Election Night

Anticipating long lines, Gauss voted early, but I headed to my polling place, the nearby elementary school, on Tuesday. It was full, but I only had to wait in line for about 10 minutes. People were happy to be there, smiling as they walked in, and walking out with a little bounce in their step. It’s such a simple thing, but voting always makes me feel powerful. I love that the “I Voted” sticker here is in English, Spanish, and Chinese!

When Gauss got home from work, we put our little portable TV on the kitchen table and watched political commentary as we made dinner. Exit polls leaned toward Obama, but nobody was making a commitment until our polls closed here at 8:00 p.m. I didn’t dare to hope too much. Then a flood of returns came in, eastern states going heavily to Obama. When the networks called Pennsylvania for him, we started to get excited. Then, when they called Ohio, we went ballistic. Our guy was winning!

If we had been back in Minnesota, we would have been spending the evening at Jim Maher and Gayle Knutsons place, surrounded by friends, but we don’t have a network like that here yet. Gauss was getting frustrated that we were staying in the cottage by ourselves, and suggested that we find a bar where we could watch the rest of the evening’s coverage. To understand how extraordinary this is, you have to understand what a homebody Gauss is. He NEVER goes to bars.

The streets of downtown Palo Alto were bustling, and there was energy in the air. A couple of bars were so full that people were crowding around the entrances. We managed to wedge ourselves into Nolo’s (New Orleans cuisine) but the noise level was deafening. I didn’t think we’d be able to hear Obama when he spoke.

Across the street, a small bar with two TVs tuned to CNN was nearly empty. We took a seat, ordered a couple glasses of wine, and talked with three young women at an adjacent table. The mood was buoyant. As the time drew nearer for Obama to speak, the place filled up, and the bartender turned up the sound on the TVs.

When Obama took the stage, the crowd in our little bar cheered. Throughout his speech, the patrons applauded and raised a toast to the president-elect. When he finished speaking, and the crowd in Grant Park dispersed, people filtered out of the place and into the streets, where we heard more cheers.

When was the last time you heard people cheering in the streets at the results of a presidential election?