Eyes on the News

Clinton is up in the polls--by as much as 16 points in one instance. Those who once backed Ross Perot are finding Clinton favorable over President Bush, as are most young people.

Well, not all young people.

The Weekly Reader, a paper that circulates to about eight million students through 10th grade, has its own poll for the disenfranchised minority. Bush took a 16 point advantage over Clinton, The New York Times reported, mostly on the strength of the kindergarten through fourth grade vote. Not since the Eisenhower Stevenson race have the youngsters failed to predict the winner. Since that was the first Weekly Reader poll, their record isn't bad.

Paul E. Tsongas called Bill Clinton the "pander bear." New York Times columnist Russell Baker called George Bush the political Santa Claus--sending jobs programs and Taiwanese contracts down the chimney.

Neither of the major party candidates, though, have even lifted a finger to court one rare elusive block of voters: the deceased.

Dead people have voted in Boston at least 13 times since 1988, according to an Associated Press review of city election records and state death certificates.

And according to the Boston Herald, at least three others who cast ballots have registered addresses on vacant plots of land.

The investigation turned up no direct instances of fraud or evidence that ballots from beyond the grave affected the outcome of a particular election. In most cases, the problems resulted from "clerical errors or oversight," the newspaper reported.

Unlike the alleged fraud engineered by the campaign of John F. Kennedy '40, the deceased vote did not affect the outcome of any local election.

It was the week of the cultural elite. In the wake of Newsweek's tantalizing feature which was the first to name names in the nebulous debate, 15 Minutes selected Harvard's own elite.

Beneath the thin layer of humor and self-mockery, people appeared to take the feature quite seriously. More than one person jokingly asked why he or she didn't make the list. And on the Dunster G notice board, someone got a little more serious.

"I didn't make the cultural elite...Is there a comp?"

You don't get more elite than Ted Turner. The multi-millionaire media magnate and his wife Jane Fonda got a whirlwind tour of the campus this week courtesy of the Institute of Politics.

In his speech at the IOP, the CNN czar joked with an edge of bitterness about the lack of cable in Harvard dormitories.

Don't ask Turner to pay for the re-wiring job, though. This benefactor does not have Harvard in mine for future donations.

"I tried to get into Harvard," he said in his speech. "If they wanted my money, the should have seen then that I was going to be a success."

Turner isn't the only billionaire who has snubbed Harvard. William Gates, Harvard dropout and founder of Microsoft Corp., was named the richest person in America by Forbes magazine recently.

The self described "hard-core technoid" has not donated money to the University. He did bankroll to the tune of six million a computer lab at Stanford, though.

Can you hear the fundraisers salivatings?

Paul E. Tsongas called Bill Clinton the "pander bear." New York Times columnist Russell Baker called George Bush the political Santa Claus--sending jobs programs and Taiwanese contracts down the chimney.

Neither of the major party candidates, though, have even lifted a finger to court one rare elusive block of voters: the deceased.

Dead people have voted in Boston at least 13 times since 1988, according to an Associated Press review of city election records and state death certificates.

And according to the Boston Herald, at least three others who cast ballots have registered addresses on vacant plots of land.

The investigation turned up no direct instances of fraud or evidence that ballots from beyond the grave affected the outcome of a particular election. In most cases, the problems resulted from "clerical errors or oversight," the newspaper reported.

Unlike the alleged fraud engineered by the campaign of John F. Kennedy '40, the deceased vote did not affect the outcome of any local election.

It was the week of the cultural elite. In the wake of Newsweek's tantalizing feature which was the first to name names in the nebulous debate, 15 Minutes selected Harvard's own elite.

Beneath the thin layer of humor and self-mockery, people appeared to take the feature quite seriously. More than one person jokingly asked why he or she didn't make the list. And on the Dunster G notice board, someone got a little more serious.

"I didn't make the cultural elite...Is there a comp?"

You don't get more elite than Ted Turner. The multi-millionaire media magnate and his wife Jane Fonda got a whirlwind tour of the campus this week courtesy of the Institute of Politics.

In his speech at the IOP, the CNN czar joked with an edge of bitterness about the lack of cable in Harvard dormitories.

Don't ask Turner to pay for the re-wiring job, though. This benefactor does not have Harvard in mine for future donations.

"I tried to get into Harvard," he said in his speech. "If they wanted my money, the should have seen then that I was going to be a success."

Turner isn't the only billionaire who has snubbed Harvard. William Gates, Harvard dropout and founder of Microsoft Corp., was named the richest person in America by Forbes magazine recently.

The self described "hard-core technoid" has not donated money to the University. He did bankroll to the tune of six million a computer lab at Stanford, though.

Can you hear the fundraisers salivatings?

It was the week of the cultural elite. In the wake of Newsweek's tantalizing feature which was the first to name names in the nebulous debate, 15 Minutes selected Harvard's own elite.

Beneath the thin layer of humor and self-mockery, people appeared to take the feature quite seriously. More than one person jokingly asked why he or she didn't make the list. And on the Dunster G notice board, someone got a little more serious.

"I didn't make the cultural elite...Is there a comp?"

You don't get more elite than Ted Turner. The multi-millionaire media magnate and his wife Jane Fonda got a whirlwind tour of the campus this week courtesy of the Institute of Politics.

In his speech at the IOP, the CNN czar joked with an edge of bitterness about the lack of cable in Harvard dormitories.

Don't ask Turner to pay for the re-wiring job, though. This benefactor does not have Harvard in mine for future donations.

"I tried to get into Harvard," he said in his speech. "If they wanted my money, the should have seen then that I was going to be a success."

Turner isn't the only billionaire who has snubbed Harvard. William Gates, Harvard dropout and founder of Microsoft Corp., was named the richest person in America by Forbes magazine recently.

The self described "hard-core technoid" has not donated money to the University. He did bankroll to the tune of six million a computer lab at Stanford, though.

Can you hear the fundraisers salivatings?

Turner isn't the only billionaire who has snubbed Harvard. William Gates, Harvard dropout and founder of Microsoft Corp., was named the richest person in America by Forbes magazine recently.

The self described "hard-core technoid" has not donated money to the University. He did bankroll to the tune of six million a computer lab at Stanford, though.

Can you hear the fundraisers salivatings?