Slog

Posted by Ryan S. Jackson

My cab driver was listening to the steady drone of NPR election results at a volume that reduced conversation to mostly short bursts of yelling back-and-forth.

“Have you been listening to the news?!” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “Obama looks like he’s walking away with it!”

He laughed loudly. “And I bet Mitt Romney is feeling like shit right now!”

After months of a “campaign” that has essentially consisted of little more than idle speculation and hilariously creepy YouTube clips, the voting was finally underway and the nation was giving its attention to the presidential race. And I was headed out to spend the evening with the winners of the first round of the contest, the victorious members of Washington for Obama.

The party was well underway when I arrived: Iowa had been called for Obama by all the major news outlets, and John Edwards was nearing the end of his concession speech. Over a hundred people were packed into the Washington for Obama offices, gingerly squeezing past each other to gather around the digital projector that was showing election results.

I was asking Obama-volunteer Heidi Romman if there had been official word on whether Obama intended to send paid staffers to Washington when someone began the first of many choruses of the Obama chant, “Fired up! Ready to go!”

Over the cheering, Romman told me that there had been a phone call that night from the campaign, but that nothing had been officially announced yet. She joked that the Obama campaign had officially “recognized their existence,” a reference to the fact that Washington for Obama isn’t affiliated with the official Obama campaign.

Some attempt was made at speech-giving and building volunteer infrastructure for the February 9th Washington caucus, but the atmosphere seemed too charged to stay focused on the minutia of organizing. When Washington for Obama organizer Shanna Sawatzki climbed atop her chair she announced that she would keep her comments brief, and concluded with: “This is a night for celebration!”

This seemed to suit Obama-enthusiast Patrick McFadden fine. When asked what brought him down tonight, he laughed and said: “Free wine.”

I admired his enthusiasm, and promised him I would make him internet famous.