Chicago police are not pretty and they do not melt easily, but as the jubilant crowd poured from Grant Park after President-elect Obama's acceptance speech and joined the vast numbers of people waiting on Michigan Avenue, they cracked more than a smile and, in all but a few instances, allowed their hands to fall from the long wooden batons attached to their belts. There was nothing but goodwill on the streets.
The only time I have seen a crowd that exhibited such unadulterated political joy was in Berlin 19 years ago, when the Wall fell and took everyone from George Bush Senior to Mikhail Gorbachev by complete surprise. Barack Obama's election was not quite such a shock, but as the results from Pennsylvania and Iowa came in, causing the cheers in Grant Park to swell to a single voice, it was clear that another wall was tumbling.This celebration was about the end of a long struggle for racial equality and the triumph of a palpably superior candidate, but from what I heard and saw among the 70,000 ticket holders to the event it was also about the demise of George W. Bush's administration and all that it stood for.
Yet this was not a crowd without political discernment. They listened to John McCain's speech in respectful silence (except when he mentioned Sarah Palin) and when it was over they applauded, which might just be a first hopeful sign for Obama's desired reconciliation between Red and Blue America. Perhaps it is not going too far to say that what was also being marked last night in Chicago was the end of the divisiveness that the Bush administration and neo-conservatism fed on.
Among the vast press contingent at Grant Park were hundreds of foreigners who gave up all pretense of neutrality and cheered and clapped along with the crowd at the big moments through the evening. There is no underestimating how popular Obama is abroad. According to a British colleague who is covering the fighting in Goma, in the lawless East of Congo, people ran through streets when they heard the news. At the school in rural Uganda where my daughter taught, there were two pictures on the walls of her classroom, those of President Museveni of Uganda and Barack Obama—and that was nine months ago.
The world has been hoping for Barack Obama for a long time. Last night was historic, but for a European lucky enough to be watching, there was also the sense that something familiar had returned to America.
Standing in Grant Park listening to Obama's speech, I realized that the really important point was that this victory was produced by the most highly engineered democracy in the world, and that counts for a lot when so many regimes have been arguing that America's democratic system was a fraud and that the presidency could go only to a member of the white political establishment.
There are obviously going to be many disappointments along the way. Obama has already begun to talk down expectations. However, it was bliss in that dawn to be alive and in Grant Park to hear him.
Photo by Pat Benic/UPI/Landov
