First off: Well done, America! We knew you had it in you.
I had a class Tuesday night but our prof was nice enough to let us off early because, in her words, “we were going to see history made” that night. Having only the most basic of basic cable, I flipped between the CBC and NBC until it was time for “Indecision 08” to come on. NBC’s coverage was boring in the extreme, for the most part, but I did kind of dig the electoral map on the ice in front of Rockefeller Center. The CBC’s coverage wasn’t hugely fascinating, either, but there were two points where I sat up and took notice – more on that later.
At 10, it was time for Comedy Central to come on and save our sanity. Jon and Stephen were a little flat, as they often are during these live shows. If they want to debunk the oft-mentioned theory that they are actually journalists, all they have to do is point to their election specials, where they are no longer digesting news that’s already happened, but reporting on it almost as soon as it does. That “almost as soon” is crucial: as quick and brilliant as they are, even they can’t riff on events as they happen, but because they are relying on network news for their info, you don’t get the news as quickly as you would if you were tuned into a real news show. Even the chemistry between the two of them seemed off. The only parts of the show that really worked for me were Rob Riggle as the human lie detector, and Larry Wilmore and Wyatt Cenac taking over TDS and TCR in the wake of an almost certain (at that point) Obama victory.
The show went a little long, so that Jon could declare the winner, and, of course, CTV cut it off right at 11. I switched over to NBC, and realized I’d missed the declaration. Dagnabbit! It was cool to hear Tom Brokaw getting all choked up, and definitely awesome to watch the crowd in Chicago, but I’d have liked to hear someone call it, all the same. Furthermore, while I understand completely why CTV went to the news right at 11, when I tuned in again at 12:03, hoping to catch the repeat, they were rerunning something from last week! The hell? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Suck it, CTV.
My primary thought while watching McCain’s concession speech was that he was relieved it was all over, and that if he’d spoken like that more often during the campaign, he might have won. My primary thought while watching Obama’s victory speech was “Oh God, he looks so tired, and it’s only going to get worse. Also, why doesn’t he look happier?” I know he was dog-tired and grief-stricken, but, damn. I thought it was extremely telling that Neil MacDonald thought Obama’s promise to those who hadn’t voted for him that “I’ll be your president too” was a warning instead of a promise. I didn’t take it that way and I don’t think it was meant that way, but that MacDonald, a man who is the opposite of a conservative cheerleader, should have read it that way speaks volumes about how dour Obama’s demeanour was.
The other notable thing about the CBC coverage was that they were (I believe) the first to break the news of the crowd gathered outside the White House chanting “Bush out!” as soon as CNN had called the winner.
(As an aside, how on earth do they call the winner so early? Is it all based on exit polling? It happens here all the time, but that’s because the population is so disproportionately distributed; an election is decided in the east, but the western U.S. is pretty densely populated… I don’t get it.)
Anyway, I finally watched the end of “Indecision 08” online, and got to see Jon and Stephen get emotional about declaring Obama the winner. It was sweet. Jon looked up as though in thankful prayer, and Stephen took a really long time to get his goggles and earplugs out; I think they both were tearing up, and Jon has, according to taping reports, since said that it’s an amazing feeling to do the show happy. I hope that means he plans to stick around a bit longer. I also hope that the poor people who were turned away from the taping get some kind of abject apology from the show.
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