Instant Nostalgia In Times Square

11 PM Election night will go down as one of those "Where were you?" moments in history. The Soonerette and I were on our way to a party on 50th Street. We had originally planned to stop by Times Square for a few minutes, however, the vibe and the unusually warm weather were so nice that we ended up spending most of the evening there. Two networks dominated the supersized TV screens that adorn the buildings facing the square. We started at the southern "ABC News" end at nine, then moved north to the CNN end around 10:30. I was counting electoral votes trying to figure out what time he would go over the top. At 10:40, Obama had 209 electoral votes, and 11 PM seemed like the likely time because California, with its 55 electoral votes, would put him very close. Nevertheless, I wasn't 100% sure until 10:58, when CNN called Virginia and its 14 electoral votes for Obama. That would be enough. I've never been in Times Square counting down the seconds to the new year, but this was better. At 10:59, a few of us started counting down: 60, 59, 58... At zero, it wasn't a New Year. It was a new era.

CNN was on a giant screen in the northern median of Times Square*. In the video below, the screen is only visible as the bright white rectangle pictured the left side. Despite the video's poor quality, the exuberance of the moment is captured. It will always be with me, and hopefully, with you too.




To view the video of CNN calling the election for Obama, click here.

To get a sense of election night in Harlem, click here for Martin J. 's perspective.

*Technically speaking, the northern end of Times Square is called Duffy Square, but that name is used as often as "Avenue of the Americas" is used for Sixth Avenue.

Surprise! John Tierney Concludes Conservatives Have the Best Sense of Humor.

I hadn't read much of John Tierney's work since he was exiled to the Science Times pages. In fact, while I do read some cons and neocons, I generally make a point of avoiding reading him as I find most of his arguments to be disingenuous and misleading. But this morning, groggy from waking up at 5:30 to work the polls, I inadvertently read one of his science columns all the way through. One paragraph stuck out at me:

“Conservatives tend to be happier than liberals in general,” said Dr. Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario. “A conservative outlook rationalizes social inequality, accepting the world as it is, and making it less of a threat to one’s well-being, whereas a liberal outlook leads to dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and a sense that things need to change before one can be really happy.”

Nothing against my conservative friends, but, really, isn't this another way of saying "ignorance is bliss"?

Happy Election Day, everybody.