Elections

At about 8:15 p.m. on election night, Ilyasah Shabazz, the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, stood inside the building where her father was assassinated in February of 1965 and spoke about the election of Barack Obama.

"I know that a lot of people my age and older never expected this to ever happen,” she began.

Speaking under a wall-length mural studded with images of her father, Shabazz, 46, was addressing a crowd of about 200 people gathered at the Malcolm X & Betty Shabazz Memorial Center (formerly the Audubon Ballroom) to watch election coverage amid panel discussions on youth community involvement, race, and of course, the potential impact of Obama administration.  read more »

The Chicago Tribune probably wishes there were more days like this.

People are actually lining up on the street in front of the Tribune Building on the Magnificent Mile to buy copies of today's paper, which has Obama smiling, over the headline "Obama Our Next President."

CHICAGO—On the night before Election Day, Barack Obama’s Hyde Park neighborhood was dead.

Concrete barriers and a couple of cops prevented the rare pedestrian from walking past the stately houses and manicured lawns and red and yellow leaves falling on Obama’s street. A couple of blocks away, the lights were on in the living room of Bill Ayers, the Chicago education advocate and former member of the 60s radical group the Weather Underground to whom the McCain campaign pinned its last ditch hopes of bringing down Obama. The room had an exposed brick wall, wood furniture that looked like it could have been purchased in a set from West Elm, unlighted candles, and a ceramic plate inscribed with the names of Ayers and his wife.  read more »

Tuesday morning the pageant of democracy began in earnest.  At 6:15am on West 120th street off Morningside Drive, I stood with my neighbors in the longest polling line I have seen in more than two decades of voting on the Upper West Side. Reading about the death of Barak Obama’s grandmother as I waited in line, I thought of my own grandparents, long gone, and the journey that took all four from Russia and Poland to Ellis Island and the shadow of the Statue of Liberty nearly a century ago.  America is a great country because it is, as John Kennedy once termed it, “a nation of immigrants”.  read more »

The mood at the midtown Sheraton for New York Democrats last night: Jubilation.

First came the call by the national networks that Obama had won the presidency. Minutes later, with the crowd still breaking into Obama chants, and with some faces still moist from tears, Governor Paterson took the microphone in the ballroom after an uncharacteristically loud and excited Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced him and announced to the packed audience of elected officials and party loyalists another historic shift.

"Some breaking news," he declared. "The New York State Senate is now under Democratic leadership."

More wild cheering.

Assuming the official results are consistent, for the first time in four decades, Democrats will control the State Senate, owning both chambers in the legislature and the governors mansion.  read more »

Barack Obama’s victory is historic and is also the best showing for a Democrat since Bill Clinton won his second term in 1996 with 379 electoral votes. As of the wee hours of Wednesday morning, long after John McCain had offered a gracious concession speech and Obama had declared victory, two states remained outstanding: North Carolina and Montana. Obama appeared headed toward victory in former and defeat in the latter, thus producing a final electoral vote count of 363-185.

But despite the historic dimensions of this result and its seeming landslide proportions, it’s probably worth noting just how close John McCain came to engineering en Election Day miracle.  read more »

The crowd at Josh Wood's LGBT gathering at Room Service was a fairly subdued one, with the majority of the mostly male crowd's attention focused on the club's various television screens.

In addition to the popular "Obama Pride" sticker, about one-quarter of the room was sporting name tags identifying their professions. "It's a networking thing, believe it or not," a helpful guest explained to us. Efficient! we thought, as we made our way through the room.

Party co-host and cabaret performer Justin Bond had not been informed of the networking aspect, however. "I don't even want this sticker but they put it on me," he said, pointing to his Obama tag.  read more »

Police shutdown Serge Becker and Joseph Grima's open-air Elections returns party in stages starting at 9 p.m. First, they asked that the sound be turned off on the projected results, which were beamed above La Esquina in Soho.

Next, the projector was turned off.

Eventually, about 100 people spread out over three corners—a sort of downtown version of the Times Square crowd (think: stylishly dressed people who didn't seem to care much)—dispersed. André Balazs was supposed to show up, but didn't. Patti Smith arrived around 10 p.m., but it was unclear if she'd perform or not.

Mr.  read more »

Barack Obama booster and Law and Order wisecracker Richard Belzer was standing around with Tony Ortega, editor of The Village Voice, in the Audubon Ballroom on election night. He said he got "very emotional" in the booth.

"Pulling the lever for Obama was pretty amazing. And here we are in the Audubon Ballroom, where in February of 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. And tonight we may celebrate a black President, so let the healing begin."

If Mr. Belzer is lucky enough to have a victory tonight, what does he expect from an Obama administration?

"I expect for him to be a quick learner. He's gonna be handed a lot of impossible situations.  read more »

CNN called it for Obama, and Times Square broke out in celebration. Strangers started hugging one another.