In
full: the US Elections
The announcement came at 10pm Chicago time. Barack Obama was declared
America’s next President. The vast sea of humanity packed into the city’s
Grant Park erupted in a deafening roar that must have been audible ten miles
out in Lake Michigan.
Tens of thousands of Obama supporters cheered and whooped themselves hoarse.
People wept, hugged and embraced. They waved flags, and erupted in chants of
“Oh-Bah-Mah” and “Yes We Can!”.
“I’ve waited for this all my life,” said Mechelene Head, 40, as tears streamed
down her cheeks. “I can’t believe it. I never thought it would happen. I
thought something would happen to him.”
“Oh man! It’s indescribable. It’s the most exciting night since a loaf was a
quarter. I’m going to be celebrating for a month,” said Korah Abdullah, 60,
a great-grandmother who arrived hours early to grab a ringside seat as
history unfolded.
“I can’t find words to describe it. It’s like an unbelievable dream — but now
it’s here,” said Toyar Graham, 48, a teacher, as a night that began with
jitters turned into one giant, ecstatic, unstoppable celebration.
Democrats and independents had come in their tens of thousands from across
Illinois, the mid-west and America — a vast multi-ethnic crowd that coursed
with excitement at the prospect of Mr Obama becoming the first black
president of the United States.
Festooned in Obamaphernalia — badges, T-shirts, baseball caps, facepaint —
these legions turned Grant Park into a great cauldron of noise and light, a
spectacular giant amphitheatre ringed by the brilliantly illuminated
skyscrapers of Mr Obama’s home city with Lake Michigan’s black waters as the
backdrop.
Searchlights scythed through the night sky. Mr Obama was blessed even by
unseasonably warm November weather. It was a presidential victory party on a
scale never seen before.
“This is something to tell our kids about — and their kids and their
grandkids,” said Allison Popowski, 33, a social worker. “I’d have come even
if I was not an Obama supporter. How can you not be part of this?”
“This is historic — not only for this country but for the rest of the world,”
said Veronica McGill, 51, a training consultant from Gary, Indiana, as she
watched Mr Obama’s victory unfold on one of a string of jumbo screens.
For Democrats it was the most thrilling night since Bill Clinton won the White
House 16 years ago.
