Diary of my Day on November 4th, 2008
I didn’t really get to do much the first 3/4ths of the day because I worked from 7am to 3pm and then had an exam in computer architecture from 5:30pm to 6:45pm after that. After that, I had a modeling assignment for ATEC3317 which was due the next day that I had to continue finishing because it was a 2 week assignment and I was a bit behind so even when I got home I wasn’t going to be able to pay close attention to the race.
I did turn on the television and still watched much of what transpired during the vote counting process however. I flipped between CNN, MSNBC and CBS mostly I think and just for the most part watched the key moments when the votes were finalized and states were awarded to candidates. Everything was going, for the most part, according to projections early on. The only real moments of suspense in this blow out was waiting on the results of Ohio and Virginia really I think. Once Obama won Ohio that was pretty much a wrap. There was no way McCain was going to win because Obama was over 200 I believe and the west coast had yet to close their voting booths. Once the west coast came in it was over and every channel was celebrating the Obama victory. I laughed at how Florida was still undecided when he had already won and how the west coast was done before them despite being 4 hours behind.
The television stations just had analysts give their keys for what would have to happen for each candidate to win. I believe McCain needed 4 out of 5 states on an important list which included Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina. The analysts also showed that despite McCain winning some states that were generally Republican, he was winning them by a much smaller margin than Bush had in the previous elections, which was a bad omen for the McCain campaign. Also the television stations showed live footage of numerous places such as an Atlanta church where Bernice King, Martin Luther King’s daughter, was spending the election night at and Howard University. In addition, television offered interviews with big name former politicians like former governors and senators including people such as Hilliary Clinton giving their insight on the current state of the election. These are a few things that I feel television offered that other media types would struggle to provide. New media could perhaps provide a dedicated live stream, but that is just basically a tv channel.
Sure enough, Obama won in a landslide and I just watched his victory speech and then that was it for me.
