Wednesday 5 November 2008

Election Night USA

Oh bugger it. You only ever get to do this every four years...

Midnight
McCain takes Kentucky and Obama takes Vermont. So no-one saw that one coming. I was planning to go to bed but this is exciting. Sort of.

Of course the only channel you should be watching when in Britain is the greatest broadcaster in the world - the BBC.

And right now I am being treated to this flame-haired Republican beauty in New York...

Don't say it because I spotted it.

Winner Takes It All? Gimme Gimme Gimme? Knowing Me, Knowing You? The potential jokes are lame but endless.

This game is called "Can you spot which is the cardboard cut-out?"

So it's over before it even started - there's no way McCain can pull it away now...

McCain is right now writing his concession speech.

Sometime after 1am... The floor manager in the studio needs to do some tidying up. Evian, posh.

She has the greatest name on the Beeb but can we go to Katty Kay in Arizona?

Er, no. Apparently at the McCain election HQ in Arizona the band is drowning everyone and everything out. Telling.

1:46am London-time and on the telly is Jesse Jackson. "Now the walls of segregation which were once built - are now not so built." Eh?

Jeremy Vine doing the number crunching in London-town tells us that "New Mexico is a fascinating state to look at". Indeed.

2:04am
According to the BBC, Fox News projects that Obama takes Ohio and Ted Koppel just said "if that is so - then it's all over."

So does that mean it's time for bed?

Remember the water bottle from three pictures up? It's gone. Vanquished.

Somebody obviously read this and decided to do some tidying up. Glad to be of service.

Sometime after 2am. 2.20-ish? And the Kat's back...

But what has the Russian flag got to do with anything?

Don't ask - I won't let you look silly. Here's the Russian flag...

2:26am
No! The slip up of the evening. The Beeb-man called it "Ark-ansis".

Oprah's just exclaimed that she's in "full vibrational mode." Yes, nice. She really did use those words...

2.40am
Bollocks. Obama's just hit 200 electoral college votes. Shall I go to bed or wait til we hit 270 votes? This is history in the making...

Did you know that in Iowa there is one human for every 8 pigs? Apparently. So says David Dimbleby.

Okay, it's nearly 3am. I think it's now time to go to bed.

This guy from the Republican party just said that er, it's going to be a long night. Which is key...

Because it means that I think it's time to go to bed.

Is it? Yes it is. History's about to be made or something.

I want to sleep.

13 comments:

dickophile said...

what is that arrow pointing out? its too blurry and i cant tell what it is.

Robert Cox said...

Dicks: It's a poster for what I assume is the stage show for Mamma Mia...

Robert Cox said...

PS - did ya vote, baby??

dickophile said...

Yes. For Obama. Even though McCain has a better fag hag.

Graham said...

Bobby,
You missed it. They started calling it for Obama on CNN just after 3. He'd gotten to 207 and the pacific west coast states were about to close polling. It all happened really quickly after that. Incredible and wonderful. I think the world is sighing in relief.

g

Anonymous said...

I think your coverage was better than NBC or at least more informative. Never knew about the pig population in Iowa. Learn something new everyday.

Too bad you had to go to bed and missed President-elect Obama’s acceptance speech. I think you may have liked it.

Liz

Robert Cox said...

GMan - I should have watched CNN except had that happened I would have started to channel surf, get bored and then lose interest in the whole thing! A big sigh.

Liz - I watched the speech again in the morning. I thought it was wonderful. A new energy has swept America and you can feel the breeze here in Britain. It;s really wonderful!

Monty said...

It's soooo much more civilised watching it unfold here in the Antipodes - the counting occurred over the course of the day and so McCain conceeded defeat about 3.30PM and Obama gave his victory speech about an hour later. No late nights watching bleary eyed! :-)

Robert Cox said...

Monty: And not just having to stay up at night - it means at work in the morning you're not sitting with your eyelids like lead and constantly wanting to fall asleep. the worst!
Although I think a lot of people in the office stayed up to watch so everyone was a little zombie-like...

Antipodes is like chiropodist. You want to say "anti podes"... or there's a place in North Devon called Bideford. It's biddi-ford - not bide-ford.
x x

Oldyeller said...

I find it interesting that so many people in other countries closely follow our presidential elections, but Americans by and large are absolutely clueless and blase' about other countries' elections (including our neighbors). The UK may be somewhat of an exception to that, but we wouldn't lose any sleep if (God forbid) the Tories swept back into power.

Anonymous said...

I can't figure out why the world would want to watch our election results?

We did have a good turn out at the polls and it does seem like our elections get stranger and stranger anymore.

Cliff hangers...

Carl

Robert Cox said...

Yeller: The UK is just a small little eensy-weensy country. The USA is the only superpower left in the world. It matters apparently.
Personally, I'm more partial to chocolate cake but that's just me ;-)

Carl: Where have you been all this time?!

Timmy said...

I think in 2012 you should do live coverage of the U.S. elections. You were much better than the broadcast stations. Hey...you could hire Anderson Cooper to help you out.