Welcome back to campus, everyone. Here are a few quick hits to get you through the studying you meant to do over the break:

Hip-hop star Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, who will be performing at Bridges Auditorium at Pomona College on Jan. 23, is campaigning for State Sen. Jim Martin in the runoff election against Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Black Friday brings out the desperate shopper in all of us. Everyone wants to get the best deal on those Christmas gifts for others (or themselves), but no one wants to resign themselves to the monotony of giving another gift card: unless it is to Planned Parenthood. For the first time, Planned Parenthood of Indiana is offering gift certificates for its services. They come in increments of $25 to fit any budget.

Government Professor Jack Pitney, Jr. of CMCcalled Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a “political novice” in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune concerning the Governor’s legacy. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Schwarzenegger has been losing it a bit lately, comparing the California Legislature to a Kindergarten.

Sahil Kapur, a senior at Claremont McKenna College, was featured on the Campus Progress website. He gives four things that Obama needs to during his presidency to improve U.S. foreign policy: “Get U.S. troops out of Iraq,” “More soft power, less recklessness,” “multilateralism” and “diplomacy.”

Kapur has high praise for Obama, praising his “ability to inspire,” “world class intellect” and “grasp of liberal internationalism.” He argues that Obama is in a great position to improve our image abroad, but I would say that is in uphill battle. As the U.S. economy continues to struggle, it should be Obama’s first priority. Good foreign policy means enacting good policies on trade (including trade agreements that may be unpopular with some party members), ensuring a strong U.S. dollar and preventing the global depression that would come from a collapse of the U.S. economy.

Kapur has a good start with his four point plan, but it isn’t enough. Obama needs to take serious measures to turn around the economy if he wants to improve our standing abroad.

The election season ended a week ago.

There. I said it.

Yet though I try to focus on anything other than the race’s excitement, I fail. Election night stole my passion, leaving me with a bulletin board dividing the states and their electoral votes into two columns, one per candidate, and sixteen empty bottles of Andres champagne.  Fond memories of phonebanking, canvassing, and decorating my room with campaign posters linger.  I still compulsively click on my RealClearPolitics.com bookmark as though the candidates’ favorable spreads might change.

Sure, a few election outcomes remain uncertain.  Minnesota is recounting ballots from the Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.  In Georgia, Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss faces his Democratic challenger Jim Martin in a runoff.  Though Republican Senator Ted Stevens, a convicted felon, is winning in Alaska, Democrat Mark Begich has yet to concede.  And of course, who will fill Obama and Biden’s Senate vacancies?

I cannot discount  Obama’s transition period.  Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois accepted Obama’s Chief of Staff offer, and Robert Gibbs will fill the Press Secretary post.  Speculation about cabinet selections abounds.  Does Howard Dean want HHS?  Would John Kerry make a formidable Secretary of State?  Will Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson stay on board?

The transition period’s ambiguity does not excite me as much as the presidential race did.  I remain in a perpetual slump, focusing my attention on a research paper about John McCain’s influence on press coverage of his campaign.  (Honestly, did you expect a different topic?)

When a conservative acquaintance discovered I was still dwelling on the campaign season, she sent me this hilarious video, which I believe accurately portrays many of our post-election feelings:

Post-Election Void

Newsweek ranked CMC as the “Hottest for Election Year.”  Election year just ended.  What’s next?

Claremont McKenna College President Pamela Gann emailed students and faculty today to share her thoughts on the effects of the financial crisis on the College.  She reported that CMC’s endowment lost 14 percent of its total value during the first quarter of this fiscal year.  She also anticipates another “significant reduction during October.  The numbers were grim, but that wasn’t surprising.  What did strike me was the language.  After I read her email, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the rhetoric Obama used during the campaign.

Gann plans to reduce the operating budget of the College by $1.5 million (about three percent of its total).  How is she going to do this?  The same way Obama planned to reduce unnecessary federal expenditures.  She is going re-evaluate every position in the administration and staff “to determine whether the position will be held open, terminated or filled.”  Gann went on to say that some of the now vacant positions would not be filled.  Obama promised to go line by line through the federal budget, eliminating programs that do not work (admittedly, this will be difficult without the line-item veto).

But what about the big projects?  Gann, like Obama, promised to deliver on those.  “We remain on schedule to complete the Biszantz Family Tennis Center this winter, and we also plan to continue our two, previously approved capital projects:  The Kravis Center Project and the East Campus Land Purchase,” she said.  The Kravis Center, the single most expensive construction project taken on by CMC, will not be pushed back because of the financial crisis.  Obama promised the same for the largest part of the federal budget:  entitlement programs.  He promised not to cut a benefits or raise the retirement age for social security - an expensive promise if you ask me.

What about the Campaign for Claremont McKenna?  Aided by Robert Day’s $200 million, that seems to be doing well too.  With four years left to go, the College has raised $416 million, more than two-thirds of its goal of $600 million.  Thought it appears to be a bit shaken up, the fundamentals of the school’s budget appear strong.  According to Gann, ”CMC enters this difficult period in a strong financial position.”  Only time will tell how those fundamentals pan out for the country and CMC.

The full text of Gann’s email can be found below:

“With endowment values shrinking, variable-rate debt costs rising and states cutting their financing, colleges face challenges on multiple fronts, said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education,” in the New York Times. “Tough Times Strain Colleges Rich and Poor” details the impact of the economic downturn on higher education and the steps institutions are taking to mitigate the effects. Across the country, the responses are startling:

Nationwide, retrenchment announcements are coming fast and furious, as state after state reduces education financing.

The University of Florida, which eliminated 430 faculty and staff positions this year, was told recently to cut next year’s budget by 10 percent, probably requiring more layoffs. Financing for the University of Massachusetts system was cut $24.6 million for the current fiscal year.

On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California proposed a midyear budget cut of $65.5 million for the University of California system — on top of the $48 million reduction already in the budget.

“Budget cuts mean that campuses won’t be able to fill faculty vacancies, that the student-faculty ratio rises, that students have lecturers instead of tenured professors,” said Mark G. Yudof, president of the California system. “Higher education is very labor intensive. We may be getting to the point where there will have to be some basic change in the model.”

Private colleges, too, are tightening their belts — turning down thermostats, scrapping plans for new gardens or quads, reducing faculty raises.

But wealthier private colleges seem unscathed, absorbing the blow to their endowment portfolio thanks to substantial buffer (Harvard’s, for example, hit $36.9 billion this summer). Some have even been able to provide students financial relief, eliminating loans, like CMC has, or freezing tuition. The question remains, though, how sustainable these initiatives are in the current economic climate–a particularly relevant question at CMC which has not only eliminated loans, but also invested in expansion. Answers elude curious students, though, as the school has kept quiet about its portfolio management. This opacity only heightens concerns. Budget constraints would affect students substantially, ranging from tuition rates to faculty ratios, so student concern is reasonable. And so is student input.

Let’s hope that if the Times is right that, “colleges need to re-examine all of their economic assumptions,” then CMC will include students in that re-examination, and the first step would have to be increasing transparency. The second would be a sober but necessary discussion of our resources and our priorities.

• Twitter Vote is launched today, giving you a better excuse to live-blog your life: election monitoring.

• California approaches record registration numbers with a 12 point Dem lead, and Sullivan wonders whether that will help kill Prop 8. A tough question, considering the tight polls.

• This works with the populist theme: Freakonomics accredits the lack of a financial class riot, in part, to iPods. And prescription drugs.

• In case you missed it, the NY Times had rather entertaining election special this weekend. Candidate profiles are a must (Obama | McCain), and Brooks’ essay on conservatism might resonate with some CMCers.

• And if you’re looking for some off-beat election coverage, check out GQ’s chief politico, Robert Draper blogging daily for the next week. Teaser: today’s post, My Own Favorite Islamic Socialist.

• TNR’s John Judis adds what should be commonsense, and the New Yorker’s Howard Kurtz ventures that Palin may have a little red book of her own. And finally a word from the father of this newscycle, Joe the Plumber–or, apparently Joe the Foreign Policy Expert:

For the first time in twenty-eight years, Democrats pose a serious threat to Representative David Dreier’s regime. In September, the DCCC labeled the contest a “Race to Watch,” and for good reason. Russ Warner polls about three points behind Dreier and has raised more money than any of Dreier’s former opponents.

Even though I can’t vote for Warner (I’m registered at home in Henry Waxman’s district), I went to his “Coffee and Conversation” town hall on CMC’s campus last Thursday. Given both the intensity of the race and the number of CMCers who register in Claremont, I expected a sizable turnout.

I was wrong. Eleven students attended.

Why was the turnout so terrible? Was it our allegiance to Dreier, a CMC alum? Probably not. Our extensive preparations (wifebeaters, bling, and tin foil grills) for the gangsta-themed TNC in Benson? Maybe, but I doubt it. The real reason seems a bit more ludicrous: Ludacris.

By 3:00 pm, the line for the November 22 Ludacris concert had taken shape in front of the Hub. At 5:00, hydrated by mocktails, students flocked to the line by the dozens. At 6:30, when the Warner event began, the line extended halfway to Bauer center. Is Ludacris really more important than political engagement? I would expect that from other colleges, but not from CMC.

Poor scheduling, not students, should take the blame. Serving virgin pina coladas and margaritas during hours of waiting in line makes sense; selling Ludacris tickets at the same time as an appearance by Dreier’s most formidable opponent in twenty-eight years does not. That’s not just ill-planned, it’s ludicrous.

Matthew Yglesias will speak at the Marian Miner Cook Atheneaum Wednesday evening. Now a senior editor for the Center for American Progress, Yglesias has worked for the Atlantic, the American Prospect and Talking Points Memo.

Yglesias is a favorite blogger of mine. In his blog for Think Progress, he is often influenced by his undergraduate work in philosophy at Harvard. I thought this piece on political connections was particularly interesting for CMC readers.

As per usual, the reception starts at 5:30 PM Wednesday with dinner and speaking to follow. CMC students who are interested in meeting with Yglesias after his talk should email Jim Kreines at jkreines@cmc.edu soon. He is organizing a small meeting after the talk.

In the interest of full disclosure, Yglesias’s employer, the Center for American Progress, provides $3000 annually in funding for the Claremont Port Side; however, we were not asked to promote his appearance in any way.

The Claremont Port Side’s coverage of the Karl Rove Protests by Publisher Madison Shimoda was mentioned today on the Los Angeles Times‘ Countdown to Crawford blog. They ask, “How many citizens have tried to arrest Karl Rove,” after a protestor tried to handcuff the “Boy Genius” in San Fransisco, attempting another citizens’ arrest. She got closer than the Claremont protesters, though, as they point out:

Then on Sept. 15, a group of students at Claremont McKenna College formed a “Karl Rove Welcoming Committee” to mark Rove’s appearance on that California campus. They displayed banners with the words “Face the Charges,” this a reference to Rove’s refusal to testify before Congress, and “War Criminal,” for his support of the Iraq war. Then, according to a progressive magazine called Claremont Portside, some students tried to deliver a citizens’ arrest. Police pepper-sprayed them.

Adding those two attempts with the two protests in Iowa earlier this year, the blogger surmise, “Hm. Maybe Karl should stay out of Iowa and California.”

If you have nothing to do over fall break, get your political fix by checking these out.

• Palin does a press conference! Or is it Tina Fey? Or it’s both. She still hasn’t done the Sunday Morning Shows, but she’s at least getting out there on Saturday Night. She opens with a fake news conference and an unfortunately real statement, “No, I’m not going to take any of your questions…”

• Oh, and she has rhythm. Palin’s more impressive scene was later, though, when follows the beat surprisingly well. Who says politicians can’t dance? Oh right, Rove.

• Andrew Sullivan answers the somewhat existential question, “Why I Blog,” in the newly re-designed Atlantic. He gives the much derided medium some philosophical legitimacy, and he gives me an excuse to consider myself an athlete: “Blogging is therefore to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.”

• CMC’s Charles Kesler “takes the Democratic nominee” seriously in “The Audacity of Barack Obama.” A considerably long essay examines many of the candidacy’s assumptions and puts Obama up against his intellectual and political forebearers, Lincoln, FDR, and Clinton–to name a few. A long, but worthwhile read.

• Don’t read Frank Rich’s column today. The points are old and the writing stale. If you want a better and far more entertaining review of the campaign’s punchlines thusfar, check out the Al Smith Dinner. It’s what politics should be: people suited up, coming together, and making fun of each other. Watch all four videos, especially McCain’s: no matter what you think, he’s still got it.

(This is the start, hopefully, of a recurring digest post with links to interesting news stories, blogs, and videos, which I come across while I’m across the pond. Since I’m eight hours ahead, I’m waking up to new columns and features that go live when you’re–hopefully–still sleeping. I’ll try to save you some time, then, when you get up. Let me know whether I should keep doing this in the comments section.)