President-elect Barack Obama waves to supporters after giving his acceptance speech after it is announced he has won the presidential election at his Election Night rally at Grant Park in Chicago on Nov, 4. Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT
By Graham Henderson and Alex Luthi
Staff writer and Editor
With a landslide of electoral votes backing the democratic ticket, Barack Obama cemented his spot in history by becoming America’s first black president as the 44th President-elect of the United States on Nov. 4.
Obama and his running mate Joe Biden’s victory ushers out eight years of republican control of not just the White House, but also strengthened the democrat’s numbers in both the House of Representatives, and the Senate. As of press time, the democrats have secured 54 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and 252 of 435 seats in the House.
In his home state of Illinois, Obama addressed 125,000 supporters at Grant Park in Chicago, telling the crowd that they can change their country “brick by brick, block by block, calloused hand by calloused hand — that together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things; because we are not a collection of Red States and Blue States, we are the United States of America,”
Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin conceded the election to Obama and Biden shortly after 8:00 p.m. Pacific time after having received just 146 electoral votes, well short of the the 270 needed to win the presidency, and even further from 349 vote, which as of press time was the number Obama and Biden had received.
“My friends, we have — we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly,” McCain said to a crowd of disappointed supporters at Phoenix’s Biltmore hotel in his home state.
Election night in San Francisco
As the polls began to close nationwide, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts opened Tuesday evening for its first-ever election night party, featuring local artists and musicians who volunteered their time for the party.
The center was almost filled to its 11,000 person capacity with the public that came out to watch the nation’s votes tallied up and to eat complimentary pizza, served once the polls closed. In the predominantly democratic crowd the party attracted, McCain supporters might have felt out of place, inundated by Obama’s supporters.
When it was announced that Obama won Virginia, the crowd cheered and applauded. According to CNN’s election night coverage, Virginia has not elected a democratic president since 1964.
San Francisco artist Johnny Oliver, 33, sold saint candles with Obama as St. Martin de Porres, the patron saint of social justice, and McCain and Palin on Lourdes candles as the running children.“This started as a design school project. It is very tongue and cheek. Some see Obama as the second coming of Christ,” said Oliver.
Once the news networks called the election for Obama, supporters of all ages spilled out of the center and onto the streets to celebrate.
“This is really great. Some were paranoid about election fraud, but we pulled it off,” said Obama supporter Wing Poon, who held qualms over Tuesday night’s election process.
Marina bar hosts McCain supporters
San Francisco Republicans gathered at Jone’s Bar in the Marina District on Tuesday night to watch the election results. Despite the upbeat atmosphere, the general mood was one of acceptance, and even dismissal, of Republican John McCain’s defeat by his Democratic rival, Barack Obama.
Most of the seats in the bar were taken by McCain’s supporters, but unlike the overflowing Obama party in the Castro, Jone’s was only barely filled to capacity, with plenty of standing room available. Despite Fox News delivering grim news on the bar’s TVs, the crowd tried to remain upbeat.
“It’s not over until it’s over. We might be surprised at the last minute,” said Sarah Heidcamp. “I’ll never give up faith. If Obama does win, I’m going to be surprised America has fallen for socialism.”
But the writing was on the wall from the start, and the crowd had to face reality when McCain gave his concession speech around 8:30 p.m.
“I am not happy,” said Ed Sheppard, vice president of the California Republican Party. “All this means is that we have to fight harder. In four years, people will realize this was not the best decision.”
After listening to McCain’s concession speech, most of the group simply accepted the inevitable, and went back to their appetizers and drinks.
Dave Hunt was dressed in a McCain-Palin hat. Like many people in the bar, he felt that the media had been biased in its coverage of Obama. “This is ridiculous, there’s nothing to support Obama’s bipartisanship,” Hunt said.
The Castro raves for Obama victory
San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood was pumping with its usual verve and over the top celebration of the president-elect, Barack Obama. Thousands gathered at the corner of 18th and Castro Streets to watch the election results from all major networks broadcast on a huge projection screen.
The unofficially democratic event far out shown the city’s republican events. The crowd, which included many City College students, flooded the street, dancing to the music blaring from the DJ booths.
Ker Chatham, who was dressed up as Bimbo the Clown, was happy to see Obama win the election, “I’m celebrating because we are finally getting that clown [George W. Bush] out of the white house,” said Chatham.
But the mood was not entirely happy. Even as Obama wrapped up the presidency, Proposition 8, which eliminates the rights of same sex couples to marry, edged toward defeat.
The Celebration’s host Michael Swanson did his best to keep the crowd thinking positive, reminding them throughout the night that not all the votes were counted, and it was still too close to call.
Proposition 8’s fate seems sealed
As precincts around the state finalize their election results, votes tallied in favor of Proposition 8 have kept a small but steady lead over votes against the proposition, which would ban same-sex marriages in the state of California.
Exit polling conducted by the Los Angeles Times showed that democrats and independents were largely opposed to the proposition, while republicans favored the measure. There were similar divides between those who said that they attended religious services regularly: those who did were in favor of the measure, and those who did not opposed it.
Election results on the California Secretary of State’s Web site on Wednesday morning show that 61 percent of Californian voters were choosing democrat Barack Obama over McCain with 97 percent of precincts reporting. Proposition 8 was still holding steady at 52 percent for the proposition, compared 48 percent against.
“Tonight’s election gives a silent majority comfort to know that on this issue we can stand together and define marriage as what it always has been - between one man and one woman,” Yes on 8 Spokeswoman Meg Waters, told the Wittier Daily News.
“If it’s passed, the Legal Counsel for No on 8 will find a way to bring it to the surface again and defeat it,” Joe Dursoe told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I just can’t imagine our basic civil rights being taken away.”
Dursoe and his partner, Jason Lloyd, had been waving signs since before 7am, according to the Chronicle.
More than $70 million has been spent on the battle over Proposition 8, making it the second-most expensive campaign this year, trailing only the presidential contest.
——
Writers Lauren Tyler, Ellen Silk, Roxanne Bequio and Natalie Coreas contributed to this story.
