Generation Y: the Echo Boomers, the Millennial Generation, the children of the Baby Boomers. Whatever the title, the youth of today, formerly labeled apathetic, unreachable teens antithetical to their activist parents who drove the cultural and political revolutions of the Vietnam War era, are hot commodities for an unexpected demographic: the 2008 presidential hopefuls.

As the primary season is heating up, the Millennials are making history. Forty-four million Americans aged 18 to 29, representing approximately a quarter of the nation’s electorate, will be eligible to vote in 2008 according to an article by youth voting expert Heather Smith. Consequently, gaining the youth vote has become a defining feature of both Democratic and Republican candidates’ campaigns.

BOSTON, Mass. — If you’re reading this over breakfast, I’m at a rally in Faneuil Hall for John McCain. Tomorrow, barring a last-minute political earthquake, Republicans in over 20 states will go to the polls and all but crown the Arizona senator the nominee of their party. It’s already being called one of the greatest political comebacks in American history — one that I hope to explain in the thesis (book?) I plan to begin writing when I return to Ithaca next week. I’ve spent the better part of the last two months doing everything in my limited power to make that comeback possible — attending rallies, writing letters to the editor and calling conservative talk radio to counter the relentless anti-McCain jihad.

David Dillenbeck, Wilson Farms employee
Preferred Candidate: Hillary Clinton
"I think a woman would do a better job. We’ve had men running the country for the last 200 years and they just keep putting us further and further in debt. I think a woman may be able to take us out of debt and turn this country around. Do some good."

Rayna Reid ’10
Preferred Candidate: Barack Obama
"[Obama] is really the best candidate for the job. I interned with the Hillary Clinton campaign and I didn’t like some of the tactics they were using. I feel like they weren’t listening to the voters. I feel like Obama’s really going to change things."

With Super Tuesday fast approaching, this year’s winter fashions are politics as usual! It’s time to find out which candidates will rock the exit polls with trendy attire, and what wardrobe nightmares will prevent big wins tomorrow in the unforgiving fashion mainstays of New York and L.A.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dig beneath the surface of the raucous Republican presidential race and you will find even deeper turmoil: Four in 10 GOP voters have switched candidates in the past month alone, and nearly two-thirds say they may change their minds again.

Mike Huckabee, who has roared to a tie with longtime front-runner Rudy Giuliani, has little reason to feel safe, according to an ongoing national survey conducted for The Associated Press and Yahoo News.

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) — A neighbor of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton was arrested Thursday in the slaying of his wife, who he claimed had been shot by a stranger on a dark suburban road.

Carlos Perez-Olivo, a disbarred lawyer who was wounded himself in the Nov. 18, 2006, shooting, was expected in county court later Thursday, said Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore. Chalfen did not say what charge or charges Perez-Olivo faced.

Perez-Olivo's lawyer has said his client is innocent. He did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Thursday.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was released from a St. Louis hospital Thursday after spending the night to undergo tests for flu-like symptoms.

"I feel great. Take care. Merry Christmas, I'm feeling fine thanks to the hospital. They did a good job," a smiling and waving Giuliani said as he left Barnes-Jewish Hospital en route to returning to New York.

His campaign said he would make planned stops in New Hampshire Saturday and Sunday.

The former New York mayor felt the symptoms while campaigning for the nomination in Missouri, and they soon became worse, campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson said late Wednesday. She did not describe the symptoms beyond those being commonly associated with the flu.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Colbert has announced his candidacy for president on "The Colbert Report," tossing his satirical hat into the ring of an already crowded race.

"I shall seek the office of the president of the United States," Colbert said Tuesday on his Comedy Central show as red, white and blue balloons fell around him.

Colbert, 43, had recently satirized the coyness of would-be presidential candidates by refusing to disclose whether he would seek the country's highest office — a refusal that often came without any prompting.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf swept Saturday's presidential election, according to unofficial results, but the Supreme Court could still disqualify the military leader in the vote boycotted by nearly all of Pakistan's opposition.

The election by federal and provincial lawmakers was a one-sided affair. Just over half the eligible lawmakers turned out to vote, with nearly all the opposition parties abstaining or boycotting to protest Musharraf's bid for a new five-year term while still army chief.

In total, Musharraf won 671 votes, compared with just eight for his main rival — retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmad. Six ballots were invalid, election officials said.

Since the United States democracy operates in such a way that every citizen of 18 years and older has the right to cast a vote, one would imagine that every citizen’s vote would have the right be counted. According to Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections for Leon County, Fla., however, this is not at all true.

This past Saturday, New Yorkers for Verified Voting invited Sancho to speak to the public concerning issues of the flawed voting processes that occur in the country.