By CARLA MARINUCCI, San Francisco Chronicle

Californians have seen this movie before: An "outsider" and "reformer" arises to acclaim, promising to sweep government clean. Then comes a frantically short run to the election, characterized by impressive photo ops and rare opportunities to question the candidate.

It's not panic time -- yet -- but some Democrats watching Barack Obama say his campaign should have gotten a wake-up call this week, not only from his appearance with John McCain at the Saddleback Church, but from a major poll suggesting that he no longer leads his GOP opponent.

It was just a year ago that Pauline Beck -- a 62-year-old mother and home health-care worker in Alameda, Calif. -- got a memorable and unusually up-close-and-personal look at a then-largely-unknown presidential candidate named Barack Obama.

A determined crowd of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's delegates -- preparing to head to the Democratic Party's national convention in Denver -- have begun gathering signatures to ensure her name is placed into nomination, insisting their effort won't take the spotlight off presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

California Democrats and independent voters who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have gravitated in huge numbers to Sen. Barack Obama -- a consolidation of support that has given him a 24-point lead over Republican rival John McCain in the nation's most populous state, the latest Field Poll shows.

He's fired up youth with eloquent oratory and a message of change. He has the pearl-wearing wife and two adorable little kids. He's making plans for a huge speech in Berlin.So ask -- or ask not: Is Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama channeling John F. Kennedy?

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's the summer of the headache-inducing gas prices, the scary home mortgage crisis and rising food costs -- a world of hurt that has brought both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns this week to the same prime location on the campaign trail: "economy, economy, economy."

GOP presidential candidate John McCain's decision to tap a tough California political operative and former adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to head his campaign operations is being hailed by Republicans as evidence that the Arizona senator's campaign is on a new track.

SAN FRANCISCO -- So now we know: Michelle Obama shops at Target, hates pantyhose ("painful") and made the "fist bump" cool. And Cindy McCain does lots of under-the-radar charity work, favors Oscar de la Renta and has a credit card bill that's been somewhere between $100,000 and $250,000 this year.

American voters, prepare yourselves for what could be the first $1 billion presidential campaign in American history -- a high-stakes sales job for the ages.But according to experts in the world of marketing, sales and communications -- weighing in on the opening salvos in the five-month long race for the White House -- both candidates need to up their games.