i’m posting out of order, but the lady sparkler and i went out to Manassas last night for barack obama’s final campaign rally, at the Prince William County Fairgrounds. (see the pictures on facebook, or check out the panorama above.)

i’ll have more thoughts later (ie. tomorrow) but the rally was spectacular. they estimated the crowd at 90,000 and i’d absolutely believe it. he’s every bit as charismatic as clinton (mr, not mrs, who i met in early 1992) but hopefully without the, er, prominent character flaws. the lady sparkler and i went to the rally on a complete whim, but it felt great to be there for (hopefully) a little bit of history.

we didn’t get back until just about 2am, so i am way too tired for coherent thought, much less coherent election night coverage … but we’ll see what happens as we get through the night.

7:00 PM i love numbers! just like crack, only they are a little more addictive … and have a little less nutritional value.
7:03 PM vermont is the first to go blue! as a former cog in the rep. bernie sanders (i-vt) machine, i am proud (i say) proud of this development … and can feel the entire city of Rutland (viva, rut-vegas!) having a conniption fit.
7:18 PM cnn is using faux-hologram technology to project a chicago-based reported into the atlanta situation room. help me obi wan, you are my only hope. @#$%ng ridiculous.
7:31 PM cnn has mccain up 8 to 3 … if that ratio holds, it’s going to be a landslide.
7:40 PM What we should be watching … Early tells: Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina. Must McWins: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri. Late flags: Montana, Colorado.
8:02 PM on a bus, away from CNN and it’s killing me. I trust nothing important is happening?
8:11 PM CNN mobile says electoral college is 77 to 34 in favor of Barack, but only KY and VT have been called. That’s a Palin sized WTF?!?
8:27 PM oh, the northeast happened. and Maryland. and Illinois.
8:34 PM Obama won granite staters who “never attend church” and “make less than 25k” … not sure that’s a good thing.
9:02 PM dole goes down… burn, dole, burn! you godless heeeethan.
9:10 PM 51 senators and Michigan. it’s early. why do the people on fox look so sad?!?
9:13 PM it’s silly, but I was really hoping for Georgia. sad.
9:20 PM fox calls Ohio for obama. stick a fork inmac, he’s gone!
9:34 PM I [heart] the CNN magic state/county map. it may be my new celebrity exception. mmmmmmmmm.
9:37 PM malvo (CNN) went a little heavy on the orange bronzer.
10:13 PM giddy. just giddy.
10:15 PM breaking news! CNN announces that a source in the McCain count says that he may have lost!
10:20 PM Jessica Simpson appears to be providing election coverage on fox news, and seems to have just high-fives Brett Hume.
10:28 PM Steve Forbes is on comedy central, and BET seems to have a “magic map” made from refrigerator magnets.
10:35 PM William bennett looks like he wants to blink out of existance.
10:42 PM Jon King just touched Joe Lieberman’s blue tile and it turned blue! Will someone please, please call something.
10:55 PM wow, this has been a slow, slow 10-minutes…
10:59 PM you heard it here first, BET just called virginia for Obama.
11:00 PM that’s it kids!
11:06 PM wow, Jesus. wow.
11:09 PM ten minutes ago, this had nothing to do with race. now, it’s hard to see anything but …
11:17 PM is saying “our long national nightmare is over” too strong?
11:19 PM no, boos, repubs. no boos.
11:24 PM McCain: Dude, if you gave this tone of a speech six months ago, you would have won. Who wrote this? Why now? Legitimately beautiful.
11:27 PM This is the pre-2000 McCain … the one I could have been content as president way back when.
11:29 PM well, lots of repub boos, but atleast no “drill, baby, drill!”
11:41 PM Am I the only one who honestly doesn’t believe that this has happened?
11:51 PM Florida, Nevada? Montana would be the end zone spike.
11:56 PM CNN: “people are celebrating in front of the white house.” that’s not celebrating, bob. that’s taunting…
12:00 AM Michelle Obama’s dress made me think nice things about Cindy McCain. Damn her!
12:10 AM God, he makes a lot of sense.
12:16 AM how long has he been writing this in his head?
12:17 AM this is really happening, huh?
12:25 AM seeing Jesse Jackson cry makes me hate him just a little less…
12:45 AM the steers are a wall of noise. horns honking everywhere. trucks, cars. it’s beautiful.
12:49 AM people are litterally shouting and clapping on each street corner. And I just face planted because i should have been walking instead of typing.
12:56 AM if park road is half as noisy as Connecticut Ave, I won’t be sleeping tonight.
1:05 AM I’ve seen a hundred people since the returns, maybe two… but not one hasn’t been happy, laughing, smiling, honking or shouting. even the one repub I’ve seen was happy.
1:33 AM 18th and Columbia is a parking lot of people high-fiveing, strangers making eye contact and grinning, people shouting “yes, we did.” it’s like DC melted away, and became Portland, Oregon for a couple hours.
1:34 AM screw people who say that DC isn’t a sports town. our sport is politics, it’s just that we don’t win often enough …
2:20 AM watched CNN’s replay of obama’s acceptance speech. it’s even better the second time around.
2:20 AM g’night.