Into the Madding Crowd

Ryan Seacrest, in all his amber waves of perfectly gelled hair, asks the question du jour of his co-host Giuliana Rancic: “Where were you when he was sworn in?”

“I was actually in hair and makeup. I was listening over the blow dryer,” replies the unnaturally tan, orange sundress donning Rancic.

Missing no step, the American Idol host pulls the patronizing-hand-on-shoulder trick, “I was on the radio…”

Leave it to Seacrest to find some way to plug his radio show on KIIS-FM during E! News’ inauguration coverage.

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[I wrote this article for my magazine writing class and it is also posted to The Grady Journal. The piece details how The Red & Black newspaper covered the election results. I thought I'd post it up here just for memory's sake. After all, these moments are also integral to my own experience of the historic night. Please excuse any grammatical or style errors, it's probably one of my most rushed articles ever.] 

Posted November 5, 2008 by Julie Leung 
 

Fingers are poised above keyboards, all eyes are concentrated on laptop or television screens.

Five students and one editorial advisor are seated around a makeshift conference table, all facing the 21-inch Philips television set on CNN.

New Hampshire is called, and the barrage of typing is instantaneous. Various pings from the four Apple laptops and one Dell are heard as comments get posted.

Live blog posts, interactive maps and online polls. This is history chronicled, second by second, by student staff of The Red & Black newspaper.

Gearing Up

6:30 p.m. The Design Corral

No one touches the Bit o’ Honey candy except for Shannon, the managing editor. Dressed in a zebra-print cardigan with a pink scarf wrapped around her dark brown hair, Shannon is the most festive object in a room dominated by black, white and gray décor. 

“These things are good,” she says, snatching a couple of the red- and yellow-wrapped bonbons from the small cardboard box.

“Happy Election Day !!!! Have Some Candy !!!” reads the 8×11 greeting taped to the inside flap. The container, once brimming with more popular goodies such as Kit Kats, Nerds and Spree’s, has already been ravished by many a passerby. Only these garish candies remain.

“FOOD!” shouts Ed, the editorial advisor from somewhere near the rear upstairs entrance. His voice booms loudly over the rows of cubicles separating the circle of page design computers and the conference room.

It is a clarion call. Melanie, the Out & About page designer whirls around on her chair and heads toward the back room, her face ecstatic. “Food!” she echoes.

Twenty student editors, writers, photographers and page designers descend like vultures on the twelve pizzas set out in the conference room. Pushing past chairs and handing out paper plates to each other, the newsroom prepares for the long haul, armed with soda, pizza and candy.

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bada da daaa, ba da da da da….

Dare we hope it? Plenty of friends are planning victory parties for Obama. The polls look good, the news looks good. But I’m holding my breath until the final states are counted. Don’t want to jinx anything, y’know? It’s still too close for comfort. I don’t think too much of the Bradley effect, but if Obama doesn’t win, something fishy sure went down. Either all the good news pushes the more ambivalent anti-Obama people to retaliate, the Bradley effect exists or God damn it, the Republicans stole another election.

I feel like the nation is running toward the edge of a precipice and still hasn’t decided whether it wants the power-glider or the broken umbrella. A gross exaggeration, I’m sure some would say, considering that it’s only one branch of the government. But look at how eight years of the Bush administration has battered our economy, our international relations and morale. 

I can’t help but get swept up in the all the excitement surrounding Obama. I’ve never been as emotionally invested in the election as this one, in this one candidate. It’s a feeling coursing throughout the nation it seems, if the record-breaking voter turnout says anything the importance of this moment. 

I get to avoid the lines today; I’ve voted using an absentee ballot. However, I almost wish to be out there in the lines, seems like an exciting time. 

This will be a night to remember.