With the exception of our of endorsement of Francis Martel, IvyGate hasn't traditionally thrown its weight behind presidential contenders. But in light of the excitement Barack Obama has generated throughout the Ivy League - and the excitement he's generated in our own heads - we hereby Barack the Vote. We endorse Barack Obama for President.

Let's go through some of the support Obama has garnered. First, we owe Andrew Mangino a mea culpa; it turns out the YDN does not consist of Clinton stooges. Following the lead of their Editor-in-Chief, the YDN has endorsed Obama:

An Obama presidency promises a reassertion of the natural, American optimism for which JFK stood, but also new reforms of which he could only have dreamt. Let us not let this moment slip away."

So has the Crimson:

Obama represents an opportunity for a Democratic nominee who represents the value of service, intelligence, and judgment, and, most of all, an opportunity for real change, unburdened by favors owed and ideals lost.

And then there are the literally zillion articles about student support for the junior Senator from Illinois. Brown loves Obama; Columbia student and ex-IvyGate contributor J.D. Porter endorses Obama; at Cornell, 1,100 people "Rocked for Barack"; Larry David came to Dartmouth just to talk about Obama; and a different Prince columnist seems to endorse Obama every other day.

After the jump: some more thoughts about America's future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone feeling a little post-New Year's awards fatigue yet? Us neither! That's why we're spreading the good word about U.S. News & World Report's latest attempt at relevancy. The magazine's equal-opportunity education blog, PaperTrail, has opened up voting in four categories: Story of the Year, Newsmaker of the Year, Best College Paper Columnist, and Best Alternative Media Outlet. (We were disappointed to learn that you can only vote once, despite the poll's seemingly infinite ballot supply.)

Frankly, the last category is all we really care about here. So far, Wesleyan blog Wesleying (you might remember them from this) is absolutely tooling the Ivy runners-up, Columbia's Bwog and Harvard's Gadfly and Pablog. Don't know who to vote for? Watch the finalists beg for your love here, here, here and here. Guys, a word of advice? Trust us, pleading only backfires.

Non-Endorsement: It's hard to pick a favorite, because they're all talented. But whatever you do, DO NOT VOTE for Pablog. Don't vote for Pablo Torre's stupid-genius site name; don't vote for his always-on funny; don't vote for the fact that he unearthed this. Nope, under no circumstances should you vote for Pablog.

The glitz, the glamour, the gift bags ...

We flew a little too close to the sun.

We apologize: We handled the 2006 Weblog Awards all wrong. Encouraging you guys to vote for us, then asking again, then undoing another button and leaning forward to ask yet again -- we tainted this blog, a well-tended quad of pristine sarcasm, with the stench of earnestness.

And frankly, we're ashamed. It's a little like waking up after a bender to realize what you've wrought. (Suffice it to say that we once got up and sleep-peed in our sock drawer at like 8 in the morning, in full view of two stunned friends visiting from high school -- and this post-Bloggies nausea feels even worse.)

To quote a role model: I was wack. Today we leave those posts behind as The Sincerity That Shall Not Be Named, and fully endorse Prof. Michael Berube for Best Educational Blog 2006. He's neck-and-neck with SpunkyHomeSchool -- a blog that's actually defunct but has rabid acolytes with adept at getting out the vote. Berube seems like a funny guy (and half of us are alums of the same hockey team), but mainly we just want to see the tension play out between the academy and the homeschooling army.