Yale on the Trail

By Bharat Ayyar

NEW HAVEN, 4:09 p.m. — Seven months ago, I became a United States citizen.  And today, I cast my first ballot.

I’ll admit it: it wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it would be.  I arrived at my designated polling location — the New Haven Public Library on Elm Street — and got in line.  There was no chatter, no fanfare.  People mostly kept to themselves; they were reading books, texting on their cellphones and staring into space.

Where I envisioned a cascade of high-fives for every person who passed the queue on his way out, there were just glazed over eyes (okay, maybe a smile or two).  Where I envisioned a smattering of students, professors and New Haven residents belting out the national anthem, there was just muffled chatter about tomorrow’s problem set.

No matter.  I waited my turn.  I gave them my name.  I cast my ballot.

I was luckier than one gentleman, who was in line in front of me.  He had already tried to vote at another polling station, which referred him to the one I was at.  But when it was his turn to vote, they referred him back to the polling station he came from.  Clearly upset, he left without much of a fight.  (I wonder, did he have the patience to go back?)

As he walked away, one of the volunteers working at booth said, quite simply: “Damn.”

I ran into a member of last year’s Yale Daily News editorial board, as I was leaving the library.

“Hey,” she said, expecting, I think, me to stop-and-chat about tonight’s newspaper.

For whatever reason, I didn’t stop walking (sorry, K).  Instead, I just pumped my fist and blurted out the first thing that came to my mind: “God bless America.”

By Zeke Miller

NEW HAVEN, 1:30 p.m. – We are about six-and-a-half hours away from when polls across the state close. Here is what you should be looking out for in Connecticut tonight:

1. Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District – Rep. Chris Shays, the last Republican congressmen from New England is facing a tough re-election battle against Democrat Jim Himes. Latest polls show them tied, each with 44 percent of the vote. I’ll be in Norwalk later today with reporters Ray Carlson and Wendy Wang to keep you updated. (To get the full scoop on this race check out today’s News or click here.)

2. Ballot Questions – Connecticut voters are faced with two ballot questions today. The first calls for a convention to amend the state constitution, while the second will lower the voting age in primaries to 17. The Constitutional Convention question has become a contentious issue with the “No” side raising over $1 million to prevent it from passing, claiming that it will be used to pass anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage laws. Supporters do not have the same financial backing, but a recent poll shows that 50% of voters support the measure, mostly for non-ideological reasons. For more information click here and here.

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By Andrew Mangino

OMAHA, Neb., 1:30 p.m. — I spoke to John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military & Naval History and one of Scott Kleeb’s GRD ‘06 chief inspirations for entering politics, by telephone last night.

How does the so-called dean of Cold War historians, who donated several thousand dollars to Nebraskans for Kleeb, feel the night before his former head TA faces election day in his bid for the United States Senate?

“Well, obviously I wish him the very best. It sounds kind of bleak, though. From the “little bit that I read,” Gaddis added, “he doesn’t seem to be getting as much national coverage as he got running for the House two years ago.”

But is this the end? No, the professor said. “He has a future at some point. He’s a natural. But this may not be the time.”

By Andrew Mangino

OMAHA, Neb., 12:47 p.m. — Ryan the Angry Midget put it bluntly in his prediction post: “Democrat Scott Kleeb gets clubbed by Mike Johanns.”

Just travel several miles west in the blogosphere and you’ll encounter Booman of the Booman Tribune. In his words, Kleeb is a “fantastic and attractive” candidate. “I don’t have any recent polling,” he writes, “but I can’t rule out a Kleeb stunner.”

But another blog — “Leavenworth Street - The Talk of Nebraska Politics” — wasn’t as kind. In exploring who will succeed Chuck Hagel, “Street Sweeper” put Mike Johanns’ odds at 1:150 — and Kleeb’s at, well, 150:1. “The Kleeb camp is crowing right now that they have internal polling that shows them neck-and-neck with Johanns,” he writes, “Riiiiiiiight.”

It’s the chorus of blogosphere predictions — a new staple of democracy in America. And this morning, I spent some time — frankly, I’m not sure why — finding the gems. Indeed, there are some. Some.

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By Zeke Miller

NEW HAVEN, 12:00 p.m. — Polls don’t close in Connecticut for another eight hours, but already a substantial portion of people have cast their ballots. Secretary of the State Bysiewicz announced earlier today that by 10 a.m. over 30% of voters had gone to the polls, well on the way to the 90% turnout she predicted.

In other news, there have been a few reported problems with the state’s new optical scanning machines. One machine malfunctioned in New Haven and was replaced by a backup, and one machine in both Simsbury and Bristol reported memory card malfunctions that prompted officials to use backup cards.

— The Associated Press Contributed Reporting

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 him for president.

Obama himself returned to his polling place at Shoesmith Elementary to cast his own ballot around 7:30 this morning.

John Hall, who lives across the street, said he had never seen his precint so crowded. In past elections, you could walk right in but today the line stretched around the block.

But this is no ordinary election for the residents of Hyde Park, who have known Obama as a neighbor, a state senator, a U.S. Senator, and now a presidential candidate.

By Paul Needham

PRESCOTT, Ariz., 1:08 a.m. — Senator John McCain is hoping to reverse what he calls one of Arizona’s “unhappy traditions.”

Speaking in front of the same courthouse steps here where Barry Goldwater launched and ended his 1964 bid for the presidency, McCain said he would reverse the tradition of Arizonans losing presidential elections.

“I’m confident because I’ve seen the momentum, my friends” he said in the earliest hours of Wednesday morning after completing a seven-state sprint across the country on Tuesday. “All we’ve got to do is get out the vote.”

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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, I Have a Dree-ee-eam…”

The man singing his ode to Obama had a small American flag stuck in
the back of his cap and another laced between the strings on his
guitar. Sitting on a bench, a pair of headphones over his ears and
another clinging to his left shoulder, the man waited expectantly for
Obama to arrive at Grant Park so he would be able to sing his Obama
song to the presidential candidate himself.

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By Paul Needham

PHOENIX, 9:15 p.m. — The Phoenix Sky Harber International Airport was something of a political battleground tonight.

Passengers on my US Airways flight didn’t even have to exit the jetway before they heard the rumble of political debate in the terminal. CNN was blaring with the sound of a McCain stump speech from earlier today.

As Senator John McCain roared on the television, “Mac is back,” passengers waiting in his home state’s largest airport drowned him out with boos and cheers, shouts of “Nobama” and screams of “Yes We Can.”

One Philadelphia-bound woman, who would only identify herself as Nicki, said she was ashamed to be from McCain’s home state.

“He’s not the same man we put in the Senate,” she said. “It’s time for change.”
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 By Paul Needham

NEW HAVEN, 2:45 p.m. — The trip from New Haven to Phoenix is a long one, and it was political from the start.

My taxi driver from Phelps Gate at Yale to Tweed New Haven Regional Airport was Cisse, an immigrant from Senegal. When Cisse found out I was headed to Arizona to cover the McCain campaign, his eyes lit up.

“This election has just been so exciting,” he said as he turned down the sports talk radio that was booming from the speakers in his cab.

Cisse said he will take the day off tomorrow so he can watch the election results as they come in on his television. His vote will be for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, and it will be the first ballot he has ever cast.
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By Zeke Miller

NEW HAVEN, 2:10 p.m. — In the month before Tuesday’s election, Connecticut registered an unprecedented number of new voters. Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz announced Monday that 134,502 residents registered to vote in the month of October, bringing the total of new voter registrations since January to over 300,000. Over one third of the newly registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 29, she said.

“The incredible interest in this year’s election is reflected in the voter registration numbers,” Bysiewicz said in a statement. “It is truly inspiring to see so many 18 year olds and 80 year olds registering to vote for the first time.” [Read more →]

Election ‘08 coverage from the print edition of the Yale Daily News:

• Eli a longshot in Nebraska.  Scott Kleeb GRD ’06 faces an uphill battle in his attempt to win election to the United States Senate from a historically red state.  Senior reporter Andrew Mangino reports from Nebraska.
• A trip to Palin country. Staff reporter Nicolas Niarchos reports from Anchorage and Wasilla, Alaska, to find out how Gov. Sarah Palin’s constituents assess the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
• Homework? No, there’s a state to be canvassed. On the ground with Eli volunteers as they get-out-the-vote for the Obama campaign in Keene, N.H.
• Connecticut rallies for Obama. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of New Haven and other prominent Democrats rally members of their party as Election Day approaches.
• Endorsement tilt Democratic. If the preferences of newspaper editors are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama is in good shape heading into Tuesday’s election.
• ItsHaky fight for seat. Think Rep. Rosa DeLauro is running unopposed?  You’d be wrong.
• Channeling Obama, teens embrace oratory. New Haven high school students conclude America is ready to elect its first African-American president.

Dear YaleDailyNews.com readers,

As the historic 2008 presidential election nears, the Yale Daily News will offer in-depth, student-focused reporting on a scale unprecedented for a college newspaper. Just as the News deployed reporters to cover the caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and was one of only two Connecticut newspapers to report from the Democratic National Convention, News reporters have been posted all around the country as Tuesday’s election approaches.

Look for reports from the headquarters of Sen. Barack Obama in Chicago and Sen. John McCain in Phoenix; from swing states like Virginia and New Hampshire; from America’s heartland, where a Yale alumnus is staging a long-shot bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska; and from a few more far-flung locales, including Wasilla, Alaska.

Of course, we will also be on the ground around the Yale campus and in New Haven, monitoring the polls and chronicling the reactions of students as the returns come in on Tuesday night.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,
Thomas Kaplan
Editor in Chief, Yale Daily News
editor@yaledailynews.com

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 here, the 47-year-old cast himself in sharp relief to the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, on policy matters foreign and domestic.

Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, called on the American people to muster the courage to restore what he called an American promise fallen under siege by the Bush administration. [Read more →]

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 than these last eight years,” he said. “We are a better country than this.”

More excerpts are after the jump. [Read more →]