T-minus six days...

With the presidential election less than six days away, Obama is using his record-setting campaign money to remind voters of exactly where the Illinois senator stands on the nation's major issues.

Here is an article about Obama and his decision to spend between $3 and $5 million to buy out 30 minutes of ad time on NBC, CBS, FOX, Univision, BET, MSNBC and TV.

The reason why Obama decided to make this move is simple. He does not want his campaign, his supporters and himself to grow complacent in the final leg of the race. Some People feel that because of his domination in the number of television ads shown in the key battleground states and his lead in national and most battleground polls this could be seen as overkill in some viewers eyes.

However, i personally see this as a good strategic move. He and his campaign have taken the time to raise this money and it is their right to use it. If they dont use these funds by the time nov. 4th rolls around and McCain wins, they could feel like they didnt do enough in the closing days to seal the victory. It is always better to be over-prepared then under-prepared, and that is what Obama is doing. He's leaving all the cards on the table, running up the score and taking the fight to the McCain camp, even with the majority of analysts viewing him as the favorite to be the next commander-in-chief of the country.

What the Palin...

The Republican party's Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, made her first entree into the entertainment world on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

After watching the video i was surprised to see how much i actually laughed at the jokes. there were a few mentions of the debate and what transpired there. the tina fey version of gov. palin spoke about obama's ability to woo the public with his eloquence. she also took a jab at the polls, which currently have obama ahead of mccain wih less than two weeks until the election. she stated that the only poll she cares about is the north pole (ill admit i did smirk a little).

Events like the real gov. palin appearing on SNL and mccain appearing on Letterman are the republicans attempt to a) make up for the drastic difference in the amount of money his campaign raised versus the amount of money the obama campaign raised and b) to connect with the younger generation of voters who right now are leaning towards the democratic side of the ballot come election day.

There's only 13 days left until we find out which side's strategies and campaign techniques have paid off.

3rd and final debate. And the winner is...

Now that the third and final debate between Obama and McCain is over, people have had the chance to look over the events of the day and determine who the winner was.

Like many of the country's major news organizations, local media outlets and political activists, i too was at Hofstra University from 8 am until late in the evening on the day of the debate. To be completely honest, i am merely a college student who, up until very recently, didnt know or care about politics. Yet, due to my proximity to the event, i have developed my own analysis of the event.

Before i get to who i feel the winner was i just want to say for all of you ESPN fans out there, i met Kenny Mayne at the event. He was reporting for the upcoming edition of The Mayne Event and we spoke for about 30 minutes throughout the course of the day. AWESOME.

Me and Kenny Mayne at the debate. Picture taken by Adam Peck.

Both candidates did well. The questions were nicely geared to both address the major issues, like the economy, energy, health care and education, and to allow the candidates to take some jabs at each other's past and personal history. In the end, i truly believe that the real winner of the debate was not one of the two presidential nominees, but rather Hofstra University and its students.

MSNBC hosted its Hardball with Chris Matthews show live from the university (just as a small side note, i was standing in the crowd during the 5-6pm broadcast and was shown on tv for about 30 seconds. it was pretty sweeeet!). WNYC hosted its Brian Lehrer Show from the college. CNN brough its "Election EXPRESS Yourself" tour to the school. And the list goes on...

CNN setup at Hofstra. Picture taken by Adam Peck.

The beautiful thing about these events was that each one of them generated participation and activity among the students. in order to breed a next generation that is politically aware of what's transpiring in our country, events like this debate need to generate excitement among young adults. once the day began, you couldnt walk anywhere around campus without seeing students waving signs, wearing costumes and handing out fliers!

On Oct. 15th, 2008 Hofstra was the center of the political world and its students, many of whom were not political science majors or history majors, came out to express their views and opinions on the election. So id like to extend a congrats to Hofstra and its students for emerging victorious in the third and final debate of the 2008 presidential race.

23 days and counting...

The presidential election is 23 days away and after two presidential debates and a vice presidential debate the Obama/Biden campaign seem to be taking a pretty sizable lead in the polls.

According to Yahoo!'s coverage of the campaign, Obama is projected to take 333 electoral votes compared to McCain's 175. Come election day, the next president will be decided when one of the candidate's wins 270 votes.

In the battleground states of North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Obama is projected to take home three of the four, excluding Missouri. Aware of these projections, McCain has launched a plan to try and take home Pennsylvania. Even though Pennsylvania hasnt voted for a Republican since 1988, McCain hopes he can reverse the trend.

McCain has poured considerable resources into the state in the week after last month’s GOP convention, he outspent Obama on Pennsylvania television ads $1.6 million to $950,000, and he spent the same amount again in the first week of October.

I was very surprised to see how much of a lead Obama has taken in the polls over the last few weeks. The economic problems and the resulting bailout plan seem to have favored Obama. it will be intriguing over the next week or so to see if McCain can close the %7.3 deficit he currently is facing in the polls...

Kimberly Dozier

At 7:30pm on Monday, October 6, 2008, Kimberly Dozier addressed a packed auditorium of Stony Brook University students, faculty and administrators. For more than 45 minutes, the CBS news reporter spoke about her experiences in Iraq from 2003 to 2006 and how those experiences have dictated her life since.

On Memorial Day 2006, Dozier and the other two members of her crew were reporting on a story when they became victims of car bomb set off by insurgents. The crew was barely 20 feet from the car when it exploded and sent pieces of shrapnel flying towards the unsuspecting bystanders.

Both members of her crew died and Dozier lost her pulse five times in the hours following the blast and thus she was pronounced dead five times. She had shrapnel in her brain, broken both femurs and suffered injuries on a large part of her body. She endured more than a dozen surgeries and 2,000 stitches and had titanium rods inserted into both of her legs to prevent her from losing them.

All the while, Dozier made a conscious choice to handle her situation by actively dealing with her situation, rather than hiding and being controlled by it. She re-learned how to walk and has since written a novel about her experiences. Additionally, she has been in contact with the heads of CBS asking them to send her back overseas to continue reporting, even if she is sent to Iraq. She has realized that until she is reassigned, she can assist other individuals who have experienced traumatic events deal with post traumatic stress and other difficulties following the incident.

Even despite her near fatal incident, Dozier stated that her desire to report and go back out into the field has not decreased. She still has a passion for the profession even after it took the life of her crew and nearly her own.

Dozier stated that the most important thing she has learned from being a journalist is to listen to her "moral compass," and that was the message that she preached to the audience throughout her talk.