election 

Today's inauguration event drew an unexpected crowd as over 200 people showed up for a live viewing of President Obama taking the oath of office, the inauguration speech, and discussions. On the panel, American Studies Leipzig faculty discussed with Consul General Katherine Brucker, and affiliated faculty joining the discussion from Oklahoma and Washington DC.

American Studies Leipzig is pleased to announce

The ASL 2009 U.S. Presidential Inauguration Multimedia Roundtable 

For those of us who got used to checking out the latest polling data starting around 6pm in the afternoon and making this a central element of their procrastination schedule, the election was a real bummer. Not because of the result, but because the numbers game is over now.

The evening after the 2008 presidential election, about 50-60 American Studies Leipzig students gathered for a two-hour discussion with Prof. Paul Rundquist. Rundquist talked about how political interventions such as the 1971 busing decision by the Supreme Court might have helped reduce racism, about the electoral map as it emerged after the election, the question of voter turn-out, and the role Obama's social networking platform and databases might play in the upcoming presidency.

The Day After: Analyzing the Election Results

A Roundtable with Professor Paul Rundquist

Wednesday, 5 November, 19:00-21:00

Dresdner Bank (am Dittrichring), Room 13

On Nov. 4th, American Studies Leipzig students celebrated a warm-up party for the upcoming presidential election. They met over beer, pizza, and snacks to get ready for a long night of watching TV and following the results as they came in.

Images tagged preelection

For more pictures, please see the institute's picasa page.

Check this CNN video out, it's so cute: 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/11/01/levs.obama.wins.candy.vote.cnn

Folks,

Rost says I should post some stuff to the blog.  Well, here goes.

Yes, I know that you are eager election watchers, but the polls don't close until 1 a.m. German time at the earliest.  So, if you need some sleep, here are some tips for things to watch for during the early election returns.

Some of my pictures got published on the Huffington's Post campaign blog "Off the Bus." To see them, click here.

In North Carolina, the senatorial race has recently turned very ugly. Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole is fighting it out with Democratic candidate Kay Hagan. According the latest polls, Kay Hagan is leading Elizabeth Dole by an average of 3.2 percent. Consequently, incumbent Dole got anxious. Her fear of loosing her senate seat to the Democratic challenger Hagan culminated in an ad that has been widely criticized in the media (see below, both CNN clips include the Dole ad).