Candy Crowley: Hobos and Candy Corn
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/31/art.halloweenblogs.jpg]
Editor's Note: Happy Halloween! We asked some of our favorite CNN personalities to share with us their Halloween memories. We asked them a few 'Trick or Treat' questions.... here's what they had to say:
Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent
Favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
Hobo. Mostly because my mother picked out some of my clothes I could destroy to look like a bum...we got a tree stick and put a bag at the end of it ..my dad stomped on one of his hats for me and put charcoal on my face. It all seemed illegal. Livin' the dream at the age of 5
Favorite scary movie?
"Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte." I only saw it once and had nightmares for years. I believe it involved a severed head bumping down the stairs.
Best Halloween memory?
FULL POST
Erica Hill: Wore my dress and bonnet even when it wasn't Halloween
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/31/art.halloweenblogs.jpg]
Editor's Note: Happy Halloween! We asked some of our favorite CNN personalities to share with us their Halloween memories. We asked them a few 'Trick or Treat' questions.... here's what they had to say:
Erica Hill | BIO
AC360° Correspondent
Favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
My Laura Ingalls costume definitely got the most play! I LOVED "Little House on the Prairie" as a kid, and wore my dress and bonnet even when it wasn't Halloween. I had some fabulous early 80's clogs to round out the ensemble. I did like the costumes my husband and I wore last year – Richie and Margot Tenenbaum. Classic.
Favorite scary movie?
No scary movies for this girl! I am the biggest wuss you'll ever meet. When I was younger, I did like "Poltergeist" and remember watching "Tales from the Crypt" with our babysitter, but you'd never catch me watching them now.
Best Halloween memory?
FULL POST
Voters see Obama's run in shades of gray
Barbara Barrett
Washington Correspondent for The News & Observer
Few say that race is an issue, but his candidacy prompts introspection
As a child growing up in Durham, Lonnie Torain remembers when he would walk past a restaurant, with the warm food smelling so good, beckoning him inside. He had to walk around back to get fed. This month Torain, 65, stepped into a voting booth in his hometown and cast his presidential ballot for another dark-skinned man, Barack Obama.
"We've been waiting a long time," Torain said. "It really made me feel good."
In North Carolina, Obama is working to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1980, and to become America's first black president.
Conversations with voters this past week show that Obama's candidacy has led voters of many backgrounds to wonder about race in America. He has given blacks and other minorities pride in his achievements, made some whites uncomfortable and led voters of many skin tones to question their own beliefs and motivations.
"Race is always going to be an issue," said Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon University poll, which surveys adults statewide on issues of society and politics. "I don't think it's going to be an issue of any significance. ... The demographics have changed so much in the last 20 years. Jesse Helms might have a hard time getting re-elected."
No-match list catches regular voters by surprise
Curtis Morgan and Charles Rabin
Miami Herald
What do a promising rookie for the Miami Heat, a systems analyst from Bulgaria, the wife of a Republican congressional candidate and Fidel Castro have in common?
They can't just show up Nov. 4 and fill out a regular ballot. Theirs are among 12,000 names statewide flagged under Florida's Voter Verification Law, a "no match" screening process embroiled in legal and political controversy.
The ID check spits out voter registrations that don't match driver's license or social security records. It has left voters on a list dominated by blacks, Hispanics and Democrats in a legal limbo - unless they supply elections officials with additional proof they are who they say they are.
More than one-third of the people on the "no match" list live in Miami-Dade or Broward counties - most notably Mario Chalmers, a Heat guard who starred in last year's Final Four college basketball championships.
Obama's prospects in Missouri may hinge on the economy - and race
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/POLITICS/10/31/last.weekend/art.obamageneric.gi.jpg]Michael Finnegan
Los Angeles Times
Some white union members in the suburbs northwest of St. Louis are blunt about their racism when Gary Booth knocks on their doors.
"I am not voting for a black man," they tell Booth, who leads organized labor's Democratic campaign effort in nearly all-white St. Charles County.
Others are indirect but make clear that their unease with Barack Obama's race will influence their vote on Tuesday. "It's a difficult thing to try to break down those barriers," Booth said.
Whether Obama or Republican rival John McCain carries Missouri depends in no small part on the nearly 250,000 voters of St. Charles County, a fast-growing working-class area. It would be tough for any Democrat to win in this culturally conservative county, where many voters oppose abortion rights and gay marriage. However, the troubled economy and Obama's huge campaign operation have put the entire state in play.
The nominee is making two trips to Missouri in the campaign's final week. He has 44 offices in the state, which President Bush won handily in 2004, compared with McCain's 16. As for unpaid volunteers in Missouri, Obama has thousands.
Next 72 hours are crunch time for McCain, Obama
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/22/art.undecided.gi.jpg]
Donna Brazille
CNN Political Contributor
Have your friends voted yet? What about members of your family? And how about you? How are you going to feel November 5, and for the next four years, if you don't?
What if your candidate loses? You're not allowed to complain if you don't vote, and if you're anything like me, it would be impossible to stay silent for four years.
Regardless of which campaign you're working for or merely supporting, the next 72 hours are the most critical period in this, the home stretch. Campaigns are now focused on one thing and one thing only: getting out their voters. And you registered voters are their targets.
Over the next few days, Barack Obama's and John McCain's campaign teams will begin their "dry run" up to Election Day. Dry runs are held to work out any kinks, test the field operations, and recruit last-minute volunteers to fill in the gaps.
There's also the "fire drill" with key campaign staff members gathering in the "boiler room" and testing everything, including the databases with lists of supporters and undecided voters and the auto dialers used to make last-minute calls to voters who need reassurance. iReport.com: Share your early voting experience
The street operation, sometimes called Operation Sweep, involves teams of volunteers who will be deployed to major intersections, football games, shopping malls or anywhere they can reach people where they work, play, shop, and eat out on weekends
Editor's Note: Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist, serves as a political contributor for CNN. She also serves as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and founder of Brazile & Associates, a Washington-based political consulting firm. Brazile, who served as the campaign manager for the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman ticket in 2000, wrote "Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics," a memoir about her life in politics.
“Oprah” of Arabia…
Octavia Nasr
Arab Affairs Editor
She's viewed as the face of success.. and her story inspires so many women particularly in the Arab world...
When Arabs are asked why they like Oprah Winfrey, many say she empowers them... teaches them... and gives them something to look forward to.
A woman we caught up with in the streets of Beirut said, "She also gave me courage to speak out about certain problems we don't (usually) speak about… like women’s freedom and sex abuse."
Women’s rights and sexual abuse are often completely taboo in most of the Arab Middle East, which remains conservative– unable or unwilling to address tough topics openly. A woman is sometimes forced to hide the fact that she was raped for fear of repercussions from society or even her own family. Yes, honor killing continues to be practiced in some parts of the Arab world.
The Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting Center is based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It ushers Oprah Winfrey straight into people's homes across the Middle East region five days a week... in English with Arabic subtitles.
Joe Johns: I loved the cape and the fangs
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/31/art.vert.halloween.johns.gif width=292 height=320 caption= "AC360 artist's interpretation of Joe Johns' favorite Halloween costume based on his blog"]
Editor's Note: Happy Halloween! We asked some of our favorite CNN personalities to share with us their Halloween memories. We asked them a few 'Trick or Treat' questions.... here's what they had to say:
Joe Johns | BIO
CNN Correspondent
Favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
My favorite costume as a kid (elementary school) had to be Dracula. I loved the cape and the fangs and 'hypnotizing' girls I had a crush on. I was very vampire when I was a kid. If I had grown up much later than I did I would have been very attracted to the Gothic scene!
Favorite scary movie?
Favorite movie was the old black and white Dracula with Béla Lugosi. There are pics of me in high school because I actually played Dracula in my high school play (I was the only one who who could do a poor imitation of a Romanian accent. But those are too sensitive to be released!
Tom Foreman: If you received a whole candy bar, that was a big deal.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/31/art.vert.halloween.foreman.gif width=292 height=320 caption="AC360 artist's interpretation of Tom Foreman's favorite Halloween costume based on his blog"]
Editor's Note: Happy Halloween! We asked some of our favorite CNN personalities to share with us their Halloween memories. We asked them a few 'Trick or Treat' questions.... here's what they had to say:
Tom Foreman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent
Favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
I had a store bought Frankenstein costume when I was in kindergarten: green satin pants, some kind of long sleeved green top with a picture of Frankenstein on it, and a mask that would allow you to see out of only one eye hole at a time, unless you were congenitally gifted with eyes that were three inches apart. I tried to run across a dark street on the Air Force base where we lived in South Dakota, to keep up with my older brother and sister, and I fell, ripping the knee. I cried because it hurt, because I ruined my costume, and because I was pretty sure at that point people would realize I was not really Frankenstein. Mind you, I was already working against type by being three feet tall at the time.
Favorite scary movie?
The Sound of Music. Enough said.
Best Halloween memory?
FULL POST
Randi Kaye: Norman Bates still scares me!
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/31/art.halloweenblogs.jpg]
Editor's Note: Happy Halloween! We asked some of our favorite CNN personalities to share with us their Halloween memories. We asked them a few 'Trick or Treat' questions.... here's what they had to say:
Randi Kaye | Bio
AC360° Correspondent
Favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
One year I went as a tube of Colgate toothpaste. I wrapped myself in a huge piece of foam rubber.. painted it with the Colgate logo... and painted my face red for the top. It was really tough to walk in. I regretted it from the moment I started out. I waddled around as long as I could before I had to pack it in. But I got enough candy, trust me.
Favorite scary movie?
My favorite scary movie is Psycho. Norman Bates still scares me! I always watch it when it's on TV... I can't help it. I still have nightmares about that guy. In fact, there have been a few shady motels we've had to stay on while reporting on the road for 360 that we like to call the "Bates Motel" just like the movie. Luckily, good ol' Norman has never shown up.
Best Halloween memory?
FULL POST
On Twitter
