After an exhausting saga riddled with false conclusions, the election cycle finally comes to a definitive close tonight. This means no more speculating, debating or anxious poll-poring. It’s time to stop focusing on binders of women. All that’s left to do is vote and wait for the results.

But where’s the fun in that? We have only a few precious hours left to enjoy the often absurd, always entertaining theater that is the American Presidential election–drink it in! If you’re a hardened poll junkie, revel in your final chance to extrapolate from the data found on sites like the no-nonsense RealClearPolitics. For hardcore economics majors, here is a more detailed comparison of the candidates’ economic plans. If you’re a prospective political scientist, peruse the analysis of intelligent blogs like The Monkey Cage and FiveThirtyEight. Use your last chance to consider every possible outcome on interactive sites like 512 Paths to the White House and 270ToWin. Finally, once the results start coming in and you’re a few beers into your election drinking game, you’ll want to catch Jon and Steve’s streaming live coverage. This only happens once every four years–take advantage of it. And feel free to add your favorite election-related time-waster in a comment!

Note: Guilt-free usage of these time-wasters is only permitted to those who actually voted. 

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Campus Champions of Change Challenge, a program initiated in the fall of 2011, is a White House- (and mtvU-) sponsored competition to spotlight student-led community projects on campuses across the country. And guess who’s in the race this year? Brown’s very own Market Shares Program!

Here’s how the challenge works: thousands of students and student groups across the nation are welcome to submit their programs to the White House Office of Public Engagement, which then chooses 15 finalists that best embody positive change in the campus community and move toward “helping America win the future.” Isn’t that vague nice? The vote to determine the top five finalists is open to the public — that means you have a say!

Of the 15 projects, the five finalists with the most votes are invited to the White House and will be featured on mtvU. Let’s show America what we’ve got: vote to help send Brown Market Shares to DC! Don’t know what Brown Market Shares is all about? Read on!

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Guards abandoned their Sciences Library posts, and studiers ran down from the stacks. Sports teams crowded the sidewalks of Waterman Street at the corner of Thayer on their walk back from the OMAC. A RIPTA bus stood stalled on Thayer, and passersby stopped and stared. All for what? A 30-second drive-by by at least 20 vehicles, 12 motorcycles and one limo with tinted windows, with President Obama waving from inside.

At approximately 6:35 p.m., on his trip back from a speech at the Rhode Island Convention Center, Obama and his motorcade flew down Waterman Street on their way to a dinner and jack-o-lantern making event at a home on the East Side.

Earlier in the day, Obama spoke at a buckle factory in Woonsocket, R.I.

In time for his visit to the Ocean State, he announced he would not endorse a candidate in the state’s gubernatorial race. Democrat Frank Caprio was hoping for a nod, but Obama “decided against issuing an endorsement in the race for Rhode Island governor due to his feelings toward ‘his friend Lincoln Chafee,’ ” independent candidate and former U.S. Senator, according to the Providence Journal. “I never asked President Obama for his endorsement,” Caprio said, in a radio interview this morning. “He can take his endorsement and really shove it, as far as I’m concerned.”

Check tomorrow’s Herald for more on Obama’s Lil’ Rhody appearance.

You might have heard that President Obama gave a speech two nights ago entitled “The End of the Combat Mission in Iraq.” Here it is if you haven’t already watched it and want to start off the semester by impressing that Political Science professor.

In the video, President Obama said that he made a promise during his campaign, and that this was his fulfillment of that process. He also said that all U.S. troops will leave by the end of next year. He discusses the future involvement of the U.S. with Iraq, and what this means domestically, as well.

Last weekend, the annual White House Correspondents Dinner was held in D.C. For those of you who don’t know, this is an opportunity for the president and comedians to make fun of themselves and headline-grabbing stories. So here is Obama playing the comedian, followed by a (less funny) performance by Jay Leno. With this overview of the last year in news, you’ll be able to pretend to your friends you were paying attention all along.

Retro-style “Diamonds and Coal” from The Herald’s issue on October 13, 2006:

A cubic zirconium to Sen. Barack Obama, who spoke to a filled-to-capacity Salomon last night. We appreciate his delivering a heartfelt speech after sitting in four hours of I-95 rush-hour traffic, but if you’re going to show up late, you should at least quote Abraham Lincoln correctly — we’re pretty sure a house divided can fall just fine.