THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEES @ THE AL SMITH DINNER TONIGHT............

President Obama and Governor Romney follow the American Presidential Campaign Year tradition going back to 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon appeared at it, when they speak comically at the Governor Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Charity Dinner in New York City.  A white tie and tails dinner annually attended by the New York Establishment, attended by 1,600 persons which will raise $5 million for New York Archdiocesan Children's Charities, the two Presidential nominees are the invited guests of Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who will be seated between them on the dais.  Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will deliver jovial remarks about themselves and one another.  The Al Smith Dinner has been held each year since 1946, begun by Cardinal Spellman two years after the death of Alfred Emmanuel Smith, the four term New York Governor, and 1928 Democratic Presidential nominee, the first Catholic nominee ever for President of the United States.............Fr.  Troy