November 4, 2008

4:47 a.m. Election Day 2008

The last week or so, Republican pundits have been recalling the famous photo of Harry Truman holding the Chicago Tribune's headline reading "Dewey Defeats Truman." You know who else held that photograph, urging people to go to the polls?
Walter Mondale.
Michael Dukakis.
Bob Dole.
And can you guess which traditionally conservative newspaper (that endorsed Bush four years ago) endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States?

At the school where I teach, the atmosphere was electrified. Indiana had not gone blue in a Presidential election since 1964, and the polls were showing that it might just happen for us. Kids were walking around with Obama buttons and T-shirts.
When I made a coffee run, I saw a woman dressed like Sarah Palin standing on a street corner holding a sign reading some dittohead talking point. At Starbucks, another woman had pinned a sign to her sweater that read "Trouble voting? Talk to me." I found out she was a lawyer from Notre Dame.

Contrasting the two campaign headquarters was like watching an episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. Thousands and thousands of happy people in my favorite city, contrasted with a single guitar player in Arizona.

At about 12:30 a.m., I was watching CNN with my wife and...it happened. Both Dawn and I cried real, open tears of joy. I got online and re-watched President Elect Barack Obama walk out onto that stage with flashbulbs popping over and over again.
The following day I rejoiced with just about everybody at work. Almost everybody I know in South Bend has suffered in one way or another because of the last disastrous eight years. I told my students to save their newspapers. God, what a great moment.