Yes We Did

That’s all you could hear on Michigan Avenue last night.

Shouted from trees, atop traffic medians, out windows and from cars parked in the middle of intersections, surrounded by a quarter of a million people all celebrating the impossible: he won!

But -- I’ll start back at the beginning.

We arrived downtown Chicago around 3 pm and already things were getting a little hectic. The rally took place in Grant Park, right on the lake and set against the striking Chicago skyline, which in my books gives NYC’s a run for its money.

Ryan, Mitch and I left the girls and went to scope things out. Already there was a line for both ticket and non-ticket holders alike. Ticket holders - only 65,000 were issued – were let into the area where Obama was speaking. If you were watching on CNN, that’s what you saw. What they did not show was the second gathering area where the rest of Chicago and the free world was gathered to watch on screens in an area right beside Grant park. THAT is where we were.

Walked around, took a few snaps and bought some Obama gear which deserves a special comment here. It was like the Stones were playing – street vendors had tables set up on every corner selling shirts, buttons, towels, hats, and – in one more ambitious find – umbrellas. When it hopes, it pours, I guess.


The majority of shirts featured Obama looking, in some manner, presidential. Whether he was positioned over the White House with the caption “Chicago’s in ‘da House” to the more straightforward “Senator Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States”, there was a shirt for everyone. I settled for a standard Obama-Biden tee, but later found this little gem…

"remember, remember the 5th of november"

When the results first started pouring in and McCain had that very early, very small lead based on his win in Kentucky, the tension was ridiculously high. We were in a swanky hotel bar area and CNN was reporting McCain leading in a bunch of battlegrounds. Yes it was early, yes it was based on a very low percentage of votes counted, but it made for stressful reflection on that ever looming question “What if he doesn’t…”

Murmurs began among a few people we were talking to about the possible ugly side the crowd in Grant park might show. It wasn't something people seemed to want to consider.

After some dinner and drinks, the crew met up and we began our trek into the now packed and buzzing Grant Park. Over din, Obama had surged in the polls and the mood was considerably different from an hour before. At this point, Obama had already taken a commanding lead in Ohio and Florida, and he had made a race out of Virginia (which he would later win).

This made for an electric walk to the park along Michigan Avenue. Everyone was out, full force, with everything you would expect: home-made signs, noise makers, painted cars. Add beads, boobies, and crushing catholic guilt and it very well could have been Mardi Gras.



We entered the park through the Congress Avenue gates where we were sectioned off into our lowly non-ticket holder area. We dodged a few police horses who attempted to halt the crowd flow, and bolted for one of the big screens playing CNN. I’m not sure who Blitzer had to sleep with to make sure his network had exclusive broadcasting rights on the ground, but it was good enough to get like 6 jumbotron screens worth.

From that point on, you saw what I saw. The crowd thickened as 10 pm ET drew closer which is when these things are usually called. Every time a projection was made and Obama or McCain was ahead, the crowd would respond as expected – boos for McCain, earth-shattering cheers for Obama.

And then the announcement came --
I can tell you that it was a moment that I will NEVER forget. 10:00 pm came, Anderson Cooper threw to Wolf, and the words on the screen all of a sudden made it real. The crowd went... well, went crazy. I've never felt that amount of communal happiness before. It was some sort of catharsis that you could feel not just coming from citizens of Chicago who were happy their man won... but a real, true victory for a generation.

And I do not believe that that's an exaggeration on my part. It was official, it was real, and a hundreds of thousands of people who were inspired and hoped were given their gift of change. I saw family members hugging, old and young folks crying, partners (men and women, men and men, women and women) kissing, and people of all colours embracing. i could barely keep it in myself.

John McCain's appearance, at first, was met with boos which was disconcerting. people from the crowd yelled - quite rightly, and maybe a little sarcastically - "Don't kick a maverick when he's down". But upon hearing what he had to say, the crowd applauded lightly and appreciated his warm message of conciliation.

And then he came out - and even though I was watching on a jumbotron, not anywhere close to seeing the real deal, the atmosphere was electric and attentive. silence came over the crowd as he spoke - which was impressive and appreciated. his speech caused more tears (of joy) and giddy happiness. like I said, all of a sudden it was real - and the realization of that was more than most could take.

once the rally let out... well... pictures speak better than words...




more to come, including videos, but for now that's what I have to share.

it was, in a word, incredible.