MANUFACTURING (84%); NAICS339113 SURGICAL APPLIANCE AND SUPPLIES MANUFACTURING (83%); NAICS339112 SURGICAL AND MEDICAL INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING (83%); NAICS325413 IN-VITRO DIAGNOSTIC SUBSTANCE MANUFACTURING (84%); NAICS325411 MEDICINAL AND BOTANICAL MANUFACTURING (83%); SIC2834 PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS (57%); NAICS339115 OPHTHALMIC GOODS MANUFACTURING (64%); NAICS334510 ELECTROMEDICAL & ELECTROTHERAPEUTIC APPARATUS MANUFACTURING (64%); NAICS325620 TOILET PREPARATION MANUFACTURING (64%); NAICS551111 OFFICES OF BANK HOLDING COMPANIES (58%); NAICS522110 COMMERCIAL BANKING (58%); SIC6712 OFFICES OF BANK HOLDING COMPANIES (58%); NAICS522210 CREDIT CARD ISSUING (53%); SIC6141 PERSONAL CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (53%); NAICS334413 SEMICONDUCTOR AND RELATED DEVICE MANUFACTURING (53%); NAICS541511 CUSTOM COMPUTER PROGRAMMING SERVICES (52%); NAICS336611 SHIP BUILDING AND REPAIRING (52%); NAICS336411 AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING (52%); NAICS334511 SEARCH, DETECTION, NAVIGATION, GUIDANCE, AERONAUTICAL, AND NAUTICAL SYSTEM AND INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING (52%); SIC7371 COMPUTER PROGRAMMING SERVICES (52%); SIC3812 SEARCH, DETECTION, NAVIGATION, GUIDANCE, AERONAUTICAL & NAUTICAL SYSTEMS & INSTRUMENTS (52%); SIC3731 SHIP BUILDING & REPAIRING (52%); SIC3721 AIRCRAFT (52%); NAICS336414 GUIDED MISSILE & SPACE VEHICLE MANUFACTURING (52%); NAICS334511 SEARCH, DETECTION, NAVIGATION, GUIDANCE, AERONAUTICAL & NAUTICAL SYSTEM & INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING (52%); NAICS511210 SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS (52%); SIC7372 PREPACKAGED SOFTWARE (52%); NAICS339113 SURGICAL APPLIANCE & SUPPLIES MANUFACTURING (84%); NAICS322291 SANITARY PAPER PRODUCT MANUFACTURING (55%); SIC3842 ORTHOPEDIC, PROSTHETIC, & SURGICAL APPLIANCES & SUPPLIES (55%); SIC2676 SANITARY PAPER PRODUCTS (55%); NAICS336412 AIRCRAFT ENGINE & ENGINE PARTS MANUFACTURING (52%); NAICS336211 MOTOR VEHICLE BODY MANUFACTURING (52%); NAICS334512 AUTOMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL MANUFACTURING FOR RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL & APPLIANCE USE (52%); NAICS325188 ALL OTHER BASIC INORGANIC CHEMICAL MANUFACTURING (52%); SIC3724 AIRCRAFT ENGINES & ENGINE PARTS (52%); SIC3711 MOTOR VEHICLES & PASSENGER CAR BODIES (52%); SIC2819 INDUSTRIAL INORGANIC CHEMICALS, NEC (52%); NAICS336992 MILITARY ARMORED VEHICLE, TANK & TANK COMPONENT MANUFACTURING (52%); NAICS336611 SHIP BUILDING & REPAIRING (52%); NAICS541512 COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES (52%); NAICS334111 ELECTRONIC COMPUTER MANUFACTURING (52%); SIC7373 COMPUTER INTEGRATED SYSTEMS DESIGN (52%); SIC3571 ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS (52%); NAICS334413 SEMICONDUCTOR & RELATED DEVICE MANUFACTURING (53%); NAICS333313 OFFICE MACHINERY MANUFACTURING (53%); SIC3674 SEMICONDUCTORS & RELATED DEVICES (53%); SIC3578 CALCULATING & ACCOUNTING MACHINERY, EXCEPT ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS (53%); NAICS339112 SURGICAL & MEDICAL INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING (84%); NAICS325411 MEDICINAL & BOTANICAL MANUFACTURING (84%); SIC2836 BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTS, EXCEPT DIAGNOSTIC SUBSTANCES (64%)
PERSON: GEORGE W BUSH (55%); JEFFREY B KINDLER (71%)
GEOGRAPHIC: GRAUBUNDEN, SWITZERLAND (90%) SWITZERLAND (90%)
LOAD-DATE: January 22, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photo
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Schedule
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1202 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 21, 2007 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Helping Small Businesses Get Bigger
BYLINE: By JOSEPH P. FRIED.

This column about the local economy appears every other week. E-mail address: [e-mail].

SECTION: Section 10; Column 1; Job Market; HOME FRONT; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 688 words
MITCHELL GOSS is a very busy businessman. So busy running his small but growing digital-age business that he did not have time to hunt for the loan he needed to continue expanding.

''I'm running the day-to-day aspects, and it's very time-consuming to go out and find the right financial institution,'' he said.

So Mr. Goss sought help from an organization that he had heard about: the Small Business Development Center at Pace University in Lower Manhattan. His move paid off; an adviser at the center narrowed the list of potential lenders to half a dozen ''that she really felt would sit down with me and listen to my story and take me seriously,'' he said. One agreed to provide the money.

Mr. Goss, 30, is the founder and owner of ZeroIn Media, a three-year-old New York company that installs and manages digital-screen signs. The screens carry general advertising in heavily trafficked public spaces, or, in locations like supermarkets and banks, convey information to patrons about products, prices and services.

In going to the Pace center for help, Mr. Goss tapped into a network of more than 1,100 locations across the country where an owner of a small business, or someone wanting to start such a business, can receive free planning, management and technical assistance as well as help in the search for financing.

The sites are part of the Small Business Development Center Program, a national effort that is financed by the federal Small Business Administration, the states and co-sponsors like universities and colleges, where many of the centers and their satellite and outreach offices are located.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have a total of 35 centers as well as additional branch offices where centers cover large geographical areas. There are seven centers in New York City, including the Pace operation.

Although the national program has grown steadily since 1980, when it was established to help spur economic and job growth, and the centers have assisted many entrepreneurs and business owners, many are still unfamiliar with them, economic development experts say.

This is especially true in immigrant communities, they say, even though many centers are seeking to make themselves better known. (Locations are available through the locator link at sba.gov/sbdc or from the Small Business Administration at 1-800-827-5722.)

Moreover, some businesspeople who do hear about the centers ''think that we can't be good because we're free, and they will go to their accountants for advice,'' said Ira Davidson, director of the Pace center.

But most accountants focus on tax-related matters, like maximizing revenue by reducing tax liabilities, he said, while the basic challenges in starting or enlarging a business -- or simply avoiding red ink -- are broader, involving issues like the soundness of the business plan and marketing strategies. The individual counseling offered at the centers is meant to help develop such plans and strategies.

The Pace center says that since its start in 1986, it has been consulted by about 12,000 business owners and would-be owners. Mr. Davidson, the director since 1992, said recently that he did not know how many of those hoping to start or expand businesses actually did so, but that more than $120 million had been invested in the area's economy through start-ups or expansions by clients the center knew about.

Mr. Goss said he went to the center last year because he needed money for additional operating capital and to add staff members to the dozen he now has.

He said his company had installed and operates a network of several hundred digital signs around the country, generally ranging in size from 42 inches to 8 feet. Among those that carry general advertising in New York are four in the Pier 17 mall building at the South Street Seaport and about a dozen in the Empire State Building.

Catalina Castano, an adviser at the Pace center who helped Mr. Goss search for a loan (they both declined to disclose the amount), said, ''We looked at his business's financial situation and his financial situation, and I knew he had a strong case.''

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: SMALL BUSINESS (93%); SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE (92%); SMALL BUSINESS LENDING (90%); EMPLOYMENT GROWTH (78%); ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (78%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (78%); BANKING & FINANCE (77%); TAX CONSULTING (76%); COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES (75%); TAXES & TAXATION (67%); LABOR SECTOR PERFORMANCE (66%); ECONOMIC NEWS (60%); GROCERY STORES & SUPERMARKETS (54%) Small Business; Credit; United States Economy; Labor; Colleges and Universities; Small Business
ORGANIZATION: SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (59%) Small Business Development Center Program; Small Business Administration
PERSON: MICHAEL MCMAHON (51%) Joseph P Fried
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (92%) NEW YORK, USA (93%); NEW JERSEY, USA (79%); CONNECTICUT, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (93%)
LOAD-DATE: January 21, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photo: GETTING MESSAGES ACROSS -- Mitchell Goss and a digital sign his company operates at the South Street Seaport mall. A Small Business Development Center helped him. (Photo by John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1203 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 21, 2007 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Gun Making as an Art as Well as a Business
BYLINE: By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
SECTION: Section 14CN; Column 1; Connecticut Weekly Desk; ART REVIEW; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 624 words
An engrossing exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is the first show to document the colorful life and business career of Samuel Colt, the firearms manufacturer and shameless self-promoter.

As expected, the extensive Colt firearms collections, donated to the museum by his widow, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, in 1905, draws the eye, but there is much else of interest here.

Colt (1814-1862) was a canny promoter of his products. In the 1850s he commissioned the frontier artist George Catlin to paint a series of pictures that showed people hunting with Colt guns -- several of these paintings are on view. There is also information about Colt's achievements as a technological innovator and industrial entrepreneur, including gun-design schematics.

Arranged loosely into nine themes, the exhibition opens with a display on the development of the revolving firearm by Colt in the early 1830s. Like many scientific and technological breakthroughs, it happened by accident: after Colt dropped out of school, he was packed off by his parents, at age 16, to work as a crew member on a Boston brig, where, the story goes, he observed that the locking mechanism of the ship's wheel might also be used to house multiple, revolving barrels of a pistol. Colt quickly whittled a wooden model. This was the germ of the revolutionary idea for the famous Colt revolver.

When Colt returned to Hartford the following year, he hired Anson Chase, a gunmaker, to create a prototype. The result was, as an exhibition label says, ''the first multishot weapon to automatically rotate its cylinder with the action of its hammer -- the spring mechanism that strikes off the powder charge.'' To finance his early prototypes, Colt worked as a traveling salesmen demonstrating the uses and applications of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.

The exhibition charts Colt's efforts to perfect his new revolver design and cost-efficient manufacturing techniques. He took several years to get it right, initially going bankrupt. But once perfected, Colt's guns became a market leader.

To keep up with demand, he built an arms factory in Hartford, with state-of-the-art machines and dedicated production lines; back then it was one of the most technologically advanced factories in the world. He even built an area called Coltsville, which had housing for employees, a library and a community center.

Colt's pistols are beautiful pieces of machinery and, for their time, the world's most efficient weapons, combining a functional simplicity with a formal elegance. Colt liked to juxtapose materials, colors and finishes to heighten visual appeal. Some of the revolvers have expertly carved or inlaid handles and gun barrels with a seductive black-blue tinge.

Colt was apparently indifferent to the uses of his products; he sold arms to whoever would pay. Buyers included Czar Alexander II of Russia, the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu and Sultan Abd al-Majid of Turkey.

Colt even sold guns to opposing forces -- during the Crimean war (1853-56), he supplied guns to both the British and the Russians. To him, it was just business.

In gratitude, his customers often gave him lavish gifts, several of which are on view, including enormous diamond rings, medals, vases, swords and other trinkets.

One of the most astonishing gifts on display here is a gold and diamond snuffbox given to Colt by the czar and fitted at its center with a blue enamel plaque bearing the czar's monogram in diamonds beneath a diamond-studded crown. Not bad for a school dropout.

''Samuel Colt: Arms, Art and Invention,'' Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main Street, Hartford, through March 4. Information can be found at [phone] or www.wadsworthatheneum.org.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: EXHIBITIONS (90%); SMALL ARMS MFG (90%); ART & ARTISTS (90%); MUSEUMS & GALLERIES (90%); FIREARMS (90%); MANUFACTURING FACILITIES (77%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (78%); PAINTING (78%) Firearms; Reviews
ORGANIZATION: WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MUSEUM OF ART (84%) Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford, Conn)
PERSON: Benjamin Genocchio; Samuel (1814-62) Colt
GEOGRAPHIC: HARTFORD, CT, USA (88%) CONNECTICUT, USA (88%) UNITED STATES (88%)
LOAD-DATE: January 21, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photos: REVOLUTIONARY -- An 1840 Colt

right, the inventor, painted by Gerald S. Hayward around 1856.

COLT'S WORLD -- Guns on display at the Wadsworth

far right, a painting of the arms factory by an unknown artist. (Photographs by Allen Phillips)

DOCUMENT-TYPE: Review
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1204 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
January 21, 2007 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Shushing the Baby Boomers
BYLINE: By JOHN M. BRODER
SECTION: Section 4; Column 1; Week in Review Desk; THE NATION: CANDIDATE NEXT; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1362 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
THE time has come, Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves.

In taking the first steps toward a presidential candidacy last week, Mr. Obama, who was born in 1961 and considers himself a member of the post-boomer generation, said Americans hungered for ''a different kind of politics,'' one that moved beyond the tired ideological battles of the 1960s.

To make his point, Mr. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois in his first term in the Senate, announced the formation of his presidential exploratory committee in a video streamed on his Web site. He is tieless and relaxed and oh so cool.

Mr. Obama calculates that Americans of all ages are sick of the feuding boomers and ready to turn to the generation that came of age after Vietnam, after the campus culture wars between freaks and straights, and after young people had given up on what uberboomer Hillary Rodham Clinton (who made her own announcement on the Web yesterday) called in a 1969 commencement address a search for ''a more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating mode of living.''

In his second book, ''The Audacity of Hope,'' Mr. Obama is critical of the style and the politics of the 60s, when the psyches of most of his potential rivals for the White House were formed. He writes that the politics of that era were highly personal, burrowing into every interaction between youth and authority and among peers. The battles moved to Washington in the 1990s and endure today, he says.

''In the back and forth between Clinton and Gingrich, and in the elections of 2000 and 2004,'' he writes, ''I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the baby boom generation -- a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago -- played out on the national stage.''

Mr. Obama says he recognizes that the flashpoints of the 60s -- war, racism, inequality, the relations between the sexes -- still animate American politics and society and remain largely unresolved. And he acknowledges, as a child of a white Kansan mother and black Kenyan father, that his own prominence and prospects would have been impossible without the struggles of those who marched in Selma and Washington. But he argues that America faces new challenges that require a new political paradigm.

Mr. Obama may be on to something. Surveys -- and the stock market -- show that the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both 36, are among the most admired entrepreneurs in America. And no less an establishment institution than the Ford Foundation has indicated that it will look for a leader in his or her 40's when Susan V. Berresford, the foundation's president since 1996, retires next year at age 65.

Plenty of self-loathing boomers agree that their cohort ought to take a ''Big Chill'' pill and head for that vegan commune in Oregon they have dreamed of. ''We baby boomers have been dreadful in the public arena,'' the Time columnist Joe Klein wrote in a blog last week.

On the other hand, Mr. Brin and Mr. Page recruited a tech-industry veteran, Eric E. Schmidt, born in 1955, to run Google's day-to-day business while they come up with ways to make their brainchild pay.

And despite the supposed hunger for a new generation of leaders, voters recently elected what is probably the oldest Congress in American history, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The question most Americans are asking, said Paul B. Costello, 54, who worked on the presidential campaigns of Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale, is not ''When were you born?'' but ''What have you got?''

Mr. Costello, director of communications at Stanford's medical school, said: ''I look at these two candidates, Hillary is the star student and Obama is a transfer student and everyone's saying, 'Who's that guy? Oh, cool, wow.' But yet nobody knows much about him and everybody knows Hillary's going to be the valedictorian.'' He added: ''I don't know that voters really care about these issues of the baby boomers versus Generation X. It's a nice sort of branding, a marketing thing when you're trying to create yourself from nothing.''

Modern presidential campaigns are essentially character tests, and for 20 years or longer the cultural and political divides of the 60s served as presumed signposts to a candidate's character. Did he protest the war, trip to Hendrix, march in solidarity with women? Or enroll in R.O.T.C., rush a fraternity, join a church? As a young man, Mr. Obama did not have to make many of those choices, and he now has an opportunity to define himself on his own terms and not be instantly caricatured based on personal decisions he made four decades ago. (He has, of course, acknowledged some marijuana and cocaine use in his youth; that does not seem to have dimmed his prospects.)

''Where you were on these issues really told people who you were,'' said Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House official who is now a political consultant in California. ''But 2008 will represent a hinge moment in generational politics, not just because of the prominence of a post-boomer candidate but because this will be the first cycle when a whole new range of issues as big, if not bigger, than the big issues that defined the boomers will be front and center: Iraq, the war on terror, global warming, energy, technology and globalization.''

While the Obama-Clinton generational dynamic will mostly play out in the primaries, Republican voters will be weighing the candidacy of one of the oldest men ever to seek the presidency, John McCain, 70, the only member of the likely field born before the baby boom's unofficial start in 1943. (There is disagreement over what birth years define the baby boom; some say 1946 to 1964, but the sociologists Neil Howe and William Strauss consider the boomer bulge to have begun in 1943 and ended in 1960.)

John F. Kennedy noted in his Inaugural Address in 1961 that a torch had passed to a new generation of Americans, ''born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.'' Kennedy's cohort, known as the G. I. Generation and born between 1901 and 1924, occupied the White House continuously until Bill Clinton wrested it from George Herbert Walker Bush in 1992. Mr. Clinton turned it over to another boomer, George W. Bush.

BUT some say that after 14 years of personal and political self-indulgence in Washington and a grinding war, it's time to say goodbye to the solipsistic generation.

''Thank you, here's your gold watch, it's time for the personal style and political framework of the 1960's to get out of the way,'' said Eric Liu, 38, a speechwriter and policy aide in the Clinton White House who now runs a mentoring program in Seattle.

And yet Mr. Obama has not demonstrated his leadership beyond eight years in the Illinois Senate and two in Washington. His early opposition to the Iraq war has pleased many Democratic voters, but it is not wholly clear how he would manage an end to the war and deal with global terrorism and other foreign policy challenges.

The historian and Kennedy aide Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. said Mr. Obama had to offer more than a repudiation of the previous generation's actions. ''It depends on what the policies are,'' Mr. Schlesinger said. ''The New Frontier was the development of the insights of the New Deal.''

Todd Harris, 35, a Republican political consultant, said he worked in 1999 for the short-lived presidential campaign of Representative John Kasich of Ohio, who was born in 1952. ''He was young and new and fresh and we listened to the same music,'' Mr. Harris said. ''But I'm not sure that works when your country is at war. I think that most people I know in my generation will place a far greater premium on someone's leadership skills and their ability to guide the nation through turbulent times than they do on what generation that politician came from or what that person recently downloaded from iTunes.''

Mr. Obama would be foolish to run solely as the anti-boomer, Mr. Lehane said, if for no other reason than that the baby boomers are the largest generation in American history, and they vote.