Last year this time I COULD NOT WAIT to get up to go vote. This WAS the most important election of my lifetime and I was excited. I must also say that it was something I still did not think would happen.
I’m optimistic about most things, but when it came to America electing a black president I felt like a Public Enemy song “Can’t Truss It”. I thought “they” would find him in bed with a dead hooker and a live boy or something. The history of this country just couldn’t be ignored and I just didn’t want to get my “hopes up”.
I got up early, voted and went to work. After work I had somewhere to go and when I got home the election results were too early to clarify a winner. I went to sleep with the election results on. When I woke up I decided to record it. My DVR says I started recording November 4, 2008 9:57 PM (NBC coverage). It wasn’t until 11pm that they announced the news that Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the United States :-D. After that it was no sleep until THE MAN came on to give his acceptance speech. In the meantime John McCain gave one of the most eloquent concession speeches I ever heard. Major props to him for that.
By my DVR “the next first family of the United States” came out in Grant Park in Chicago (pictured above) at 11:56 PM. Even though I wasn’t there I could feel the energy! Riveted to the screen would be a major understatement. I stayed up and recorded more coverage about an hour after his speech and then I finally got a few hours of sleep before work. I also received several text messages that night and the next morning.
November 5th 2008 was no walk in the park at work because I was so sleepy (what I called a “non alcoholic election night hangover”), but so proud. “Proud” too is an understatement. One word cannot capture what I felt that night and to this day.
And now, a word from the man himself.
*You can read more about what I did last year on November 4, 2008 in 100 Minutes
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