Live from the Grant Park Obamafest: Part IV
Reporting from Hutchinson Field, 10:27 PM:
At 10 p.m. when CNN called the race, a lion's roar swept through Hutchinson Field.
Strangers hugged me, tried to high-five me and danced around me.
"I just can't believe in my lifetime this is happening," Chicagoan Gina Jackson told me.
"I'm thinking about my grandparents and great grandparents, they just wouldn't believe it," the black woman said.
"My mom passed away in May. She didn't think it was possible. I didn't think it would be possible."
As we waited for Obama to speak, tears rimmed the eyes of Frank Orrall, the lead singer-songwriter of Poi Dog Pondering.
"I am tearing because this is a regime change, and everyone got involved," the Hyde Parker said.
But he also knows that the road ahead is not going to be easy.
"I'm glad that the bad things happened while Bush was in office. People need to realize that because Obama has such a huge job -- Iraq, the budget -- things won't be great right away and people need to know that."
Live from the Grant Park Obamafest: Part III
Reporting from Hutchinson Field in Grant Park, 9:05 PM:
CNN is on a huge Jumbotron on the southern corner of the field.
At 8:34 p.m., the network projects an Obama win in Ohio and the crowd goes wild, shouting, hooting and waving America flags.
The mood: Festive but not rowdy. Chicago residents are treating each other well.
After that, there's a lull as we wait for more results.
People continue to stream in, filling up the field.
I'm about two-thirds of the way back from the stage, packed in tight behind a metal fence but with easy access to get out, in case this doesn't go the way the crowd here hopes.
But that's not looking likely.
Live from the Grant Park Obamafest: Part II
Reporting from Balbo and Columbus, 8:29 PM:
I've moved one block south and was greeted by one squadrol, 10 mounted police officers and more horse dung.
Despite promises of an ascetic event, country music is pumping through the air, and Chicago pride is running high.
"When will this ever happen again? It's our hometown boy," said Barb Kimball, a retired teacher who is here with two of her friends.
"There's such a special connection to have the president from Chicago."
By 8:23 p.m., 45 minutes after getting to the start of the line, we arrive at Hutchinson Field, and the crowd streams in like it is a rock concert.
Live from the Grant Park Obamafest: Part I
Reporting from the ticket holder line near Columbus and Congress, 8:12 p.m:
"Welcome to Election Night at Grant Park" is the message broacast over loudspeakers greeting the giddy people lucky enough to be standing in the ticket holder line to get into the festivities at Grant Park.
The crowds are black and white, young and old, bikers and T-shirt hawkers.
In the middle of the crowd stands 37-year-old Brenda Shiller, a black teacher from Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. She is protectively hugging her 10-year-old daughter, Justice.
The girl's t-shirt says it all: "Obama '08: Grant Park, I was there."
Brenda Shiller said "tonight is one of the most important nights in the lives of African- Americans, win or lose."
"A month ago I thought this was important because it is the first time black children can believe they can be president," Shiller said. "But then I realized that Obama must have believed that when he was a boy.
"This shows the barriers between us aren't real. I didn't think this would happen in my lifetime," she said, before she and her daughter disappeared into the crowd.
One obstacle the crowd has to step over: large amounts of horse droppings from the numerous mounted police patrolling the area.
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