Although last night’s presidential debate may not have provided as much fodder for late night comedians as last week’s vice presidential showdown, debate viewers at Pixel certainly found plenty of moments to laugh at.

The crowd of about 35 who had gathered at the Dryden Road bar last night clapped, jeered, laughed and booed throughout the 90-minute town-hall style forum between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.), in Nashville, Tenn.

George Phillips had no idea that he wanted to go into politics until he started college. While at Villanova University, he took a variety of political science classes, and through the office of Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) worked on issues of human trafficking and refugee safety in Africa.

Now on unpaid leave from his job as a history teacher at Catholic Central High School in Binghamton, Phillips is running for a Congressional Seat in the 22nd District, which includes much of the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes Regions. A member of the Republican Party, he is running against eight-term incumbent Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.).

This election season marks the first time since 2004 that Hinchey has had an opponent.

Analysis of the Presidential Drinking Game — er, Debate

I received an email the other day that stated the following:

“If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left. With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000.

With AIG, you would have less than $15 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for aluminum recycling, you would have $214 cash.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.”

The most shocking moment of Friday’s presidential debate wasn’t when Barack Obama mocked John McCain for refusing diplomatic contact with Spain or even when the candidates compared bracelets they had received on the campaign trail. For the most part, the candidates reiterated their well-known positions on Iraq, Afghanistan and taxes without much error. Instead, the most shocking part of Friday’s debate was how little the candidates talked about the massive economic bailout plan that fell apart on Thursday.

The voter registration tables provided by the Cornell Democrats and College Republicans are a familiar sight to most Cornellians, and many feel that students helping other students “get out the vote” is a positive service to the campus community. But when out-of-state students register to vote in Tompkins County, are they potentially diminishing their political power? Are they affecting campaign strategies and election outcomes?

Elizabeth W. Kree, co-commissioner of the Tompkins County Board of Elections, explained that New York State law has given college students the right to register to vote using their college addresses since the mid-1980s. However, to the politically active on campus, the decision of out-of-staters to vote in-state has a strategic motive.

Location: Hucktown. Population: 1,000. Crime: none. Drugs: None. Domestic violence: none. Government: the moral compass. Seem “mythical”? It is. But, according to Mike Huckabee, it is not too far fetched. In his speech in Bailey Hall yesterday, Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, painted a picture of Hucktown to offer the audience a glance of what life could be in a world where institutional government is second to the internal moral rule of a given populous.

HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush endorsed John McCain on Monday, a nod of approval from the Republican political dynasty's patriarch that sends a strong signal to a GOP establishment wary of the Arizona senator.

"No one is better prepared to lead our nation at these trying times than Sen. John McCain," Bush said, standing alongside the Republican nominee-in-waiting in an airport hanger. "His character was forged in the crucible of war. His commitment to America is beyond any doubt. But most importantly, he has the right values and experience to guide our nation forward at this historic moment."

Ithaca’s “ten square miles surrounded by reality” seemed to encompass the whole of Tompkins County last Tuesday when Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) soundly defeated Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the county’s Democratic primary. But the question remains: how?

Despite losses in every other county throughout the state, Obama finished with a nearly 17-point lead over home-stater Clinton last week in Tompkins. Across the rest of New York, Clinton received 57 percent of the Democratic vote, while Obama was awarded only 40 percent.