It started off embarrassingly enough: my Italian professor had us write questions to ask. Next thing I know, we’re being lead down the streets of Rome, asking random Italians if they would answer our questions, and could they speak slowly for us students. It’s one thing to ask strangers questions in English; it’s another to do so in a language I’ve only been learning for a semester. My group decided to ask an unsuspecting young man his opinion on the US government. For the next few minutes, he went into a small rant about Bush (we had to ask him to repeat multiple times and to go slower). After he finished, we asked him what he thought about the current election campaign in the US. Without any hesitation, he replied: Obama.

I thought that was interesting that he had already had a candidate picked out, or that he knew so much about our upcoming election. Currently, Italy is going through its own elections, now that the prime minister has dissolved parliament. My professor, a full fledged Roman, explained it to me: because of the current system in Italy, the prime minister can dissolve parliament is he loses the majority or support. Thus, new elections are done, and parliament switches party hands, which happens almost every two years.

It’s not just Iowa—according to preliminary analysis by CIRCLE, 18-29-year-old voters turned out in record numbers in New Hampshire last night. 43% of eligible voters under 30 went to the polls, compared to 18% in 2004 and 28% in 2000.

Check out this release for an interesting breakdown of which age groups supported which candidates—looks like the “youth vote” operated less like a monolithic bloc than expected.

"The American military has succeeded. It is the Iraqi government, which has failed to make the tough decisions that are important for their own people."

Though nowhere nearly as useful as the last guide to differentiating the candidates posted on CP (see: Chart of Iraq War Stances), Political Insider has revealed an intriguing bit of news. They reveal that, of the 22 candidates running, only two went to Ivy schools for their undergrad degrees, and only two more went for grad school. Though the list of candidates is debatable (and the entrance of Al Gore would add to the ivy-ness), it appears quite likely that, for the first time in 24 years, neither major party nominee will be Ivy-educated.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that elitism has declined, in fact, the good ‘ol boys, WASP male, Washington insider sort of thing seems relatively intact. But, even still, my unearned sense of smug self-worth is already fading, being replaced by the sheer terror of having to do something meaningful with my life to be respected.