Military voters may lean left this year
Montgomery Advertiser – Sept. 29
…”I think a lot of this is reaction to the last eight years,” said Don Snow, a political science professor emeritus at the University of Alabama. “The deployments, the apparent pointlessness of Iraq. It’s really kind of eroded the image, the monolithic image (of the Republican Party).” Snow said many younger veterans, those of Afghanistan and Iraq, are unsatisfied in a way that is reminiscent of Vietnam-era veterans. He said this isn’t because they don’t feel a lack of appreciation by the public, but by the government. Scandals at Walter Reed Medical Center, problems with the Veterans Administration, increased fees and decreasing benefits are turning many younger veterans against the Republicans, Snow said…
McCain leads Obama in UA poll
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 29
Barrack Obama might have hordes of young followers nationwide, but the senator from Illinois is trailing Sen. John McCain at the University of Alabama, according to a recent poll. In a poll done by McCain’s UA group, 33 percent of students said they’d vote for Obama if the election was the day of the survey, completed Sept. 17-19. McCain supporters found the Arizona senator polled 52 percent of the vote in a state as Republican red as any. The remaining 15 percent were undecided…
Hispanic growth strains area’s social services
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 27
…The Hispanic community is growing, and we have not yet reached the peak of growth,” said Annette Watters, project manager at the Alabama State Data Center at the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama…The University of Alabama Center for Community-Based Partnerships, Shelton State and Holy Spirit are three locations that are working to enable cross cultural communication through English as a second language classes…
VP: Undercard plays big
St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch – Sept. 29
…”I think that John McCain is going to be judged by her and her performance more than would normally be the case,” said David Lanoue, head of political science at the University of Alabama and author of “The Joint Press Conference: The History, Impact, and Prospects of American Presidential Debates.”…
‘Bear Country’ to highlight ‘Bear’ Bryant
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 29
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival will kick off a new year in January with a play about legendary Alabama football coach Paul W. ‘Bear’ Bryant. The play ‘Bear Country’ is scheduled to open Jan. 9 and will feature eight performances a week through Feb. 15, said festival spokeswoman Meg Lewis. Casting starts in December in New York, Lewis said, so no one knows yet who will portray Bryant.