Tag Archive: Yale on the Trail

  1. Constitutional Convention still unclear

    Leave a Comment

    By Zeke Miller

    NORWALK, 8:35 p.m. – With 10 percent of precincts reporting, the ballot measure on whether or not to have a Constitutional Convention is failing, gathering only 40% of votes. We’ll be following this throughout the night.

  2. Shays and Himes, it’s close

    Leave a Comment

    By Ray Carlson, Zeke Miller and Wendy Wang

    NORWALK, 8:20 p.m. – Polls across the state have just closed and both candidates vying to represent Connecticut’s 4th district are transitioning from campaigning to watching returns.

    At the Norwalk Inn & Conference Center, where Republican incumbent Rep. Chris Shays is hosting his returns watching party, people are slowly filing in. People are slightly on-edge as they watch national returns come in on TV screen. No one is quite sure what will happen.

    At the vacuous “Brewhouse” restaurant on the other side of town, the crowds have yet to arrive.  A podium is already set up for Democratic challenger Jim Himes, in front of antique waitress trays with logos of various alcohol companies.

    One thing is certain, it is going to be close here. We’ll keep you updated throughout the night.

  3. Dressed for a home run

    Leave a Comment

    By Isaac Arnsdorf

    CHICAGO, 7:39 p.m. — There’s enough paraphernalia and street peddlers for a ballgame. As the crowds stream toward Grant Park, they have a wide selection of Obama shirts, buttons and keychains. And though the first polls have barely closed, the merchandisers have already picked the winner.

    It is Chicago after all, and a Connie’s truck is unloading deep dish pizza by the stack. A few hundred thousand people gotta eat!

    The ages for the general public are at least an hour from opening, but people are already massing north of the ticketed event. Police have said they may have to restrict access depending on the numbers.

    Even the skyline wants in on the fun. Arrayed around Grant Park, one skyscraper’s lights spell “USA,” and the spires of the Sears Tower are red, white and blue.

    7:32 p.m. — Blitzer announced Obama with an early big lead in Florida. Crowd goes wild!

    8:01 p.m. — Blitzer calls CT for Obama. No surprises, but the crowd goes wild.

    8:15 p.m. — They’re playing CNN on the jumbotron here, and the crowd is playing this game where they try to drown out CNN’s reporter every time they put her on.

    Obama’s podium is flanked with plexi-glass to protect him. Security is very tight here — stricter than airports.

    9:01 p.m. — Obama is more than half-way there, but nothing really unexpected yet.

    9:29 p.m. — The people keep swarming in, like a tidal wave every time they open a gate. There are 75,000 who have tickets, and hundreds of thousands more in the north end of the park watching a telecast.

  4. Before the McCain Spectacle: Hotel, Flags and Chips

    Leave a Comment

    By Paul Needham

    PHOENIX, 3:05 p.m. — The Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa was inspired by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, but you wouldn’t know it today.

    Reporters have strewn themselves all over the posh resort, so much so that its geometric patterns are largely hidden. I counted more than three dozen satellite trucks and there are hundreds of cameras positioned everywhere imaginable.

    3003985882_1c8dfe9aba1.jpg

    We were told to park several miles away, at the North Phoenix Baptist Church, but few — if any — reporters did so. Instead, every parking space at the Biltmore is filled and some cars are parked on lawns. (I haven’t seen anyone parked on the golf course yet.)

    (more…)

  5. Obama land: “Not every vote is Obama’s”

    Leave a Comment

    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 see how far we’ve come,” she said.

    But that wasn’t enough to make her vote for him.

    While her friends and family are all rooting for Obama, Grimes said she and her husband ultimately decided his platform just didn’t consist with their beliefs.

    She said so quietly, not wanting to be overheard ’round these parts.

  6. Hair statements

    Leave a Comment

    By Martine Powers

    rq9s9684.jpg

    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 Obama rally in Grant Park.

  7. Fifty percent at the polls, Three hours to go

    Leave a Comment

    By Zeke Miller

    NEW HAVEN, 4:45 p.m. – With a little over 3 hours left, voters across the state are turning out in droves. By 3:30 this afternoon, over 50% of registered voters cast their ballots, and even more are expected to do so in the traditionally heavy evening voting hours.

    “All over the state, registrars and our teams on the ground are saying they have never seen this kind of turnout — ever,” Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz ’83 said in a statement. “Lines are long in some polling places, but the lines are moving, the poll workers and our new optical scan machines are handling the crowds well.”

    Polls are open across the state until 8 p.m. – but don’t worry, as long as you are in line to vote at 8 p.m. on the dot, you may still cast a ballot.

  8. Election Day, more like “Obama Day” in Hyde Park

    Leave a Comment

    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 for women entering or exiting the donut shop and encouraging people to vote. For Obama.

    “We’re definitely confident,” Brown said. “All we have to encourage us is faith and hope, and that’s what this whole campaign is about. We hope that tomorrow is going to be better than today.”

    At least in Hyde Park, everybody who is anybody is voting for Obama, Brown said. The Illinois senator shares their background and their sense of community, he said.

    “Obama day!” Brown shouts to three men as they amble down the street. The guys are black and they look about 20 years old; they wear oversized jeans and the hoods of their sweaters are pulled over their heads, even though it is 70 degrees outside.

    “McCain day!” one of the pack yells back at Brown. He pauses for a second, then laughs and yells out, “Psych!”

    “Boy, don’t even play like that,” one of his friends retorts. “You’ll get your ass shot if you say that out here.”

  9. One vote

    Leave a Comment

    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.”

  10. The Breakdown in CT, 6.5 Hours to Go

    Leave a Comment

    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.

    (more…)

  11. Gaddis: ‘It sounds kind of bleak’

    Leave a Comment

    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.”