On Tuesday night, while I stood in the middle of hundreds of thousands of emotional, ecstatic and euphoric people of all ages, ethnicities and voices, I saw the tremendous city of Chicago shake. Again and again, as state after state was called for Barack Obama, the potential of the night began to sink in for his once superstitious but unyieldingly optimistic supporters and they grew louder and louder.
At 9:59 p.m. the west coast polls were only a minute away from closing. With 30 seconds remaining, all of us felt the electricity in each cool November breeze. At ten seconds, a countdown began. 10, 9, 8, 7, ... each number exponentially louder than the last as more and more thousands joined in. 6, 5, 4,... Supporters assumed this would mean California's 55 electoral votes would be a huge boost and may lead to an Obama victory within the hour. 3, 2, 1... the crowd, which sounded as if it were counting down a new year, exploded as it was presented, in fact, with a new era.
The already loud and deep drums of CNN's breaking news graphic were multiplied ten thousand times for over a quarter of a million overjoyed supporters and what began as another overwhelmingly loud cheer for what we all believed was going to be California's return to blue became an indescribable storm of sound amidst a sea of tears, smiles, flags and hugs with strangers.
I have never seen and may never again see such a massive eruption of overwhelming joy as when I witnessed Barack Obama clinch the presidency in the jam packed Grant Park of his adopted hometown, Chicago.
To see the incalculable number of tears is all anyone would ever need for assurance of the monumental importance of this event, this moment and this result.
Barack Hussein Obama, President of our United States of America. Can you believe it yet?
A few hundred thousand of my (suddenly) closest friends and I were gladly in shock long after the announcement. Whatever fatigue had been draining us after ten hours of waiting was gone. We screamed, jumped and laughed in disbelief while at the same time knowing that each person now had something new to deeply believe in that was greater than what was there before.
The crowd. My god, the people. Did you see them all?
Our people, multitudes of the overjoyed, was a mix of young, beautiful people, awed, thrilled middle aged people and older men and women who were just a few generations removed from slavery often having tears streaming down their face. Our crowd was a truthful cross section of America. McCain's rally was a loud, telling obituary for a bruised and shrinking white, southern party that is going to need to regroup, reorganize and rethink itself.
I came to Chicago with no ticket to the rally. The 75,000 ticketed spots had been taken up immediately upon release days earlier. A friend and I went anyway. A few hundred dollars a flight for a small chance to see this? Yeah. Definitely.
Election day began, for me, with a jet airplane. I was walking back to my hotel at 12:30 a.m. on the morning of November 4th, about to get ready for the long day ahead. I passed Midway Airport. As I did, Barack Obama's plane flew so close over me that I was, at first, scared. We were not far from the runway and the jet, decorated and colorful, was enormous when placed so close above me.
That's the kind of day I had. From midnight on, every single thing went the right (left) way. From spotting his plane at a shockingly close distance to meeting Obama's supporters from around the world to seeing the sobering and powerful acceptance speech with my own two eyes, this was, without a doubt, the greatest day of my young life.
Before I finally sleep (it's been more than a day and I spent more than 12 of those hours standing, dancing and skipping and not enough drinking), I'd like to leave you with some things you need to look at:
The Huffington Post has an incredible slideshow up with pictures of reactions from around the world (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/world-leaders-congratulat_n_141337.html). The American News Project has a video essay that you should see (http://americannewsproject.com/node/174).
I'm wondering – where were you last night? How did you celebrate or mourn?
Good night. We've had some good luck.
[ps these pictures aren't mine. my pictures havent been uploaded yet. i will do that soon and put them here.]
I was playing sc on my computer when I heard loud, girl screams. I realized something was up so I ran outside and found out Obama had won. I had no idea how they counted so fast but I was so excited. I ran over to my friends dorm and then we watched McCain's speech followed by Obama's. Truly epic.
i have no idea why people got so excited over obamas election. they're all just politicians to me. maybe if the cubs won the world series or something this would be warranted.
what especially worries me are my fellow college students who think obama is black jesus or the second coming or the messiah in general or that he's going to fix all our problems and he's going to end the war, blah blah blah blah blah. Living Colour yay
On November 06 2008 07:36 Caller wrote: i have no idea why people got so excited over obamas election. they're all just politicians to me. maybe if the cubs won the world series or something this would be warranted.
what especially worries me are my fellow college students who think obama is black jesus or the second coming or the messiah in general or that he's going to fix all our problems and he's going to end the war, blah blah blah blah blah. Living Colour yay
He's certainly better than McCain though.
This election is not about what he will do at all. It's about what Obama represents. With this election, racial equality has taken a huge step forward, the direction of our economic policy will be shifted, our foreign policy will turn a different way, and most importantly I believe America's world image will soon change. He may not do everything he promises, but he will bring about a new era, in which those dreams are possible.
On November 06 2008 07:36 Caller wrote: i have no idea why people got so excited over obamas election. they're all just politicians to me. maybe if the cubs won the world series or something this would be warranted.
what especially worries me are my fellow college students who think obama is black jesus or the second coming or the messiah in general or that he's going to fix all our problems and he's going to end the war, blah blah blah blah blah. Living Colour yay
He's certainly better than McCain though.
This election is not about what he will do at all. It's about what Obama represents. With this election, racial equality has taken a huge step forward, the direction of our economic policy will be shifted, our foreign policy will turn a different way, and most importantly I believe America's world image will soon change. He may not do everything he promises, but he will bring about a new era, in which those dreams are possible.
On November 06 2008 07:36 Caller wrote: i have no idea why people got so excited over obamas election. they're all just politicians to me. maybe if the cubs won the world series or something this would be warranted.
what especially worries me are my fellow college students who think obama is black jesus or the second coming or the messiah in general or that he's going to fix all our problems and he's going to end the war, blah blah blah blah blah. Living Colour yay
He's certainly better than McCain though.
This election is not about what he will do at all. It's about what Obama represents. With this election, racial equality has taken a huge step forward, the direction of our economic policy will be shifted, our foreign policy will turn a different way, and most importantly I believe America's world image will soon change. He may not do everything he promises, but he will bring about a new era, in which those dreams are possible.
exactly.
not to mention its basically the first modern president-elect/presidential candidate without strong financing from corporations and lobbyists.
On November 06 2008 07:36 Caller wrote: i have no idea why people got so excited over obamas election. they're all just politicians to me. maybe if the cubs won the world series or something this would be warranted.
On November 06 2008 07:36 Caller wrote: i have no idea why people got so excited over obamas election. they're all just politicians to me. maybe if the cubs won the world series or something this would be warranted.
what especially worries me are my fellow college students who think obama is black jesus or the second coming or the messiah in general or that he's going to fix all our problems and he's going to end the war, blah blah blah blah blah. Living Colour yay
He's certainly better than McCain though.
This election is not about what he will do at all. It's about what Obama represents. With this election, racial equality has taken a huge step forward, the direction of our economic policy will be shifted, our foreign policy will turn a different way, and most importantly I believe America's world image will soon change. He may not do everything he promises, but he will bring about a new era, in which those dreams are possible.
exactly.
not to mention its basically the first modern president-elect/presidential candidate without strong financing from corporations and lobbyists.
Barack Obama Top Contributors: (non academic)
Goldman Sachs $874,207 Microsoft Corp $714,108 Google Inc $701,099 JPMorgan Chase & Co $581,460 Citigroup Inc $581,216 National Amusements Inc $543,859 Time Warner $508,148 Sidley Austin LLP $492,445 Skadden, Arps et al $473,424 Wilmerhale Llp $466,679 UBS AG $454,795 Latham & Watkins $426,924 Morgan Stanley $425,102
I'm pretty sure this speaks for itself. By comparison, George Bush received $283,000 from Goldman Sachs.
On November 06 2008 07:36 Caller wrote: i have no idea why people got so excited over obamas election. they're all just politicians to me. maybe if the cubs won the world series or something this would be warranted.
what especially worries me are my fellow college students who think obama is black jesus or the second coming or the messiah in general or that he's going to fix all our problems and he's going to end the war, blah blah blah blah blah. Living Colour yay
On November 06 2008 06:32 Last Romantic wrote: Berkeley fucking erupted.
So loud until ~4 AM
bleh it was pretty loud.
i was talking on vent w/ someone who lives in chicago last night, and he said it was so fucking loud, and he lives on the 24th floor of an apartment building. he held his mic near his window and i could hear the noise vaguely... lol.
I was actually in a computer lab at my school when my mother, who was at work watching the news, txt'ed me saying Obama had won. I let my class know and there was a small cheer! =)
Downtown oakland was effectively shutdown for a while. There was practically a street parade on broadway.
I've been trying hard not to be excited about Obama. I agree that people should be sober about politics or anything that affects the lives of millions of people. But fuck it's hard not to be swept up in the enthusiasm.
EPT![[image loading]](http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2008/grant_park_election/grant_park_09.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/599/slide_599_12596_large.jpg)
