9:30 AM … One thing you may have missed last night. Late in the evening a crowd of about a thousand people started gathering outside the White House to cheer Obama’s victory. There was some initial chatter in the right-wing media that it was a ‘mob’ of some sort that was ‘surrounding’ the White House. But actual reporting showed it was nothing of the sort. A spontaneous celebration. Here’s some brief video from last night on CNN …
10:00 AM … We’re still trying to get more clear word on what’s going on down in Georgia. Last night there were reports of up to two million, or possibly only 600,000 early votes left to be counted. Now we’re hearing it’s more like in the tens of thousands, though it’s not completely clear to me whether the difference is simply a matter of a lot being counted overnight. In any case, there seems a good chance that the as yet uncounted votes will pull Sen. Saxby Chambliss under 50%, thus forcing a run-off.
10:16 AM … AJC says a runoff looks likely in Georgia senate race.
Was I the only one who woke up this morning not quite sure whether last night really happened?
Given his track record, won’t Joe Lieberman’s endorsement in 2012 be something you wish on your opponent?
TPM Reader CB shares a moment with us …
For my part, the most memorable part of last night was coming out of the subway at 34th street at 11pm to a sea of cars and cabs moving up Sixth Avenue, horns honking. I had not been able to check the results since 8PM, but II knew then that Obama had won.
TPM HQ is located a few blocks south of that intersection. We definitely heard those horns too.
The scene in Grant Park last night, in front of one of the giant screens airing CNN, before the race was called for Obama:
We’ve set up an open thread at Election Central to share your reactions and experiences from last night.
TPM Reader SC emails:
As I watched CNN call the race for Obama, I had a rush of joy, followed by something I totally did not expect: Anger. I was holding a glass of champagne in my hand, and it was all I could do not to launch it across the room (I was in my own living room with family). Then it was over. The weight of the last eight years bursting out? Don’t know. I wonder if anyone else felt the same way? It did not last, but it sure was there for a moment.
The Guardian talks to Sy Hersh …
Like everyone in America just now, he is on tenterhooks. A Democrat who truly despises the Bush regime, he is reluctant to make predictions about exactly what is going to happen in the forthcoming election on the grounds that he might ‘jinx it’. The unknown quantity of voter racism apart, however, he is hopeful that Obama will pull it off, and if he does, for Hersh this will be a starting gun. ‘You cannot believe how many people have told me to call them on 20 January [the date of the next president’s inauguration],’ he says, with relish. ‘[They say:] “You wanna know about abuses and violations? Call me then.” So that is what I’ll do, so long as nothing awful happens before the inauguration.’
MSM: Obama needs to distance himself from a left-wing demanding too much change.
TPM Reader Anon chimes in …
Those Obama supporters I’ve spoken to here at Harvard – and we watched the results coming in last night with jubilation – are none too happy about the rumors that Larry Summers is a top pick for Treasury Sec. He was a disaster for Harvard and has no ability to work with people. For an administration coming in not just on a mantra of change but of working together (and *listening* to people – which Summers is just unable to do), this would be very disappointing. The Obama folks have managed the campaign so well – it would be sad to see them now copy Clinton’s mistakes because they
don’t have a real plan for the economy. And this just on Summers’s management skills – never mind that he and Rubin are Wall Street cronies who have enjoyed the revolving door between government and lucrative non-government positions, and were responsible for a big part of the deregulation (especially internationally) that led to the
current crisis. (Even Jagdish Bhagwati – no radical economist he – blamed a “Wall Street-Treasury complex” for the late 1990s crisis, and by that he meant Rubin and Summers, whom he called out by name.)No way we should reward these folks. But between the two of them, Rubin can at least work with others; Summers just can’t – and Obama needs someone who can.
You can post this comment if you like – but please keep my info. anonymous. I’m small fry here at Harvard and Summers’s supporters are a powerful minority and still very angry that we finally got rid of him. (BTW, things are so much better now that he’s gone. Totally different tone on campus.)
Another Anon TPM Reader responds …
Not to turn TPM into an intra-Harvard brawl, but I feel I have to strenuously disagree with Anon’s characterization of Summers’ rep at Harvard. It’s true that Summers was unpopular among the professors of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (or at least, the vocal minority of FAS professors who attend meetings of the entire faculty), but he had strong support among all of the other schools (the Med School, the Law School (which gave us Obama), the Business School (which, um, gave us Bush), etc.), and was adored by the students. His replacement is effectively a figurehead, a stand-in for the powers-that-be at Harvard and especially the collected deans and office of general counsel. While this is great for FAS professors, who don’t like it when their status quo is messed with, it has resulted in a university that ignores and stifles its students and sees its main purpose to be growing and protecting its endowment. Larry Summers, for all his pig-headness, really did care about and respond to students and had a strong, forward-looking, and not endowment-obsessed vision for the University.