More Views from Hyde Park

While we're talking about reactions in the neighborhood, another notable Hyde Parker, the controversial Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, has come out in praise of President-Elect Obama. He never endorsed Obama during the campaign and his endorsement was never sought out either.

As for Professor William Ayers, he cast his ballot on November 4th at the same polling place that Obama himself did. He said, "I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago. And, like millions and millions of others, I wish I knew him better."

The View from Hyde Park

The University of Chicago's student newspaper, The Maroon, interviewed faculty and ex-students of President-Elect Barack Obama's to get their perspectives on what he would bring to the presidency. Interestingly, while journalists such as Fareed Zakaria expect his presidency to look like that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, more than one of the UChicago interviewees draws comparisons to Woodrow Wilson.

I think that Saul Levmore, Dean of the Law School, captures most Hyde Parkers' sentiments when he says, "It feels nice. This is how it must be in a small country, where everybody knows everybody. It has a homey democratic feeling to it…. It doesn’t feel remote, the usual way politics feels with someone off on another planet".

We still have a little bit of that post-election euphoria here. People are still walking around with smiles on their faces and nodding to each other. A guy on the train last night gave me and D. a broad grin and a nod, and I thought that was a little unusual (yes, Chicagoans are friendly, but not on the El). Then I realized that I still had an Obama '08 button on my jacket.

Phase II

This really is a new generation of politicking. Barack Obama's "Office of the President-Elect" has a separate website designed to keep you in touch with the latest developments of the transition to the White House. His old campaign website is still active -- after all Nebraska's election results just came in and Missouri is still up in the air -- but this new one signifies that he's moved on to Phase II. Don't ask what the subtle change in font and appearance signifies...

Who Voted for Whom / More Photographs

If you haven't already seen the national exit poll, here it is. A nice juicy breakdown of who voted for which candidate, broken down by age, race, gender, income, and much, much more.

And here are more pictures from the Obama victory rally in Chicago's Grant Park. You can click on each one to enlarge them. As you can see, I didn't catch even a glimpse of Obama or even the stage, but it didn't matter. It was about the people anyway. And oh yes! For the record, Indiana voted Democrat for the first time in forty-four years! I asked for the moon and I actually got it!

Yes We Did!

Standing among the hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago's Grant Park at what we hoped would be Obama's victory rally, we watched on the jumbotrons the CNN vote count state by state. Each time they would announce the results of a state, there would be a thundering roar that stretched like a wave across the park.

The moment the election was called is one I'll never forget -- the gasps, the screaming, the incredulous looks from people who thought that they hadn't heard right, and then the tears of joy. People were hugging each other, shouting, crying. I will especially remember the reactions of the older African Americans around me. Long after the screams and chants had died down, they stood there silently with tears in their eyes. This was a long, long time coming.











Oh, what a night.

Election Day Morning

Today has been a gorgeous, sunny, unusually warm day in Chicago for early November -- 75°F (23°C or so). On my way to work at 8:00 a.m., I thought I'd take some pictures of the long voting lines at the polling place closest to us. But I was told that the long line snaking around the corner had dissipated by about 7:30 a.m. All I saw was a woman handing out voter guides to stray voters while making sure to steer clear of the "no electioneering" boundaries near the entrance of the building.

On the bus to work and at work itself, there has been a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation. The conversations were all about the elections: how long one had to stand in line, about who got tickets to the Obama rally tonight in downtown Chicago and who was going to take their chances by going there without tickets, about what could be going through the minds of undecided voters, and even a conversation about how no one seemed to know any McCain supporters among all their friends and relatives. That's a little unusual, even in Hyde Park!

I initially turned down the campaign's offer of tickets to the Obama rally (standing for literally hours on end in a crowed doesn't appeal to me) but later when my friend Justin offered me a ticket, I decided that I really should go for the sake of history. So that's my plan tonight: to join 1,000,000 people in Grant Park!

What I'm hoping for is not just a victory for Obama, but a landslide. His aim has been to rid the country of the red state/blue state divide and I think that a close election such as that in 2000 and in 2004 will do nothing towards that effort. What I'm hoping for is a mandate. And that Indiana will turn blue... but that might be asking for the moon. Let's see!

The Past and the Future

Here's something I just came across: a visual history of presidential election results since the very first one. It shows you the map of the U.S. with the states colored according to each election result. I'm no historian but something like this where you see dramatic shifts where the country is all red states or all blue states makes you wonder what must have happened (Civil War, WWII, assassination of Kennedy, Vietnam War, and so on). I hope they update this on November 5 to put this year's elections in perspective.

And for anyone not sick of the polls yet (it's an addiction from which we'll all have to withdraw cold-turkey on November 5), here's a poll of polls where they average out a number of different polls: