As USC becomes the center of national political universe today, it seems the campus’s local politics are once again becoming bogged down with scandals. Three years after the wild Student Senate election that resulted in a decisive, Florida-style post-election judicial ruling — not to mention a journalistic scandal that led to my resignation as a Daily Trojan editor — accusations are flying in this year’s Senate election. And this time, even the sitting Student Senate president is involved; in fact, there may be a move to remove him from office, according to the DT. All this from the campus whose 1960s Senate invented Watergate-style dirty stricks… :)

As for tonight’s presidential debate… here are stories about a pre-debate political fair, a pre-debate teach-in, and the 400 lucky Trojans who will be attending the debate.

Oh, and here is the DT’s lead story — about Mike Williams, of course.

A little less six hours from now, I’ll be walking out the door, waiting to be picked up by a SuperShuttle which will take me to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, from which I will depart on a Southwest Airlines jet to Los Angeles for a whirlwind, less-than-24-hour-long trip to see the festivities surrounding the presidential debate at USC.

My itinerary will depend in large part on whether I am able to obtain any sort of press access due to my status as a correspondent for the Command Post. The folks at CP have sent me a letter to present to the credentialing folks, requesting that I be let into the post-debate “spin room,” but whether that actually works remains to be seen.

Regardless, however, it seems likely that there will be plenty of debate-related activity for me to report on, blog about, and photograph. Supposedly there are going to be protesters, and certainly there will be supporters: both Kerry’s and Edwards’s people are planning pre-debate gatherings wherein they will cheer on their candidate as he heads into Bovard Auditorium for the debate. (The debate, by the way, begins at 6:00 PM Pacific time and lasts for 90 minutes. It will be moderated by Larry King and aired live on CNN.)

According to the candidates’ website, there will be an Edwards debate-watching party in the Seeley G. Mudd building on campus, and a Kerry debate-watching party at the African-American History Museum in Exposition Park. In both cases, the candidate in expected to drop by afterwards to greet his supporters. (Teresa will also be at Kerry’s rally.) Because Edwards is having a fundraiser in Westwood shortly after the debate, I’m hoping he may be a little more rushed than Kerry, and thus I might be able to see Senator Johnny, then rush over to Exposition Park and catch Senator John. Then again, I might see them both simultaneously in the spin room beforehand. I don’t know. I’ll have to play it by ear.

I will also be playing by ear the amount of live blogging I do. I think I will have access to USC’s wireless network, but that’s not 100% certain, and there are various limiting factors such as battery life, wireless range, etc. Also, there is the fact that I want to actually watch and listen and not spend the whole evening with my nose buried in a computer screen. :) But at the very least, you can expect a bunch of mobile posts and some audio-blog updates. And there may be more than that. We shall see.

After all is said and done, I hope to briefly get together with Kristy, and then I’ll be staying overnight — a rather short night — in my old Troy Hall room, on my ex-roommates’ couch. On Friday, I’ll take another (very) early-morning SuperShuttle and depart LAX on Southwest at 7:00 AM; by 9:25, I’ll back in Phoenix, heading to work. And at lunchtime, I’ll head over to the UPS Store and sent my absentee ballot to Connecticut via overnight mail.

Hey, what can I say? I’m a democracy addict. :)

The Comeback Crackpot strikes again! Dennis Kucinich won the USC “caucus” on Monday — an entirely meaningless exercise, of course, but that didn’t stop everybody’s favorite Loony Lefty from sending his Senior Policy Advisor to represent him at the event!

Anyway, the final totals were:
Kucinich 50%
Edwards 32%
Kerry 22%

Hmm… those numbers seem to add up to 105%. This episode of “fuzzy math” has been brought to you by the Daily Trojan. Hehe.

In other USC political news, Bill Maher criticized, well, everybody in a performance at Bovard last night.

It’s a very political week in the land of Troy. Tomorrow, of course, is the presidential debate — more on that in another post later — but that’s not all: the Student Senate election is also underway. Voting started Tuesday and extends until midnight tomorrow night. I envision signs along Trousdale advertising Lee Gorlin for Residential Senator alongside John Kerry for President. Should be interesting. :)

Like I said, more on the debate and my USC travel plans presently.

I was actually working through lunch today (we had a meeting), so I’m just finishing up my lunch-break update now. Today’s theme: “Through the years…”

YEAR ONE:

YEAR TWO:

YEAR THREE:

YEAR FOUR:

A more extensive gallery of Brendan & Becky photos will follow later…

UPDATE: Okay, here is my full gallery of 153 Brendan & Becky photos. (I couldn’t post it before, because I included all of them in a photo album for Becky as an anniversary gift, and I didn’t want her to see the pics before she’d seen the album!)

Well, sh*t:

USC sophomore wide receiver Mike Williams will leave the Trojans to enter the NFL draft, school spokesman Tim Tessalone said Wednesday.

Williams, an All-American, can declare for the draft because a court ruling cleared Ohio State’s Maurice Clarett and other players less than three years out of high school to enter the draft. [Damn those liberal activist judges! –ed.]

“Mike made his decision that he wants to go to the NFL,” USC coach Pete Carroll said. “We’re disappointed that we’re losing him because he’s had a terrific two years for us.

“But we’re anxious to watch him in the NFL,” Carroll said.

Mikey, we hardly knew ya…

But hey, look on the bright side: now Leinart and Williams won’t be splitting the Heisman vote! Of course, it remains to be seen how good Leinart will be without Williams as his prime target… sigh…

UPDATE: CNNSI.com’s B. Duane Cross says the Chargers should take Williams with the #1 pick in the draft.

ANOTHER UPDATE: BoiFromTroy is all over this story.