Down Memory Lane: When Obama Created History Seven Years Ago

Anirudha Bhattacharyya recollects the frenzy after Barack Obama’s electoral victory on Nov 4, 2008.

People look at newspaper front pages from around the world bearing the election victory of Barack Obama in Washington, November 5, 2008. (Photo: Reuters)

(A reporter who covered the United States of America’s elections in 2008 recollects memories of Nov 4, the day when Obama took over as President.)

Unless you have family in Des Moines, Iowa, it isn’t the sort of place you head to on New Year’s Eve – it’s several degrees below freezing and heavy snowfall means you’re usually inches deep in the white stuff. As I reached the airport in New York on 31 December 2007, to travel to Des Moines, I was surprised to discover that I was being offloaded the flight I had booked several days ago. Wow, I thought, you’d think the traffic would head in the opposite direction. Thought number two was that something was definitely up.

In fact, a lot was up – a scrawny freshman Senator from Illinois was about to make hay in the Corn Belt, capturing the first caucus of the 2008 Democratic primary season from the heavily favoured Hillary Clinton.

US President-elect Barack Obama arrives at his first press conference following his election victory in Chicago, November 7, 2008. (Photo: Reuters)

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day that the Senator was elected to the White House. On the first Tuesday of November in 2008, Barack Obama created history (and plenty of hysteria) by becoming the first African-American President of the United States of America.

Covering Obama’s Campaign

I retain a sense of ownership of that journey, along with yellowing copies of newspapers chronicling it, like the Des Moines Register headlining his caucus win and the New York Times edition dated November 5, 2008. Covering the campaign for television took me not just to Des Moines, but also to Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, and the state of North Carolina.

At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Obama officially received the nomination, the Mile High stadium, home to the NFL’s Broncos, was literally rocking, as Democrats from all across the country stomped their feet to punctuate their applause, making the stadium seemingly shake. And at Oxford, Mississippi, one of the venues of the three Presidential debates, I was part of a panel put together by the University of Mississippi with the State Department’s Foreign Press Centre, for an international perspective on the election.

Susan Levenstein, originally from New York City, holds a sign during a victory rally for supporters of Obama in Rome, November 8, 2008. (Photo: Reuters)

But the night that counted, quite literally so, was that of November 4 – a crisp night, nestled in that neutral zone between fall and winter. For me, that day started at dawn, though I have little recollection of actually having slept the previous night, amid a blitz of emails, texts and phone calls, including a recorded message on my landline from comedian Chris Rock exhorting me to vote for Obama.

When Obama Was Declared the Winner

My first stop was a polling booth in Harlem in uptown Manhattan, a historic African-American enclave. By early evening, arriving at CNN’s studios in Manhattan, it was becoming evident that Republican Senator John McCain’s effort to overcome the negatives of the waning months of the George W Bush presidency may not have worked.

CNN was making a splashy showcase of its election night coverage, introducing guests hologrammed into their studios, for instance. But I was too busy tracking the results as they started trickling and then pouring in. As Obama captured the states he needed to win, and swing states like Ohio and Florida dominoed into his tally, the excitement was rising.

Supporters react to the news of the election victory for presidential nominee Barack Obama at his election night rally in Chicago, November 4, 2008. (Photo: Reuters)

By 9.30 pm, I decided to record a stand-up announcing that Obama was the President-elect. That hadn’t occurred yet, but it was clear that at 10 pm, as polls closed in California, he would cross the number of Electoral College votes needed for a win, which was 270. Stepping out, my colleague and I walked to a traffic island near Columbus Circle and recorded that short piece-to-camera and uplinked it before the formal announcement was made because I was certain (and subsequently proved right), that with the announcement, I would be engaged giving phone analyses and updates for a long time.

Obama Frenzy Took Over Broadway Musicals

By the time we exited CNN, it was deep into the night. But as we hailed a taxi, we decided to ask the driver to take us to Times Square. There may have been many Broadway musicals playing that night, but the only show in town appeared to be the Obama drama.

Seats with the names of different media organisations are seen before Barack Obama’s first press conference following his election victory in Chicago, November 7, 2008.(Photo: Reuters)

Confetti littered the intersecting avenues of New York’s heart, as revellers whooped and whistled into dawn, alcohol, or perhaps just natural high spirits, fuelling their night-long spree. I thought it kind of fitting: A process that commenced on a New Year’s Eve ended where the world watches the New Year ball drop. This one had, and everyone was having a ball.

Except me, of course. There were still bleary-eyed stand-ups and interviews to be sent. Reporters, as observers, capture the moment, rather than live it. Reality would take a while to sink in. You could argue the promise of hope and change that night carried never became a reality, but it still was an incredible political trip.

(Based in Toronto now, Anirudh Bhattacharyya is a columnist, and author of the humorous political novel, The Candidate.)