The Harper Center Ballroom may not be Chicago’s Grant Park, but emotions ran just as high as Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech for the presidency.
Creighton students anxiously waited for polls to close with each hour to see how their candidate stacked up against the other Tuesday night. Amid a sea of confusing talk of exit polls and misleading statistics, CNN’s coverage was spotty, incorporating holograms beamed in from across the nation and touch-screens.
Students gathered in their hall lobbies, glued to the TV, until at about 10:40 p.m. when Obama’s impending victory was announced.
“I hope America was responsible today,” said Arts & Sciences freshman Katie Watkins, watching CNN in the Gallagher lobby.
The mood during the evening was a mixture of excitement and cynicism, and Creighton Democrats showed up to the Harper Center. The majority of the crowd was in support of Obama, bursting into cheers every time the senator gained more electoral votes, especially Ohio and its 20 electoral votes was called for Barack Obama.
“It’s over,” Creighton College Democrats president Brian Martens said. “That’s our next president right there. We won it. Tomorrow’s going to be a beautiful day.”
College Democrats Vice-President Beth Johnson agreed with Martens, stating that many political science professors who were present for the viewing party viewed Obama as the victor from the start.
The results grew clearer when Obama won Pennsylvania 65 percent to McCain’s 34 percent.
“Obama be with you,” joked a student as Obama gained more ground on McCain in the electoral college.
In historically red states – Indiana, Florida, Virginia and Ohio – Obama pulled out unexpected numbers, which ultimately led to his victory.
Sam Pierre, Arts & Sciences senior and member of the Creighton College Republicans, said he was at Harper to watch the Creighton Students Union results and was offended that CNN was the network chosen for the election watching party.
“It would be more fair to show a network a little more middle of the road,” Pierre said. “It was advertised as MSNBC and I get here and see CNN.”
Pierre said it was a done deal when CNN called Ohio, the state that the 2004 election came down to. He said he didn’t give up until then.
“It seems like any poll you see has some kind of bias, so it all came down to how people voted tonight,” he said.
Republicans did have something to celebrate. Both Rep. Lee Terry and Sen.-elect Mike Johanns will be headed to Washington under the Republican ticket. Katy Spratte, Creighton College Republicans president, said on Wednesday she was at the Firefighter’s Union Hall Tuesday night where Lee Terry made his acceptance speech as the sixth-term representative from Nebraska’s 2nd District.
“Every time we saw the result numbers on the bottom of the screen, we all clapped,” she said.
Terry, who has seniority over a good portion of Congress, said he looked forward to working with Obama and the newly elected congressmen.
“I am really glad we won. A lot of us worked really hard for his campaign,” Spratte said.
Still, Spratte said, it was hard to look past the Obama victory. Dressed all in black, standing on the mall she said it felt like someone had died when the screen flashed: “Obama victory.”
“Half of us were crying,” she said. “I mean, those words just sucked the wind out of the room.”
When she saw Sen. John McCain graciously take the podium in Arizona to concede, she said that was when she broke down.
“I am disappointed in the American people’s vote for Barack Obama as the 44th president. I think it was largely an uninformed vote with people caught in the ‘Obamamania’ wave,” she said. “It’s really hard for me to accept this decision, but I will respect him as our president and I take solace in the fact that he is starting with a clean slate.”