Remembering Nov 4, 2008

In 1992, I remember watching the election returns with my map of the United States that had been printed in the newspaper,coloring the states red and blue depending on how Dan Rather told me the states had voted.

I was 13.

In 2000, I voted for the first time. I paid a little more attention to the local returns than the national, but was determined to stay awake until a President was named. I fell asleep shortly after it was declared, but before it was un-declared. Imagine y confusion when I woke up at 3AM to discover that we still didn't know who would be President.

In 2008, I sat huddled in the back of the "media room" the Utah Democratic Party had set up at the Radisson. I was there at a table with several members of the Salt Lake news media and Aaron Thompson, all plugging away at our computers. Shortly after 8:00, either Ohio or Pennsylvania (I can't remember which) was declared for Obama. I blurted out "We did it. We actually did it." Nobody heard me, which was fine with me. I didn't want to blurt it out too much. However,I knew that unless a blue state move red, Obama had won the Presidency.

Just a few days before the election, I had ridden the TRAX train out of Downtown SLC with a nice elderly lady, who told me, out of the blue, that she had been at the election night celebration when Eisenhower won in 1952. She shared the joy and elation of that night so many years before.

One year ago tonight, I knew I had a story totell random strangers on the train in 2064.

-Bob