Chicago gets ready to paint town blue
CHICAGO - Chicago authorities are bracing for as many as a million people in downtown Grant Park on Tuesday night to cheer on Barack Obama as election returns come in, a potential celebration and security headache.
Police in Chicago and elsewhere around the country say intense interest in the election and the possibility of large crowds in major cities are leading them to take crowd-control precautions usually seen during Super Bowls and World Series.
Security preparations in Obama's hometown include orders for off-duty firefighters to haul their helmets, breathing tanks, and other gear home now until after the election in case of any emergency. All Chicago officers have also had their days off canceled and are required to work Tuesday, Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said.
A permit application for the Chicago event said 65,000 spectators would likely show up, but many more without tickets are expected to arrive for what Obama backers hope will be a celebration of the first black American elected to the presidency. John McCain is planning a smaller election-night party in his hometown of Phoenix.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
'Doonesbury' strip plays the odds for Tuesday
It's one thing for polls to predict the next president, but a comic strip?
Newspapers are figuring out what to do with "Doonesbury" installments next week that assume Barack Obama won the election Tuesday.
Comic creator Garry Trudeau delivered a series of strips for next week's papers showing his characters reacting to an Obama victory. But he offered no such option in the event of a comeback by John McCain.
Universal Press Syndicate, which sends "Doonesbury" to nearly 1,400 US and foreign newspapers, is offering a strip from August for those who don't want to go out on that limb.
The Wednesday strip shows three soldiers watching television when the announcer says: "And it's official - Barack Obama has won . . . making him the first African-American president in history!"
"Hoo-Ah!" one of the soldiers says. "Son of a gun! What a great, great day! We did it!" another soldier says.
"He's half-white, you know," says a white soldier. "You must be so proud," responds a soldier, who isn't white.
Trudeau said he might have provided a McCain option if the election were a tossup. But, he said that at the time he drew the strip, poll analysts were giving McCain less than a 4 percent chance of winning and he "felt comfortable with the odds."
"The way I see it, if Obama wins, I'm in the flow and commenting on an extraordinary phenomenon," Trudeau said. "If he loses, there'll be such a national uproar that a blown call in a comic strip won't be much noticed. Besides, I'll be the one with the egg on my face - not the editors."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Poll finds some voters remain wary of Palin
Sarah Palin continues to draw enthusiastic crowds, usually bigger than her running mate's, but there are new signs that her selection as the GOP vice presidential nominee is backfiring.
A New York Times/CBS News poll published yesterday found that increasing numbers of voters have doubts about Palin's readiness; 59 percent of voters said she was not qualified to be vice president, and nearly a third said the candidates' VP picks would be a major factor in their vote.
And former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger, whose endorsement John McCain has brandished to rebut Colin Powell's support of Barack Obama, strayed way off message.
In an interview Thursday with National Public Radio, Eagleburger was asked whether Palin could assume the presidency during a crisis.
"Of course not," he replied. "I don't think at the moment she is prepared to take over the reins of the presidency. I can name for you any number of other vice presidents who were not particularly up to it either."
GLOBE STAFF
Hawaii officials verify Obama birth certificate
HONOLULU - State officials say there's no doubt Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.
Health Department Director Chiyome Fukino said yesterday that she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.
Fukino said no state official, including Republican Governor Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently.
She said state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest.
Some Obama critics claim he was not born in the United States and thus is ineligible to run for president.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 