Wes on Obama's Inauguration

In our post-inauguration excitement last month, we somehow managed to overlook every major piece of Wesleyan-related news about the inauguration in our inbox. Here's a brief recap of what would have been timely a month ago, various Wes people's perspectives on the inauguration in various media sources:

• Eleanor Celeste '10 (center) was featured in an NY Times article about how her family, which was politically divided during the campaign trail, came to embrace Barack Obama and traveled to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration.

• President Roth commented on Obama's inauguration speech in Politico, which is owned by Robert Allbritton '92:

  "My first reaction is to marvel at how this candidate of change, of ‘Yes, we can’ spent considerable rhetorical force on tying his work back to the core values of American history,” wrote historian Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

• British style magazine Dazed and Confused ran a two-page spread in its February issue entitled "Two Young Creatives Remember the Campaign Trail," containing a long interview with Ben Rowland and Ray Tintori '06 about the youth perspective on the election, and featuring Rowland's photos taken on the campaign trail:
  

The Year In Pictures: A Compilation

What better way to reflect on 2008 then through the year's photos? The year has been marked by some of the greatest events in the last decade: the U.S. Election, the Olympics, genocide, terrorism, war, natural disasters, economic crisis and much more. Here is a photographic compilation of 2008 from some of the world's leading publications. If you only have time for one, the Daily Beast collection is especially poignant.

BBC: Year In Pictures 2008

Daily Beast: The Year In Pictures

The New York Times: 2008- The Year in Pictures
Divided into sub-categories: The Election, The Nation, Sports, The World, Arts, Entertainment.

Slate: A Year of Pictures

Professors on the Election

Several of our professors have been called upon by the mainstream media in the past few weeks to talk about the election:

• Anthropology/AFAM Professor Gina Ulysse on Michelle Obama as an exceptional model of a professional black woman in the Hartford Courant.
• Psychology Professor Scott Plous on how biases affect perception, as evidenced in this year's election season, in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• Government Professor Elvin Lim and History/American Studies Professor Claire Potter suggesting what President-elect Obama should add to his reading list, in Inside Higher Ed.

Obama's Election Night Photostream

In case you were wondering what the Obama family was up to on election night, Obama's campaign photographer, David Katz, was on hand to take some excellent behind-the-scenes shots of their reactions. And he posted them on Flickr! That's what young people like us do!

Click through for various shots of the Obama kids, Uncle Joe Biden stopping by along with Jill and various campaign advisers, extended family members anxiously awaiting the results, and general warm, fuzzy feelings:
Anyway, this really excited me as yet another example of the unprecedented freshness of our next president's campaign. Check out all the collections in his photostream if you feel like reliving it - photosets are organized by major events, states, and various interest groups.

[via gawker]

Roth on Obama Victory, Wes Reactions

President Michael Roth's latest Huffington Post column is up, about his observations of the post-election impromptu campus-wide party, and his musings on President-elect Obama:

In the euphoria the Election night victory, I watched our Wesleyan students celebrating the victory of a man whom they had embraced and in whom they had invested their hopes. Although all were aware of the polls predicting a victory, I don't think many of them quite believed it would happen. They waved an American flag, chanted "O-bam-a, O-bam-a," and felt a powerful sense of hope in our collective future. When somebody played "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" over the speakers, these young men and women danced with enthusiasm at a song they no longer associated with their parents but with our new president-elect.

...I thought of our President-elect's Commencement Address... as I watched our students celebrating this stage in their political education and in the complex narrative of Barack Obama. It was a raucous party, and the celebrations took place in a context of political and social stability unburdened by fear. This is nothing to take for granted... We could express our joy and excitement while also inviting those who supported the Republican ticket to join in what was turning into a party for our political process. One of our students approached me to say that patriotism isn't a sentiment you feel only when your candidate wins. He is right, and I trust that in the months and years ahead we will remember our strong feelings of solidarity on Election night even as we disagree about policies and governmental tactics.

Is he talking about Mytheos?

Also, check out his RothBlog about it:
Roth on Huffington Post: Bringing the Stories Together

Fox News: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent

Maybe you guys are all sick of political stuff by now, but my goodness, I couldn't resist posting this.

Fox News - yes, that's right, Fox News - has spent some time talking about the infighting within the Republican party, now that the election's over and it's not "off-the-record" anymore. According to Carl Cameron, Fox News political correspondent, she didn't know (among other things) that Africa was a continent and not, in fact, a country of its own:

Senate results

An update on the status of the Senate elections:
Democrats: 54 55
Independent (currently caucus with Democrats): 2
Republicans: 40
Still up in the air: 4 3

EDIT: NBC and the Portland Oregonian newspaper have called the Oregon Senate race for Merkley, the Democrat. [12:30pm 11/6/08]
EDIT2: And the Republican has conceded. Oregon now has 2 Democratic Senators. [2:15pm 11/6/08]

• Recount in Minnesota
• Runoff election in Georgia very likely
• Still counting votes in Alaska and Oregon
  

My predictions about the outcome of the races:

• Oregon: Probably Democratic
• Alaska: Probably Republican, despite Ted Stevens' seven felony convictions last week
• Minnesota: Absolutely too close to call
• Georgia: Toss-up if it goes to a runoff, which looks likely.

My predictions about when we’ll know the results of the outstanding races:

• Oregon: later today or tomorrow
• Alaska: sometime next week
• Georgia: December 2, when they have the runoff, or shortly thereafter
• Minnesota: Mid-December, because it’ll take at least that long for them to hand-count 2.8 million ballots
  

Also adding to the mix is the possibility that Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who currently caucuses with the Democrats, might switch caucuses, either through his own choice, or because the Democrats might kick him out of their caucus for supporting John McCain.

So, in order to get to 60 votes, the Democrats have to win all four of the outstanding races, and keep Joe Lieberman. As the magic 8-ball would say: Outlook not so good.

Georgia:
96% of precincts reporting:
Republican Saxby Chambliss: 49.9%
Democrat Jim Martin 46.7%

Under Georgia law, if neither candidate wins a majority, the two highest vote-getters must face each other in a runoff held on Dec. 2. This seat was never likely to be won outright by Jim Martin, but Democrats hoped that they could send it to a runoff, which it looks like they have accomplished. We won’t know officially until next week when the results are certified.

Oregon:
85% of precincts reporting
Republican Gordon Smith: 47.21%
Democrat Jeff Merkley: 46.87%

This race could still potentially go either way, as they’re still counting votes. However, it seems pretty safely Democratic, since one of the largest sections of ballots left to count is in heavily Democratic Multnomah County, where Portland is located. Merkley is currently leading Multnomah with 67% of the vote, and 60% of the votes counted.

Oregon takes a long time to count their votes since they practice mail-in voting, where all ballots must be processed in one central location. Yesterday they were predicting that they would finish counting today.

Alaska:
99.3% of precincts reporting
Republican Ted Stevens: 48.06% 106351 votes
Democrat Mark Begich: 46.54% 102998 votes

In addition to 3 precincts, there are 46,156 Absentee votes, 9507 Early votes, and 5725 disputed votes left to be counted. Begich would have to come out 5 percentage points ahead in this group in order to take the lead, which seems unlikely.

Should Stevens be re-elected, and either resign or be expelled from the Senate, Alaska law requires a special election to be held within 90 days, limiting the duration of any Sarah Palin appointee. Apparently, there is some question as to whether this law violates the US Constitution, however.

Minnesota: (my home state)

With 100% of precincts reporting, as of 9:26am on 11/6/2008
Democrat Al Franken: 41.98% 1,211,167 votes
Republican Norm Coleman: 41.99% 1,211,644 votes
Independence Party Dean Barcley: 15.16% 437,382 votes

This is a difference of 477! votes out of over 2.8 million cast. To give you an idea of how close that is, there were 2,341 write-in votes, which is over 5 times the number of votes separating Coleman and Franken.

According to Minnesota law, the state must pay for a recount if the margin of victory is less that 0.5%, which is exactly what is happening now. Minnesota uses exclusively paper ballots, which voters mark with a pen, so we won’t have any of the Florida hanging-chad business. The vast majority of voters use precinct-based, optical scan voting machines, which have the advantage of immediately spitting incorrectly marked ballots back to the voter, which greatly reduces inadvertent voter error. Optical scan machines also have a very low error rate, but it’s certainly greater than 0.01%. Minnesota law also provides some pretty clear guidelines for how to handle disputed ballots in a recount. With an optical-scan ballot, you have to fill in an oval, or complete an arrow, for your vote to be machine-counted. However, if you make any other clear indication of intent on the ballot, your vote will be counted during a recount. This includes a check mark, an x, circling the candidate’s name, whatever. The only thing you can’t do is put your initials on the
ballot, or some other mark that’s intended to identify it. Lawyers from either party can challenge a ballot, and if it is disputed, it will be sent to St. Paul to be reviewed by the state canvassing board, which consists of the (Democratic) Secretary of State, and four non-partisan judges, appointed by non-partisan judges. Every ballot must be examined by hand, which is likely to take a very long time. The last time Minnesota had a recount in a major statewide race was the 1962 Governor’s race, where the race flipped twice, and the margin was even closer than this one. That recount dragged on until March. This one is unlikely to last quite that long.

Al Franken is a former SNL writer, liberal talk-show host, and comedian. Norm Coleman is the Democrat turned Republican former mayor of St. Paul, MN, and was elected to the Senate in 2002, following a late-October plane crash that killed the Democratic incumbent, Paul Wellstone. Former vice president Walter Mondale was drafted at the last minute to take Wellstone’s spot on the ballot, but narrowly lost to Coleman. The Governor at the time was Jesse Ventura, of the Independence party, who had initially promised to appoint the winner of the election to fill out the remaining 2 months of Wellstone’s term, thus giving the new Minnesota senator a seniority advantage over the rest of the freshman senators, but ended up appointing Dean Barcley, of his own Independence Party, to serve for 2 months.

Last Night's Euphoria

Post-election madness outside Usdan last night, it was clearly a great time for the student body to pour itself into a gigantic celebratory mob. And nobody got tased!

Props to whoever brought the fireworks and compiled the Obama victory playlist, and to P-Safe for joining in the festivities. And to President Roth, for showing up (and tactfully declining the multiple drinks offered him by reveling students).

Photos courtesy of Hannah Berkman '12:

There were fireworks!
Mike Levin '09 got fireworks shots:

President-elect Barack Obama, Honorary Wesleyan Alumnus

President-elect Barack Obama received a Doctor of Laws degree from the University during the 176th Commencement. Watch Obama's commencement speech here.

Matt Lesser wins 100th District seat

The Middletown Eye reports:

In a surprise upset, Democratic challenger Matt Lesser unseated Congressman Ray Kalinowski, winning 51% of the votes in the district. His victory was made possible only by virtue of an overwhelming 67% mandate in the Middletown districts, which compensated for losing margins in Middlefield and Durham.

Overall, the results indicate that Dems swept Middletown. Check
out The Eye for the results of other local elections and referenda.

ALSO!

Everybody get the fuck on Foss Hill right now, especially if you are still somehow using a computer and checking this blog!!!

[EDIT, early the next morning]
That was one of the most incredible nights I've ever experienced at Wesleyan, feel free to send in photos if you took any.

OBAMA WINS ELECTION!!!!!

This is all I can coherently type right now AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[edit 20 minutes later]
This graphic can do no justice to this great historic moment, etc. etc., but with all this excitement on a Tuesday night, functioning effectively for the rest of this week will be way more of a challenge than most us can consider facing right now, unlike the delightfully simple wave of change Barack Obama will likely sweep this nation with in the next 100 days AAAHHHH!!!!!



Also, John McCain is basically a good guy despite a series of bad decisions these past few months:

Election results: President and Senate

Below are two maps that will be updated as the polls close in each state. The top map is for the presidential election, and the bottom one is for the Senate elections. (In the bottom one, gray states are ones in which no senator is up for re-election this year.) Regardless of the status of each race, I'll keep updating these as the polls close and races are called. I will be following primarily CNN tonight, so I'll base most of the updates on its projections. If CNN calls a state within 30 minutes of its polls closing, I will make it solid blue or red on the map. If it takes longer than 30 minutes to call it, I will make it light blue or red; once two of the remaining networks (ABC, NBC, and/or CBS) have called it, I'll change the color to solid. (I'm also using light blue/red if two of the broadcast networks call a state before CNN.)

LAST UPDATE: 3:16 PM, 11/5.


OBAMA: 349
McCAIN: 162
REMAINING: 27


DEMOCRATS: 17 (12 holds; 5 pickups)
REPUBLICANS: 14 (14 holds; 0 pickups)
RUNOFFS: 1 (GA-R leads)
RECOUNTS: 1 (MN-R leads)
REMAINING: 2 (2 R)

On the presidential map, the number within (or next to) each state is the number of electoral votes that state receives. The squares in Maine and Nebraska represent congressional districts; these states award two EVs to the statewide winner and one per congressional district won. NE-02 (Omaha, the easternmost one in Nebraska) is the only one expected to be in play this year.

On the congressional map, Wyoming and Mississippi have two Senate seats up for re-election this year. In Wyoming, Republicans Mike Enzi (A) and John Barrasso (B) are both on the ballot; Barrasso was appointed in 2007 following the death of Republican Craig Thomas. Both seats are expected to stay in Republican hands. In Mississippi, Republican Thad Cochran (A) is expected to win easy re-election. The race to watch is incumbent Republican Roger Wicker vs. Democrat Ronnie Musgrove (B). Wicker was appointed following the retirement of Trent Lott. Because this is a special election, if neither Wicker nor Musgrove gets 50% of the vote, they will face each other (sans third parties) in a runoff to determine the winner. The same is true in Georgia, where incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss is favored to win but may fall below 50%; if neither he nor Democratic challenger Jim Martin reaches the 50% mark, there will be a runoff betwen the two. I assume CNN will wait to call these races until it's certain one candidate will break the 50% barrier. If neither candidate gets an absolute majority, I will color the race in question light blue or red.

CT Election Results

A quick and dirty post to supplement Ben's post on the national results. There are no senate seats up for election in CT this cycle.

Incumbents are listed first, winners are bolded, all races have been called, but percentages are as of about 11pm 11/4/08.

CONGRESS:

District 1

Democrat John Larson 70%

Republican Joe Visconti 27%

Green Stephen Fournier 3%

District 2

Democrat Joe Courtney 65%

Republican Sean Sullivan 33%

Green Scott Deshefy 2%

District 3

Democrat Rosa DeLauro 77%

Republican Bo ItsHaky 20%

Green Ralph Ferrucci 3%

District 4

Republican Chris Shays 42%

Democrat Jim Himes 57%

Libertarian Michael Carrano 1%

Green Richard Duffee 0%

District 5

Democrat Chris Murphy 57%

Republican David Cappiello 41%

Independent Thomas Winn 1%

Green Harold Burbank 1%

CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS:

Question 1: Shall there be a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the state?

Yes: 40%

No: 60%

Question 2: Should 17-year-olds be allowed to vote in primary elections if they will be eligible to vote in the general election?*

Yes: 65%

No: 35%

There are two things that I take away from these results. The first is with the victory of Jim Himes in Connecticut's 4th Congressional District, there are no more Republican Congresscritters in New England. The second is that since the constitutional convention failed to pass, marriage equality is nuch safer in Connecticut than it would have been if the vote had gone the other way.

_{*Not the exact wording.}

Interactive Feelings

The NYT has an interactive mood counter, where you can describe how you're feeling about today's election. It updates on the hour and can be broken down by whether people are voting for Obama or McCain. Some of the thing Obama respondents are feeling in large numbers are hopeful, inspired, proud, nervous, and jittery, whereas McCain supporters say that they are resigned, angry, scared, apprehensive, and worried. Check it out if you want to entertain yourself between now and when the polls close.

Election Day Roundup

Important Info for Wesleyan Students voting in CT:

POLLING HOURS:
6am - 8pm, Tuesday Nov 4
POLLING PLACE:
Middletown Senior Center, 150 Broad Street
Williams St entrance across from Broad St Books
[Google Map]
POLLING SHUTTLES:
10am - 7:30pm Departures on the hour and half hour
Usdan Center, Wyllys Ave entrance
VOTER ID REQUIREMENTS:
Drivers' license, utility bill, paycheck or other ID needed
ID Requirements for first time voters

A selection of recent election-related posts on Wesleying:

• WesDems Suggest Voting Dem in CT
• Voting in Middletown? Consider Catherine Johnson
• Top Election News Sites
• Poll Closing Times Nationwide
• Election Night Extravaganza in Usdan
• How to vote in the Presidential Election if You're Not Registered
• Vote No On Question 1

Miscellaneous Election Day Links:

• Election Results from the CT Sec. of State
• The Everyday Republican - Great source for early local election results. Seriously.
• Free Stuff for Voters - Ben & Jerry's, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme
• Consider Yourself Warned - Choose Wisely
• First Wesleyan Voters - Ed McKeon snapped a photo of the first three Wes students to vote in Middletown this morning
• Middletown Eye News - As of 9am there are already a handful of local election reports
• Middletown Charter changes - this blog post will help you answer Question 3 on the Middletown ballot, whether or not to approve the changes to the town charter
  
• Obama/McCain - The Colored Race - Submitted through the tip line by Bruce
• What One Word Describes Your Current State of Mind? - Another cool link, submitted through the tip line by Emily Caffery

Vote well! If you have links that should be added to this post, put them in the comments and a Wesleying contributor will update this post at hir earliest convenience.

WesDems suggest voting Dem in CT

Wesleyan University Democrats has asked that we post the following election-related message:

The Wesleyan Democrats suggest you vote Democrat on Tuesday. The Democratic candidates and issues on the local ballot will be:

Candidate for Congressional Representative ROSA DELAURO is a member of the House of Representatives since 1991, endorses Universal Healthcare, and is a member of the Labor-Health, Human Services-Education as well as chair of the Agriculture subcommittee.

Candidate for State Senator, PAUL DOYLE has represented Middletown in the State Senate since 2006, has introduced legislation that is pro-environment and is tough against hate crimes. He is also the Chair of the Aging Committee, and the Assistant Majority Whip.

Candidate for State Representative, JOSEPH SERRA has been Middletown's State Representative since 1992, has a strong voting record for gun control and pro-environmental issues, is Chair of the Select Committee on Aging and serves on the Legislature's Judiciary and Transportation Committees.

Candidate for Registrar of Voters, SANDRA FARACI is the incumbent registrar.

Should there be a Constitutional Convention to amend Connecticut's Constitution? NO because right-wing lobbyists will use the convention to ban gay marriage, outlaw abortion, and weaken environmental regulations and workers' rights.

Should the State Constitution be amended to allow 18 year olds to vote in primaries?
YES because young people's voices deserve to be heard.

Have fun tomorrow, guys. This should be an interesting day.

In case you're worried McCain might take Pennsylvania...

At least it's not likely to be this bad.

The results are from an actual poll taken in October 2006, before anyone outside of Hawaii, Illinois, or DC had even heard of Barack Obama.

Who needs an election when you have football?

I'm sure at least some people here--and hopefully more than the three or so who know the significance of "Iverson for Billups"--are aware of the "Redskins Rule." That is, every year since 1936, the Washington Redskins' final home game before a presidential election has predicted the outcome of the race, with the exception of 2004. If the Redskins win, the incumbent party wins the election; if they lose, the opposing party wins.

So what's the story this year? The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the 'Skins 23-6 Monday night to remain one game ahead of the (clearly superior) Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North. Washington was simply dominated, and one can only hope the same will happen to the master of straight talk tonight. Notably, the Redskins' last home game on the eve of an election came in 1984--and we all know what happened that year.

Top Election News Sites

Folks,

I'm having anxiety about The Election. Tomorrow's the day, and I'm refreshing a slew of political blogs and quick news sites constantly. I thought I'd share a few of my favorite sources and sites with y'all too.

1. FiveThirtyEight. This site is my all time favorite for election statistics. It's run by a couple of smart statisticians and they know their stuff. They interpret all the polling data and give odds for an Obama victory, which is currently 98.1 percent.
2. Realclearpolitics. This is great for news article compilations, but their projection math isn't as accurate as fivethirtyeight.
3. Pollster. Another good projection website. Popularly cited by CNN and Fox.
4. After these three, I either go to Politico or I head over to the more conventional news sources, like NYTimes, or AP news (via Google news).
5. Spend 10 minutes doing real work, think about Nov 4, and go back to #1.

So there you have it. Find out about things before your friends. CNN and NBC should have up to date news feeds on their sites too.