Tuesday in the Park with Barack

Being an avid Obama support, as well as a (suburban) Chicagoan and longtime Democrat, it was thrilling to be at Grant Park on Election Night to witness his victory (via CNN on a big screen), his acceptance speech and the throngs of people there to share in the celebration.

Although I was fortunate to get a ticket and being the exclusive (to 70,000 people) ticket-holders area, as you can see, I was still quite far from the stage. I was glad to get a spot up on a ridge on the NW side of the field, from where I (and my sister Allison) could see the stage--being vertically-challenged, this wouldn't have been possible from within the throng itself--and even lean up against a railing for the 4 hours I was there. And as this time lapse video shows, even if we had gotten there way early, we couldn't have really gotten up close to the stage.

Although highly appreciative of the opportunity simply to witness such a historic moment, I think I would have liked a bit more of an overt celebration, perhaps somewhat similar to what I witnessed at the Stevie Wonder show at Taste of Chicago in June. With Obama capturing key states so early in the night, and winning far earlier than most elections are decided, the whole event seemed over and done a bit too quickly; a Cubs World Series celebration would've gone all night.

But a colleague made a great point; this was Chicago's (i.e. Mayor Daley's) opportunity to show the world (i.e. Olympic committee) that we could handle an event of this magnitude without incident. Thus, no alcohol (a good thing), no live music (some may have been fun) and no big celebration after Obama spoke.

Anyway, though you can obviously find a complete, and much closer up, version elsewhere, here is the video I shot of Obama's Acceptance Speech. I edited out about 10 minutes in the middle to fit it on YouTube, but despite the distance, you'll see that the sound was good.