| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
They Just Did It
// Afro American became President-Elect for the first time in the U.S. history
Yesterday Barack Obama was elected U.S. President. Kommersant special correspondent Mikhail Zygar spent the whole celebration night closely to the future master of the White House in Chicago’s Grant Park.
U.S. voting is always unpredictable, but this time it seemed that the candidates knew the outcome beforehand, at least it was evident from their plans for the Nov. 4 night. Barack Obama chose a park in the centre of his native Chicago for a night celebration party: the city’s centre was blocked in advance, and organizers expected a million people to come. And John McCain rented a hall in the luxurious Biltmore hotel, Phoenix, AZ.
In Chicago’s Grant Park you could see large monitors, with CNN broadcasting live all night long. During one of the first footages correspondent Dana Bash said that Republicans’ moods can be described with one word – realism, “They have no illusions and take everything realistically.”
In Chicago celebration started at 6 p.m. already when Grant Park’s gates were opened for Obama’s supporters. Journalists were let in a specially assigned sector even earlier to let them see thousands people rush in the park, screaming and jumping. By that time only the first results from three states (Indiana, Kentucky and Virginia) had been announced, and Barack Obama lost in all three states. But young people, who cheerfully ran into the park, demonstrated placards with an inscription “Yes We Did” as though they had pulled it off.
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., Obama’s campaign co-chairman and the son of the first Afro American presidential nominee in the U.S. Jesse Jackson, entered the park with the crowd.
Instead of entering through the VIP gate, he preferred queuing for some reason. He came with his wife and two children. They all had plates with pizza. Congressman Jackson went to the press zone.
“Tomorrow morning Barack Obama will wake up President-Elect,” he said with confidence. “And I will wake up in a different America, not the one I was born in. Tomorrow marks a new era in this country’s history.”
At 7 p.m. CNN started reporting voting outcome in states. Every announcement was accompanied by a burst of emotions because almost all of them showed Obama’s lead.
“I have known Obama since 1991,” Chicago journalist Michael Eric Dykson told me. “He will be a fine President. He might have changed recently, I guess. But anyway, he’s for us, and he’s a good guy, really.”
Barack Obama followed outcome announcements in a Hyatt suite, in close proximity to Grant Park. He was expected to come late at night – there was a podium in the centre of the park, which was surrounded by bullet-proof glass. It need be said that organizers located the press zone so that you could hardly see the podium at all from it – a better view was offered at special stands for journalists, where a seat cost $900.
At 8 p.m. CNN announced Barack Obama’s triumph in Pennsylvania, which meant that, to in, he needed another large swaying state – Ohio, Florida, Virginia or Colorado. Half an hour later Barack Obama’s victory in Ohio was announced – CNN reported that two John McCain’s aides sent their correspondent sms admitting that the Republican had no chance to win.
I went to the stands that were located closely to the podium, where you could see guests invited by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Those were their campaign activists, the presidential nominee’s old pals, who have been with him since he started his career. You had to “surmount” three cordons to approach the zone that was situated in close proximity to the podium. The guards, consisting mostly of female Afro Americans, were so democratic that it didn’t take me much time to get to the desired zone. At 9.30 p.m. CNN reported its own voting results in Virginia, Florida and a few more states – Barack Obama won in each of them, which meant he was elected President. VIP guests only started taking their seats at their stands, which is why when the monitors showed a caption “Barack Obama has been elected President”, the one-million crowd in the park began shouting and chanting, and guests rushed to the sector adjacent to the podium. I ran after Jesse Jackson, and was followed by rapper will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas. They virtually brought me into the zone, which was closed for the press.
“Yes We Can!” the crowd chanted.
“Yes We Can!” Black Eyed Peas shouted, who actively supported Barack Obama throughout the campaign. Will.i.am even composed its anthem “Yes We Can”, based on one of Barack Obama’s speeches. A minute ago will.i.am was interviewed by CNN, and he said that he became the IL Senator adherent after one of his speeches during primaries. And now he simply jumped high and shouted, “It’s unbelievable! I can’t believe it! We can! Even, we just did it!”
“Yes We Did!” the VIP crowd began chanting.
Almost all women cried, except for Samantha Power, a young Professor from Harvard, Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisor, who wrote a bestseller “America and the Age of Genocide”. She only smiled and attentively followed CNN footage. Oprah Winfrey closed her eyes as if she prayed. Jesse Jackson, who often criticized Barack Obama during the campaign and was reluctant to support him for a long time, wiped away tears.
“I would have never believed it would come true. My God, what we achieved!” Martin Luther King’s former disciple exclaimed.
The monitors showed John McCain’s address.
“No laughing, no laughing! Be respectful,” will.i.am shouted. The audience listened to the Republican in utter silence. They applauded when he congratulated Barack Obama on his victory.
“Ladies and gents, welcome the U.S. future first family!” the anchorman announced, as Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha mounted the podium. The President-Elect kissed the girls and went to the rostrum. I could see his face rather clearly from the VIP sector, where I found myself.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” he started. “It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference. It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.”
The public applauded. No U.S. President has ever described his nation with such words.
Barack Obama thanked John McCain. He remembered his grandmother, who died the day before. “Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House,” he told his daughters.
“But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you. I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause.”
In truth, those people stood far from the podium, except for me, who donated $5 as an experiment.
“Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope,” Barack Obama said in conclusion.
Then his running mate Joe Biden went onto the podium. They smiled at cameras for a couple minutes, waving hands, and left.
Leaving the park, I met David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign chief strategist, who seemed to be exhausted.
“Congratulations, David. What do you do next?”
“I’m going to my children. I haven’t seen them for some three months because of the race. And next? I can’t calculate what is next. I’m too tired.”
The crowd dispersed quite fast. Chicago residents went to pubs to celebrate Obama’s victory. You could see a great deal of souvenirs with Obama’s face in the street. You could buy T-shirts with a new slogan “Yes We Did”, which substituted for the old “Yes We Can”.
Mikhail Zygar, Chicago
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 06, 2008
|
|
|
