Yale on the Trail

By Isaac Arnsdorf
CHICAGO, 5:36 p.m. – Even in Obama’s state, in Obama’s city, in Obama’s neighborhood, in Obama’s polling precinct, not every vote is Obama’s.
Tiffany Grimes said, as an African-American native of Chicago’s South Side, she’s inspired that a black man could come so close to the presidency.
“It means a lot to my race to […]

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By Martine Powers

CHICAGO, 5:00 p.m. – 17-year-olds Logan Spears and Miguel Pazoz from West Virginia visited Barack Obama’s former barbershop to have his name shaved into the backs of their heads. Then, they ate in Valois’, Obama’s favorite diner during his years in Hyde Park. Next, they plan on tracking down sold-out tickets to tonight’s […]

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By Martine Powers
CHICAGO, 4:40 p.m. – According to 61-year-old Roilynn Brown, today is Obama day.
“Obama day! Obama day!” Brown chants to passersby on 53rd street in South Side neighborhood Hyde Park while handing out copies of the Hyde Park/Bronzeville community newspaper. “Here, take your newsletter.”
Brown stands outside of a Dunkin Donuts, opening the glass door […]

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By Isaac Arnsdorf
CHICAGO, 11:38 a.m. — Here in Hyde Park, the leafy South Side neighborhood where Barack Obama made his home and launched his political career, his neighbors say they remember voting for him when he was their state senator. But, they said, they never would have predicted that they might some day vote for […]

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By Martine Powers
CHICAGO, 1:19 a.m. — As satellite uplink trucks from news stations worldwide
thronged alongside the entrance to the site of Tuesday’s Obama rally
in Grant Park, a leisurely ballad rang out into the night, accompanied
by the velvety strumming of a guitar.
“Oh, oh, oh…. Obama…
The Declaration of Independence… The Bill of Rights…
The U.S. Constitution…
Martin Luther King, […]

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By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER — Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, vowing that “it’s time for us to change America” after what he called the failed presidency of George W. Bush ’68.
Before countless Elis in front of their televisions and an energized crowd of tens of thousands at a football stadium […]

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By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER, 5:22 p.m. — The Obama campaign has released excerpts from the speech to be delivered this evening by Senator Barack Obama, the Democrative presidential nominee.  In remarks entitled “The American Promise,” Obama critiques the “failed presidency” of George W. Bush ‘68 and — guess what — calls for change.
“America, we are better […]

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By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER, 4:20 p.m. — Is the Democratic party unified? The Clinton camp says so.
Terry McAuliffe, the campaign chair for Senator Hillary Clinton LAW ‘73, stood outside a luxury box in the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night, smiling for photographs and shaking hands with supporters, the weight of the long campaign seemingly dissolved.
“We’re all […]

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By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER, 1:49 p.m. — Every once in a while as he walks through the United States Capitol, Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio is pulled aside by a security guard. “They say, ‘Who do you work for?’” Ryan said.
But the 35-year-old Democrat doesn’t mind. His relative youth, he says, is a political advantage […]

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By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER, 6:15 p.m. — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton LAW ’73 will speak here in about an hour, and, as with last night, all the attention is on his speech. We’ll be in the Pepsi Center to bring it live to you.
7:26 p.m. | “America must always be a place called hope,” […]

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My stellar view from my seat inside the Pepsi Center made blogging about Tuesday’s speeches a real treat.
By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER — Welcome to day two of the Democratic National Convention.  We are live from the Pepsi Center, where Senator Hillary Clinton LAW ‘73 will address delegates — and a national television audience — at approximately […]

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By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER, 4:39 p.m. — Like many other Democrats, Eleanor Holmes Norton GRD ‘63 LAW ‘64, Washington’s non-voting member of the House of Representatives, came here this week to push for change.
But Norton has one specific change in mind: to give residents of the District of Columbia a vote in Congress.  And electing Senator […]

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Dan Schneider (left), a Clinton delegate from California, tried to convince other delegates to rally behind Senator Barack Obama.
By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER, 2:32 p.m. — With pundits bloviating about the so-called split in the Democratic Party, Dan Schneider was mad as hell, and he wasn’t going to take it anymore.
During a question-and-answer session during the Democratic […]

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By Thomas Kaplan
DENVER, 2:23 p.m. — This winter, the musical artist known as will.i.am was feeling blue. His single album had flopped. He had a falling out with his manager.
Then came the song that changed it all.
Six months after the Black Eyed Peas frontman gave the campaign of Senator Barack Obama a shot in the […]

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By Nick Bayless/Staff Photographer
Traveling to such a political hot spot as South Carolina, I expected to run into fellow reporters covering the campaign trail. However, I wasn’t really expecting to run into them in line at “Five Guys Burgers” at 7:30 a.m. in the Washington, D.C., airport.
That’s where I met Kevin and Sreya, a […]

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