Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Coverage, Part Deux: Barack Obama declared the next president of the United States

Maybe John McCain should not have elected to watch the results in the Barry Goldwater Suite. More live blogging on tonight's historic presidential election between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain... (Btw, to read the first part of my 2008 Presidential Election Coverage, click here.)

10:29 p.m. ET: The Barry Goldwater Suite?! I cannot believe John McCain and Sarah Palin are camped out in the Barry Goldwater Suite.

10:33 p.m. MSNBC projects Georgia to go for McCain. Again, not a huge surprise, though in my fantasy (okay, my Obama becomes the President fantasy -- I'm not going to blog about the others), the entire electoral map is blue.

Aside: What is the deal with Tom Cruise and this "Valkyrie" movie? All these guys are speaking with British accents looking, well, British (though they are supposed to be German), and then there is Tom Cruise. I say the movie dies. In other movie news, I am loving the new, sexy commercial for "Quantum of Solace" with the funky soundtrack. I don't like blonds but I think I could make an exception for Daniel Craig. (Note to self: You still need to rent/see "Casino Royale.")

10:39 p.m. Sigh. Back to presidential election coverage. South Dakota is seeing red.

You know what's fun about watching MSNBC? You get to watch some poor schlubs putting red or blue states on the Rockefeller Center rink -- and listen to the comic stylings of Mike Murphy, who is getting funnier as the evening goes on.

10:42 p.m. NEBRASKA?! Come on. Does ANYONE really care about Nebraska (besides Nebraskans and people who went to college there? Go Huskers!)

10:44 p.m. Oooh, Chucky T. (aka Chuck Todd) just used the "P" word = (insert ominous music) Projections. Though I'm liking that "284" Chuck just put up on the big board, for Obama.

10:46 p.m. The spouse is flipping channels. Oh. My. God. CNN has totally lost it. I am watching Will.I.Am "via hologram" on CNN, speaking with Anderson Cooper. How does Cooper keep a straight face? So help me, if Will.I.Am says "Beam me up, Scotty," I am going to lose it.

Flipping channels again... back to MSNBC...

10:49 p.m. Pat Buchanan admits he's not a McCain man. Shocking. Not. Blames McCain's problems on the Dow dropping 5000 points. Hurrah for Rachel Maddow counterpunching and noting that McCain ran "an atrociously bad campaign." Wow, Buchanan is totally throwing McCain under the bus, or should I say, the Straight Talk Express.

And we're back on CNN... which is panning to various "watching parties" around the world, including places like Sydney and Kenya.

WTF? Bill Bennett will "pray for Barack Obama and this country"?! What a fat, fatuous pig. So much for objectivity. And btw, what exactly makes McCain a "war hero"? Did he save lots of people? Sacrifice himself to save others? Cause being a POW, while an awful, awful thing, does not equal "hero." And as for the awful, awful war in Iraq, there would have been no need for a surge if we hadn't gone over there in the first place. How many years has it been since "Mission Accomplished"?

11:00 p.m. NBC NEWS HAS JUST CALLED THE ELECTION FOR BARACK OBAMA. MSNBC gives Obama 284 electoral votes; McCain has 146. CNN also projecting Obama the winner with 297 electoral votes, to McCain's 139.

God Bless America. And God Keep Barack Obama Safe. (And thank you for not giving us Vice President Sarah Palin.)

UPDATED 11:17 p.m.: Obama also projected to win Colorado and Florida, bringing his electoral college total to 333 -- and Jesse Jackson is crying (probably because he wasn't elected president, though maybe I'm being a bit harsh).

11:18 p.m. Senator John McCain is giving his concession speech. Very gracious. I actually have tears in my eyes. (And there are a lot of very white, very unhappy people at The Biltmore -- and no sign of Sarah Palin or Joe the Plumber, at least on MSNBC. OK. Just saw her, though it took a while. Now will she please GO AWAY?)

11:24 p.m. Although he doesn't need the money, McCain could always have a career selling stuff (McCain Fein Gold anyone?) on QVC.

11:27 p.m. Okay. I'm done. Good night -- and good luck to President Obama.

UPDATED 11/5/08 at 7:33 a.m.: Yes, We Did. For those of you who missed Obama's acceptance speech, here it is (in two parts):



Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the 44th President of the United States.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen

Anonymous said...

I mainly watched CNN’s election coverage and also (earlier) Fox news – together with 800-plus delirious French and American Democrats at the Paris Aquarium. Luckily, at about 2:30 I managed to move from the steps to a seat in the main auditorium. Of course, we all leapt to our feet at 5:00 a.m. when CNN proclaimed Obama’s victory, and then again when he spoke. It really was a wonderful speech, especially the part about his daughters having earned the puppy they’ll bring to the White House. I totally agree that McCain’s speech was gracious, although he spoke too long.

This truly has been a historic election. Let’s hope it’s the start of a presidency that will once again make us proud to be Americans. Apologies for the sentiment; attribute it to relief and sleeplessness.

Anonymous said...

What an amazing night for the United States of America!!!!!! We've taken back our great country. Promise and hope are in the air like never before. Markets should be interesting to watch today.

Will you please send your mother to Washington to dress Michelle, though? Pretty please?

Loved your coverage, as always. Keep it up, J-Two-O!