I voted an hour ago and have been in my chair ever since, listening to CNN’s talking heads and wondering whether I should have taken a nap against what promises to be a long night.
Then I hear “two minutes to Georgia” and the first state to report has Barack Obama in the lead for the Democrats, and a tight three-way race for the Republicans when an acerbic former governor from Arkansas inserts himself unexpectedly in the high rollers, and I know we’re off and running.
The gates are open, and a half-dozen Eastern states where the polls close at 8 p.m. check in and a pattern emerges.
A dead heat between Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and a pulling away by John McCain from two obstinate opponents for the Republicans. And sidelights you only pick up if you are in for the whole ride. Like Obama getting 88% of Georgia’s African-American vote. Or most of the field reporters for CNN being women and most of the studio couch potatoes, men.
6 p.m.: More trends appear. Anti-Bush sentiment growing among voters, a cornucopia of young citizens becoming players, a sense of change very much in the air, Mike Huckabee refusing to disappear, Mitt Romney striving not to.
A terribly destructive tornado sweeping through the southwest cuts into the election news. Life and death go on while the votes are counted. The contestants pull away in their home states. No upsets. Just trade-offs. The Democrats win big, the Republican winners — mostly McCain — squeak by.
7 p.m.: I substitute gin-and-vermouth for the Coke I’ve been drinking with my pretzels. My daughter phones from Denver. She is just home from taking part in a Colorado caucus that went big for Obama.
