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November 2008
CNN: OBAMA WINS THE PRESIDENCY
11/4/08 11:02 PM
Screams of celebration can be heard in all corners of campus right now, after CNN projected moments ago that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.
The announcement comes after Obama won Virginia, leaving McCain without a conceivable mathematical path to victory.
-- Matt Skibinski
Local ballot question results: Marajuana decriminalized, state income tax not repealed
11/4/08 10:22 PM
Results from the three state ballot questions are in, and the results are significant.
Question 2, which decriminalizes small amounts of marajuana (making posession more akin to a speeding ticket than a criminal infraction), was approved by a 65 percent to 35 percent majority, according to Boston Globe reports.
Question 1, which would have repealed the state income tax, was voted down by a similarly large margin: 69 percent voted no and 31 percent voted yes.
Question 3, which would ban dog racing, was closer, but the Globe reports show it as having passed by a 57 percent to 43 percent majority.
More on these results to come.
-- Matt Skibinski
An update from the swing states
11/4/08 9:58 PM
MSNBC is reporting that Florida and Virginia still "hang in the balance," with McCain trailing 52 percent to 48 in the former but leading 51-48 in the latter. More on Virginia, though: the New York Times' electoral map shows that Fairfax County, a densely populated area in the D.C. suburbs, is reporting a 57-42 lead with only 23 percent reporting. Obama's current lead in Fairfax is about 13,000 votes; extrapolate that lead out across the remaining 77 percent of the county's votes, and you're talking about about 44,000 more votes for the Obama camp to gain. McCain's current lead in Virginia? Twenty-seven thousand. Virginia is still very much in play for the Democrats. It was a lost cause four years ago for John Kerry, but as 538's Nate Silver has documented, state...Polisci professor Portney: Obama will win even if McCain takes rest of swing states
11/4/08 9:47 PM
Political Science Professor Kent Portney told Daily a Daily news reporter several minute ago that, even if McCain wins the rest of the key swing states (Florida, Virginia, etc.), the math will still put Obama at 270 barring a major surprise in a solid blue state.
The mood at the campus center is bordering on giddy, with a crowd of at least 200 cheering and shouting ever few minutes as more results are announced.
--Matt Skibinski
The early results are in...
11/4/08 8:29 PM
The most significant of the early returns look good for the junior senator from Illinois. Most of the major media outlets are calling two blue-leaning states -- Pennsylvania and New Hampshire -- for Barack Obama, giving him an early lead as the East Coast results continue to trickle in. The positive developments for McCain, on the other hand, appear to include Indiana and Virginia, where he holds leads of 51 percent to 48 and 55-42, respectively, each with roughly a third of precincts reporting. MSNBC's Tom Curry, however, reports that exit polling data suggest a more promising outcome for Obama than do the early results. It's hard for a Democrat to put too much stock in exit polls these days, considering the recent history of John Kerry's candidacy, but at least in the case of...NPR to project Pennsylvania momentarily?
11/4/08 8:08 PM
Brian Agler, one of this event's moderators, just told the crowd at Hotung that he's heard from Alan Solomont (a Tufts lecturer who's a bigwig at Obama headquarters) that NPR is about to project Pennsylvania for Obama.
That would obviously be huge news, as Pennsylvania is a key swing state that both candidates have been focusing on of late.
-- Matt Skibinski
Cheers in Hotung as CNN projects handful of states for Obama
11/4/08 8:02 PM
The crowd in Hotung is revved up right now, as CNN just projected Obama wins in Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts and the candidate's home state of Illinois. The event's coordinators cut the ongoing crowd discussion short to blast CNN as it announced the news.
None of those outcomes are surprising or, frankly, that important, as they were not swing states.
CNN also reports McCain has won in South Carolina, with voters' choices polarized by race.
More to come.
-- Matt Skibinski
Live from the ExCollege Election Night Extravaganza
11/4/08 7:30 PM
The Daily will be blogging live tonight from the ExCollege's Election Night Extravaganza at Hotung Cafe. The event will feature performances from student groups, live results-watching segments and faculty/student political panels.
The room is packed with energy -- about 75 to 100 people are here at the moment, filling the Hotung area (seats have run out and some are sitting on the floor) and spilling out into the rest of the campus center.
Many students have brought laptops and are checking results during lulls in the event. The Daily is among them, and we'll be hitting you with the most up-to-date information available (and live coverage of this event) throughout the night.
--Matt Skibinski
McCain wins Kentucky, Obama takes Vermont
11/4/08 7:14 PM
CNN is reporting that John McCain has won Kentucky and its eight electoral votes by a 53.5 percent to 45.4 percent margin. Those numbers could fluctuate, however, as only 11.15 percent of the state has reported its totals.
Projections also find that Obama has taken Vermont, which has 3 electoral votes, by a large margin.
Neither of these developments is a surprise -- in 2004, Kentucky and Vermont went heavilty to Bush and Kerry, respectively.
--Matt Skibinski
How soon will we know?
11/4/08 5:20 PM
Amid all the excitement of election night, there is still a reasonable chance that today's presidential election could ultimately end up being an anticlimactic one. With every news media outlet in the world scrambling to beat the others to the punch, it's anyone's guess as to just how early the mainstream media is going to call this thing. That's the question of the hour... How soon will we know? Yesterday's New York Times reported that it's distinctly possible for us to see this election called before polls even close on the West Coast. With many of the race's crucial "tipping point" states -- Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida et al -- in the Eastern time zone, it'll be interesting to see just how big an effect the early results in those time zones will have. For Sen. Barack...
