By CARLA MARINUCCI, San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO - President Barack Obama, who signed the Shark Conservation Act into law last month, apparently didn't check out the menu before he made a surprise visit this week to a Chinatown restaurant that is among a handful still serving shark fin soup, a delicacy that has been outlawed in California.

SAN DIEGO - California Democrats, while acknowledging their solidly blue state will not be a presidential election battleground, are marshaling forces for another critical 2012 battle: maximizing the Golden State's role as a powerhouse political fundraiser.

SAN FRANCISCO - Consider the presidential candidate who campaigns as a feisty contrarian, the "antipolitician" with "new vision" -- a fiscal miser and freethinker who talks about ending big-money politics and shaking up his party, while attracting hordes of young voters.

Sound like Texas Republican Ron Paul in 2012?

JAFFREY, N.H. - Ice fishing, Shaker furniture, picturesque little towns, and the motto "Live free or die."

SAN FRANCISCO - They're technology celebrities who are responsible for one of America's hottest products (the iPad 2), its most transformative cultural trend (Facebook), and one of the coolest additions to the national vocabulary (Googling).

Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the University of California are icons of innovation, and now their power players have combined forces to boost job prospects for America's powerhouse demographic group -- the baby boomers.

SAN FRANCISCO - With hyperactive talk-show hosts and headlines fueling hysteria about Arnold Schwarzenegger's "love child" and New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's "sexting" obsession, there's hardly a better time to launch a juicy Hollywood flick about politics, sex, campaigns, sex, drugs, candidates -- and sex.

New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's unforgettable moment of un-"certitude" last week regarding a sexually suggestive photo tweeted to a 21-year-old female follower has only added to the mysteries about politicians and the addictive power of Twitter, the social networking site.

Among them:

SAN FRANCISCO - They're intensely interested in health care, they turn out in droves for town hall meetings, they're vocal -- and they vote.

That is why millions of American seniors may become the muscle vote of the 2012 elections, political analysts say.

SAN FRANCISCO - Democrat Jerry Brown has broken open the dead-heat contest for California governor, leading Republican Meg Whitman by eight points going into the final two weeks of the campaign, a new poll shows.