The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LOS ANGELES
Gay marriage
banned in Calif.
Voters put a stop to same-sex
marriage in California, dealing a
crushing defeat to gay-rights activ-
ists in a state they hoped would be
a vanguard and putting in doubt as
manyas 18,000 same-sexmarriages
conducted since a court ruling made
them legalthis year.
The gay-rights movement had
a rough election elsewhere as well
Tuesday. Amendments to ban gay
marriage were approved in Arizo-
na and Florida, and Arkansas vot-
ers approved a measure banning
unmarried couples from serving as
adoptive or foster parents. Support-
ers made clear that gays and lesbi-
ans were their main target.
But California, the nation's most
populous state, had been the big
prize. Spending for and against
Proposition 8 reached $74 million,
the most expensive social-issues
campaign in U.S. history and the
most expensive campaign this
year outside the race for the White
House. Activists on both sides of
the issue saw the measure as criti-
cal to building momentum for their
WASHINGTON
Voter turnout
highest in years
Voters cast their ballots in num-
bers not seen in at least 40 years, as
millions of Americans picked their
president early and waited in lines
that stretched the lengths of blocks
and buildings.
It looks like about 133.3 million
people voted for president, based
on preliminary results from the
country's precincts tallied and
projections for absentee ballots,
said Michael McDonald of George
Mason University. Using his-meth-
ods, that would give 2008 a 62.5
percent turnout rate, he said.
Both numbers are estimates and
may change as officials count more
absentee and provisional ballots.
McDonald suggested the turnout
to be about equal to or better than
1964, but not higher than1960 when
John F. Kennedy squeaked out a vic-
tory over Richard Nixon. The turn-
out rate then was 63.8 percent.
NEW YORK
Fear of recession
causes stocks to fall
A case of postelection nerves
sent Wall Street plunging Wednes-
day as investors, looking past Ba-
rack Obama's presidential victory,
returned to their fears of a deep
and protracted recession. Volatility
swept over the market again, with
the Dow Jones industrials falling
nearly 500 points and all the major
indexes tumbling more than 5 per-
cent.
The market was widely expected-
to give back some gains after a run-
up that lifted the Standard & Poor's
SOO index more than 18 percent and
that gave the Dow its best weekly
advance in 34 years; moreover,
many analysts had warned that
Wall Street faced more turbulence
after two months of devastating
losses.
But investors lost their recent
confidence about the economy and
began dumping stocks again.
"The market has really gotten
ahead of itself, and falsely priced
in that this recession wasn't going
to be as prolonged as thought," said
Ryan Larson, head of equity trading
at Voyageur Asset Management, a
subsidiary of RBC Dain Rauscher.
"Regardless of who won the White
House, these problems are not go-
ing away."
WASHINGTON
Google abandons
deal with Yahoo
A Google Inc. has scrapped its In-
ternet advertising partnership with
struggling rival Yahoo Inc., aban-
doning attempts to overcome the
objections of antitrust regulators
and customers who believed the al-
liance would give Google too much
power over online commerce.
The retreat announced Wednes-
day represented another setback for
Yahoo, which had been counting on
the Google deal to boost its finances
and placate shareholders still in-
censed by management's decision
to reject a $47.5 billion takeover bid
from Microsoft Corp. six months
ago.
To Yahoo's dismay, Google
backed off to avoid a challenge from
the U.S. Justice Department, which
said it would sue to block the Yahoo
deal to preserve competition in In-
ternet advertising.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
World
Kenya declares
Thursday a public
holiday.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - For
many across Africa and the world,
Barack Obama's election seals
America's reputation as a land of
staggering opportunity.
"If it were possible for me to get
to the United States on my bicycle,
I would," said Joseph Ochieng, a
36-year-old carpenter who lives in
Kenya's sprawling Kibera shanty-
town, a maze of tin-roofed shacks
and dirt roads.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki
declared a public holiday Thurs-
day in the country of Obama's late
father, allowing celebrations to
continue through the night and
into a second day. From Europe
and Asia to the Middle East, many
expressed amazement that the
U.S. could overcome centuries of
racial strife and elect an African-
American president.
Scenes of jubilation broke out in
the western Kenyavillage of Koge-
lo, where many of Obama's Kenyan
celebrates Obamas victory
relatives still live. People sang, Africa's groundbreaking leaders. for mankind." trade agreements," Ortega said
'danced in the streets and wrapped Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Yet celebrations were often tem- Wednesday.
themselves in U.S. flags. A group first black president, said Obama pered by sobering concerns that Skepticism, however, was high
of exuberant residents picked up gave the world the courage to Obama faces momentous global in the Muslim world. The Bush
the president-elect's half brother dream. challenges - wars in Iraq and administration alienated the Mid-
Malik and carried him through the "Your victory has demonstrated Afghanistan, the nuclear ambi- die East by mistreating prisoners
village. that no person anywhere in the tions of Iran, the elusive hunt for at its detention center at Guan-
"Unbelievable!" Malik Obama world should not dare to dream of peace in the Middle East and a tanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at
shouted, leading the family in wanting to change the world for a financial crisis. Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison - human
chanting, "Obama's coming, make better place," Mandela said in a let- Europe, where Obama is over- rights violations also condemned
way!" ter of congratulations. whelmingly popular, is one region worldwide.
"He's in!" said Rachel Ndimu, Liberian President Ellen John- that looked eagerly to an Obama Some Iraqis, who have suffered
23, a Kenyan business student who son-Sirleaf - the first woman administration for a revival in through five years of a war ignited
joined hundreds of others for an elected to head an African country warm relations after the Bush gov- by the United States and its allies,
election party that began at 5 a.m. - said she did not expect to see a ernment's chilly rift with the con- said they would believe positive
Wednesday at the residence of the black American president in her tinent over the Iraq war. change when they saw it.
U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael lifetime. "At a time when we have to con- "Obama's victory will do noth-
Ranneberger. "All Africans now know that if front immense challenges together, ing for the Iraqi issue nor for the
"I think this is awesome, and you persevere, all things are pos- your election raises great hopes in Palestinian issue," said Muneer
the whole world is backing him," sible," she said. France, in Europe and in the rest of Jamal, a Baghdad resident. "I think
Ndimu said as people raised glass- In Indonesia, where Obama the world," French President Nico- all the promises Obama made dur-
es-of champagne. lived as child, hundreds of stu- las Sarkozy said in a congratula- ing the campaign will remain mere
Obama was born in Hawaii, dents at his former elementary tions letter to Obama. promises."
where he spent most of his child- school erupted in cheers when he Nicaragua's leftist leader Daniel But many around the world
hood raised by his white mother. was declared winner, pouring into Ortega is another who is celebrat- found hope in Obama's interns-
He barely knew his father. But for the courtyard where they hugged, ing Obama's victory. tional roots.
the world's poorest continent, the danced in the rain and chanted "Really it's a miracle that the "What an inspiration. He is
ascent of a man of African heritage "Obama! Obama!" United States for the first time in the first truly global U.S. presi-
to America's highest office was a In Britain, The Sun newspaper its history has a black president dent the world has ever had," said
source of immeasurable pride and borrowed from Neil Armstrong's who has shown he is willingto dia- Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-
hope. 1969 moon landing in describing logue with Latin American coun- old Thai sitting at a Starbuck's in
Tributes rolled in from two of Obama's election as "one giant leap tries and is open to reviewing free Bangkok.
McCain plans for
new role in Senate
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-II., speaks during a rally at Wicker Memorial Park in Highlan
on Friday.
Obama chooses Illnois Rep.
E-manuel as new chief of staff
President-Elect
begins selecting
White House team
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent-elect Barack Obama pivoted
quickly to begin filling out his new
administration yesterday, select-
ing hard-charging Illinois Rep.
Rahm Emanuel as White House
chief of staff while aides stepped
up the pace of transition work that
had been cloaked in pre-election
secrecy.
Several Democrats confirmed
that Emanuel had been offered
the job. While it was not clear he
had accepted, a rejection would
amount to an unlikely public snub
of the new president-elect within
hours of an electoral college land-
slide.
With hundreds of jobs to fill
and only 10 weeks until Inaugura-
tion Day, Obama and his transition
team confronted a formidable task
complicated by his anti-lobbyist
campaign rhetoric.
The official campaign Web site
said no political appointees would
be permitted to work on "regula-
tions or contracts directly and
substantially related to their prior
employer for two years. And no
political appointee will be able to
lobby the executive branch after
leaving government service dur-
ing the remainder of the adminis-
tration."
But almost exactly one year ago,
on Nov. 3, 2007, candidate Obama
went considerably further than
that while campaigning in South
Carolina. "I don't take a dime of
their money, and when I am presi-
dent, they won't find a job in my
White House," he said of lobbyists
at the time.
Because they often have prior
experience in government or poli-
tics, lobbyists figure as potential
appointees for presidents of both
parties.
On the morning after making
history, the man elected the first
black president had breakfast
with his wife and two daughters
at their Chicago home, went to a
nearby gym and visited his down-
town offices.
Aides said he planned no pub-
lic appearances until later in the
week, when he has promised to
hold a news conference.
As president-elect, he begins
receiving highly classified brief-
ings from top intelligence officials
Thursday.
In offering the post of White
House chief of staff to Emanuel,
Obama turned to a fellow Chicago
politician with a far different style
from his own, a man known for
his bluntness as well as his single-
minded determination.
Emanuel was a political and
policy aide in Bill Clinton's White
House. Leaving that, he turned to
investment banking, then won a
Chicago-area House seat sixyears
ago. In Congress, he moved quick-
ly into the leadership. As chair-
man of the Democratic campaign
committee in 2006, he played an
instrumental role in restoring his
party to power after 12 years in
the minority.
Emanuel maintained neutral-
ity during the long primary battle
between Obama and Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton, not surprising
given his long-standing ties to the
former first lady and his Illinois
connections with Obama.
The day after the election there
already was jockeying for Cabinet
appointments.
Several Democrats said Sen.
John Kerry of Massachusetts, who
won a new six-year term on Tues-
day, was angling for secretary of
state. They spoke on condition of
anonymity, saying they were not
authorized to discuss any private
conversations.
Kerry's spokeswoman, Brigid
O'Rourke, disputed the reports.
"It's not true. It's ridiculous," she
said in an interview.
Announcement of the transi-
tion team came ina written state-
ment from the Obama camp.
The group is headed by John
Podesta, who served as chief of
staff under former President Clin-
ton; Pete Rouse, who has been
Obama's chief of staff in the Sen-
ate, and Valerie Jarrett, a friend of
the president-elect and campaign
adviser.
Several Democrats described
a sprawling operation well under
way. Officials had kept delibera-
tions under wraps to avoid the
appearance of overconfidence in
the weeks leading to Tuesday's
election.
PHOENIX (AP) - Before rest-
ing from the grueling presidential
race, John McCain began discuss-
ing with senior aides what role he
will play in the Senate now that he
has promised to work with the man
who defeated him for president.
Democrats, who padded their
majorities in the House and Sen-
ate, have a suggestion: McCain
can mediate solutions to partisan
standoffs on key legislation as he
did to help avert a constitutional
meltdown over judicial confirma-
tions in 2005.
"There's a need for the old John
McCain, a leader who worked
in a bipartisan way," Sen. Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.
GOP leaders,never fond McCain's
independent streak or blunt style,
nonetheless are reaching out tokeep
him in the fold and keep Republican
ranks as robust as possible during
the next Congress, two knowledge-
able GOP officials said on condition
they not be named because the con-
versationswere private.
One obvious focus will be the
war in Iraq. After two years spent
more on the campaign than in the
Senate, McCain will return as the
ranking Republican on the Armed
Services Committee. That will put
the four-term Arizona senator in
a position to influence Democrat
Barack Obama's plan to set a time-
table to withdraw U.S. troops-from
combat in Iraq.
"That would be good," Sen.
Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said in a tele-
phone interview. "I would love to
see McCain work with President
Obama in dealing with Iraq in a
way that Republicans and Demo-
crats could agree on."
During the campaign, McCain
staunchly opposed setting such a
time frame, even as the Iraqi gov-
ernment began working with the
Student Dicont
JOCOIATI
Bush administration to do so.
But in conceding the presidency
to Obama Tuesday night at a Phoe-
nix hotel, McCain pledged "to do
all in my power to help him lead us
through the many challenges we
face."
He allowed that defeat was dis-
appointing but said that starting
Wednesday "we must move beyond
it and work together to get our
country moving again."
Aides said they believed McCa-
in would work well with Obama
as president because much of his
best work in the Senate had been
done with Democrats, including
a landmark campaign finance law
he crafted with Wisconsin Sen.
Russ Feingold and an unsuccess-
ful effort with Massachusetts Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy to pass com-
prehensive immigration reform.
The day after Election Day
quickly returned McCain to some-
thing much closer to normal life.
After months of travel on his cam-
paign bus or plane, McCain and
his wife, Cindy, drove themselves
to Starbucks for coffee near their,
Phoenix condominium.
McCain and his family planned
to spend a few days at their vaca-
tion compound near Sedona, Ariz.,
to rest frombthe long contest.
Friends said that despite his
disappointment, McCain also was
relieved that the demanding cam-
paign was finally over. Aides said
he was relaxed Tuesday night - at
peace with his loss and confident,
thathe had done his bestin apoliti-
cal climate where a failing econo-
my, an unpopular GOP president
and two lingering wars set steep
odds against a Republican victory.
"We fought as hard as we could.
And though we fell short, the fail-
ure is mine, not yours," McCain
told supporters Tuesday night.
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