Obama pulls it off!

Well Obama did it. My wife Lisa and I were in San Francisco and November 4th was a very memorable night, it was something I will never forget. We were staying in a hotel near Union Square (aptly named for public demonstrations during the Civil War), and the people there just went completely nutso!

She was down on business and I was maximo-turista; I had walked and walked that day, clear down to the waterfront, and then up the stairs to Coit Tower, down to China Town and back. We were both exhausted. We took a nap and I had gotten reservations to a restaurant called Michael Mina’s, which is supposedly the best restaurant in San Francisco as rated by Michelin and others.

We walked up to the St. Francis Westin where the restaurant was and we could see people gathering. The bar was packed and CNN was on the election results. We paused a moment to watch and a dude jumped up and came over to tell me I was blocking his view. So we went up and were seated in the restaurant and had a fabulous dinner experience, (more on that later). I was seated looking out the window to Union Square and Lisa was looking on the restaurant. Periodically, during dinner a roar of cheers broke out from the hotel bars. I mentioned to Lisa that curiously, a big group of people were milling around in the square, then a line of police cars.
I thought; what the hell, is this all about the election? Lisa was like a little kid with the biggest grin on her face. The odd couple seated next to us (apparently on an internet date), were talking politics loudly. As we left just walking down the stairs from the restaurant to the lobby people were streaming in dressed in Halloween type costumes, yelling, screaming and laughing! It was just so crazy. Now the main lobby bar had about 1000 people in it and you could hardly get through, the hotel staff were unsure what to do, they didn’t want a riot breaking out.

Going out the door to Union Square it was packed with people, all the sidewalks were jammed with people just standing there not walking. People were ripping off their shirts and waving them running through the intersections. People were hopping up and down screaming OBAMA! And the crowd would cheer YEAH back! Cars were honking their horns in time to the chants.
There have only been a few times in my life when people seemed so connected and together, all the various and sundry disparate elements pulled together for a moment in time. Later, I thought of these times in my own life:

• 
  Kennedy’s assassination, I really remember the funeral procession on TV in black and white as a kid, with the horse drawn hearse and the horse being led with no rider.
• 
  The arrival of the Beatles, I was at a cousin’s house and people came running over from next door screaming “you have to come over and see this, there are guys on TV singing and their hair is long like girls”! On the Ed Sullivan show.
• 
  Landing on the moon, everyone held their breath. (whether it was faked or not).
  The first time the 747 flew, people ran outdoors to stare and point, it was just way too big and slow to stay in the air, truly it slipped the brain gears.
• 
  Leaving Viet Nam in 1975, what the hell happened?
• 
  Nixon resigning (a collected sigh of relief).
• 
  The Sonics winning their championship in 1979, now I know how people can get trampled in crowds like that, it was actually scary, moving down the street without moving your legs like being in a river of human flesh.
• 
  The start of the first Gulf War. People put huge American flags, on their huge Ford pickups, and stormed down the street honking their horns.
• 
  911, of course.
• 
  And now this

I realize that in other areas the reception was most likely much different, like Texas for instance. So I was glad I was where I was, to see and enjoy the moment, because their just isn’t many of these kinds of moments that happen in any one person’s life.