Chicago
“I HOPE confetti is still going to be poured on my head,” mused Surina Kumar, somewhere between the second and third security checkpoint at the rally for Barack Obama. “But how will they have confetti if we are outside?” More than 70,000 people were filing into Chicago’s Grant Park. For Miss Kumar and others, the question was not whether Mr Obama would win but what the party would be like.
Many supporters had spent the day outside the park, basking in the autumn sun, certain that their wait would be rewarded with Mr Obama’s triumph. Thousands had wanted to come but could not get in. Some ticket-holders had turned to Craigslist to seek love or money. Sale-899798993@craigslist.org displayed his obvious charms in search of a date: “I have no problem pulling hot girls in general so since I have Obama tickets you have to be not just hot but like supermodel hot.”
A few were more nervous. Cynthia Henderson stood waiting with her teenage daughter. Ms Henderson, who is black, grew up on Chicago’s West Side; neither of her parents finished college. She is now a doctor. “What do we want for our kids?” she asked. “We always want them to be able to do better.” Mr Obama, she thinks, can help.
As the result became clearer, supporters were more and more excited, hooting at the returns and electrified by their role in this historic moment. At 10pm, when CNN called the election for Mr Obama, there was an ecstatic eruption. In one corner of the giant field Ms Henderson wept silently in her daughter’s arms. When she finally disengaged, her first word was: “Sublime”.
Mr Obama appeared, his words echoing off the city’s historic façades, which had seen riots 40 years earlier. The crowd listened in happy reverence, then flooded Chicago’s streets, unleashing their exuberance in hoots and hollers, sure that the country would change for the better.
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