Presidents

I’m still trying to process everything several hours after-the-fact. I was challenged on the job last night covering people at the county Democratic and Republican headquarters as they watched the results come in. As a journalist I have to stay unbiased and ot let emotions get in the way… but being in the middle of Republican headquarters as even FOX News called the election for Obama? That was tough.

I know I post a lot of Obama links here… but like I mentioned in my recent post, I don’t care who you vote for as long as you do it smartly.

I know I didn’t cover one side better than the other… all of my photos from the night are equally bad. Nothing seemed to fall into place for me since I was bouncing back and forth between the two offices. Add an assignment in the middle of the night to cover a play practice that seemed to last forever… Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now.

I’m just now watching the two speeches thanks to my lovely wife who recorded them for me. This morning’s post over on Ian Leslie’s blog sums up my initial thoughts…

Sen. McCain’s speech was impressive to listen to. For someone who is known as a “maverick” and for his hot-headedness he seemed to control his emotions well. I fly off the handle when I lose a game of Yahtzee… I can’t imagine losing something as enormous as a presidential election.

Obama’s speech was great. Seeing some of the big names standing with retirees, college students, factory workers and maybe a few plumbers is a powerful sight. Jesse Jackson was in the crowd with tears rolling down his face… Colin Powell was holding back tears during an interview on CNN this morning. Heck… some of the anchors and commentators on CNN and MSNBC that I have seen are holding back tears. I knew this was a big deal for so many people, but I don’t think I realized how big it truly is for so many people.

I saw the above Patrick Moberg illustration of the 44 presidents over on the dvafoto blog this morning.

This is an interesting point in the history of the country. I wish I had better photos to show for it.