SUper Tuesday

Sen. Barack Obama’s appeal to the younger generation did not appear to be strong enough to beat out Sen. Hillary Clinton in the New York state primary, as she led the Illinois senator by 23 percent an hour after the polls closed Tuesday night, according to CNN.com.

SU Students for Barack Obama, a Syracuse University student group that tried to spread the senator’s message of change to undergrads, concluded their primary season campaign yesterday at 9 p.m., but their advertising was not a success with some students.

"I only saw one rally and didn't know they were groups on campus," said senior David Vassallo. “I'm more an anti-Hillary person and I knew more than the Obama supporters at the rally. It's only effective if they knew what they were talking about."

The Syracuse campus student chapter of the Obama for America campaign was directed by sophomore Marshall Spevak and held events such as the Jan. 31 rally on the quad and promotions at SU men’s basketball games.

Its Facebook group has 60 members, but only 10 students participated in more than one of the group’s events, said Spevak.

“We've been trying to be more visible—holding up signs and cheering,” he said. “I hope a lot of students vote, but I don't even want to speculate numbers. I wouldn’t even dare to guess.”

Despite working alongside the city of Syracuse’s Obama campaign, Spevak said the campus group targeted students and that students were very welcoming to their message.

“Obama really engaged the youth,” said the political science major, who is originally from Cherry Hill, N.J. and voted by absentee ballot for Obama. “I've talked to so many students across campus who are enthusiastic for voting.”

Junior Rita Aidoo, from Bronx, N.Y., did not know about Spevak’s group and decided to vote for Obama without influence from any campus groups.

“I'm only really interested in health care so I don't think anything would have changed that,” she said.

Freshman De'Marcus Woods said that campus groups could potentially swing students who did not have a specific interest in policy or a grasp on politics.

"I think people are stuck in between,” Woods said. “I don't think people really know and if groups can open their eyes and explain how a candidate can affect their lives, you never know.”

The Democratic primary race’s top candidates were whittled down to Obama and Clinton after Sen. John Edwards’ withdrew on Jan. 30. Clinton’s campaign focuses on health care reform, strengthening the middle class and ending the war on Iraq, whereas Obama champions a broader theme of change, according to their websites.

Spevak stayed at the Obama Headquarters, 3000 Erie Blvd. East, all day Tuesday, only leaving to campaign with signs at busy intersections during rush hour. No representatives from the student group were scheduled to visit the polling places in the SU area, he said.

Sandra Frio, of Syracuse, worked at one of the SU polling sites in Goldstein Student Center, 401 Skytop Road, until 9 last night. The poll opened at 11:30 a.m. Polling was also held at the Whitman School of Management, 721 University Ave.

She said she was surprised with the voter turnout within the first hour of operation.

"We're hoping a lot of students come,” said Frio, who has worked in the same ward through out all of her time staffing election sites. “I'm very hopeful to think that the young students are interested in their future."

Now that was an experience, no diggity

5:36 a.m. -- Katie wakes me up after she finished in the shower. My head hurts most likely because I went to bed less than 4 hours ago. I lie in bed for a few minutes, drag myself to the shower, and turn on the water. Meanwhile, Katie is freaked out, claiming she didn't know it was me. She has proceeded to crouch low in the corner of her room behind a chair to protect herself against the "stranger or ghost that had turned on the water."

6:50 a.m. -- On route to the Tyra Banks show in NYC with my ladies Katie, Ashley and Catherine. I was quick to figure out that melancoly playlists accompanied by pouring rain and no sleep isn't the best idea. Switch to Weezer. Catherine is flooded by high school memories which results in a 2-hour reflection of our lives thus far. Note to self: never use Nair, do not sacrifice all self-worth in the name of competition, home schooled kids are "FREAKSHOWS" (thanks ashley for really telling us how you feel), and it is never okay to play Fergie just because my dad likes it.


10:00 a.m. -- Thanks to hauling ass, we make it to the Beacon train station 50 minutes ahead of time. We find a charming coffeehouse called the Muddy Cup. Pumpkin spice tea and a haunted house across the street? I might be moving here very soon.

12:20 p.m. -- Grand Central Station. The New Yorkers are delightfully helpful. Katie, uptown is in fact up town. It's warm in the underground. I'm scared to go outside and find a cold and rainy nightmare.

1:15 p.m. -- Chelsea Studios, where Tyra is taped, is located. It's actually not raining. We go get some food. New York Style pizza and turkey subs.

2:00 p.m. -- Get back to the studio to wait in line to be let in. It is raining now, but luckilly we get to stand inside a loading dock of some sort. I teach the ladies Bodachelli. Doesn't last for long. Once you've got boy bands on your mind, you're done for.

Now at this point we lose all sense of time, because our cellphones are checked. We are let into a sort of holding room, with a constant video loop of past Tyra guests on two mounted TVs. The room is full of red chairs and has a water cooler and bathroom.

Here are a few interesting things we heard:
"Is that Britney Spears?" (clearly Hulk Holgan's daughter, Hulk introduced her for god sake's on the TV)
"Are they worried I'm going to look better than Tyra??" the girl bitching that she wasn't going to be put in the front (it was because she was wearing all white, and on the site it says not to)
"Ugly, Ugly, Ugly," obnoxious Jersey girl who Tyra even called out on camera that she was talking too much
"Okay ladies, the theme of this show is When are you going to die?" no words; priceless.

We get seated. Tyra is gorgeous. They had to finished another segment so we saw the stars of Gossip Girl? Chelsea is probably reading this and going to die. So, if you see any episode with Keisha Cole, Rihanna and Gossip Girl cast members, watch at the very end for us.

Show was amazing. They basically talked about ways to extend your life expectancy -- like exercising, being less stressed but more responsibile, etc. A handful of normal girls were used as examples. For example, three girls would be set up, each with a TV outlining their habits (how often they exercise, smoker, etc.). We then had to scream out who we thought was going to die first.

So funny. Ashley even got up to explain why she picked a certain girl!!

6:50 p.m. --

8:00 p.m. -- On the track back. Joked about the compartment's broken door with a nice man who was bringing flowers home to his wife. In the 4-seater next to us, 2 poor girls got stuck with 2 lovebirds that couldn't stop swapping spit. It was ridicilous! The couple moved after about 15 disgusting minutes to a more private area. We apologized that the girls had to be subjected to that. The girls were high school seniors, one of which was looking to maybe study photo journalism at SU. She doesn't like the cold though, so we warned her that Syracuse is far from balmy.

9:00 p.m. -- Back in the car, warm and hungry. Exhausted too. Get me home, in some sweats, warm, in my bed with my fluffy down comforter.

12:30 a.m. -- Back in the cuse. Wonderful trip. I've been up for nearly 24 hours and I've got no complaints.

All in all I had an absolutely marvelous day. Yes, marvelous, Katie. That's the correct way to use it.
I hope we all learned how to live until we're 110 (90 more years Ashley), how to start blogs (Katie, this is a blog) and really appreciate autumn (red hair, pumpkin beverages, scary movies, Sylvia Plath, anything spooky, Catherine).

Glimpse into crystal ball.. of sorts

I can't help feeling somewhat sophisticated. Dressed in black pants and a fitted button-down, I rub elbows with hundreds of 30-somethings as we pile on the Metro for our early-morning commute through DC.

My train drops me right past the Pentagon in Virginia at my summer internship at Engage PR. EPR focuses to help start-up technology companies make a name for themselves in the competitive market. EPR is based in Alameda, CA but opened an east-coast office in October. The location was occupied by one lone Account Supervisor for the past few months; she now claims she has to curb her tendency to talk to herself with me around.

Monday marked my first day of training and I took the bull by the horns. Matrices, brief books, press searches – did my Syracuse University professors neglect to include some things in my classes? It could be that I’m majoring in newspaper journalism and political science – not public relations. Regardless, I came into this internship with an open-minded and ready to learn all about PR.

But, I needed something to keep me from drowning in a sea of unfamiliarity. Newspaper and PR fall under a broad sense of communications, so they couldn’t be that different? Through out the tutorials of various PR activities, I found myself clinging to all the things I learned back in snowy SU.

Meeting Points? Oh, that’s kind of like the formation of a hard news story.

Case study? That reminds me of a nut graf.

Confused? I wouldn’t say confused. Challenged – learning something that appears to be opposite of what I’m used to? Bingo.

The relationship between journalists and public relations in general is a bit of a tug-of-war anyways. No wonder I’m a bit out-of-sorts.

Stories are assigned to journalists, and it's their job to gain as much information as possible about that topic in order to construct a balanced, informative article for an audience. Experts, examples, stats, history: all important bases to cover. With my newspaper-conditioned mind, I process PR interaction as simply an easy way to gain access to a multitude of information and contacts.

Seeing the dealings from the other side, its a weird sensation. The explanations, comments and processes appear to have a bit of a tint. Journalists are prey -- you want to get a hold of them, work your magic and get your client's name in the article.

I can easily say that I won't be able to look at my interviewing process in quite the same way, especially with PR. To say if that is a good or bad thing, time will tell.