The Albert Lea Tribune takes a look at the local reaction to our new president's election in It was Obama mania: Locals react to the presidential election:
It was hard to ignore the smiles, the tears and the cheers of joy that came Election Night at the Ramada Inn when every major news channel on television announced Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as the next United States president.
As the newscasters made the announcement around 10 p.m. Tuesday — telling the American people that Obama had received the needed 270 electoral votes to win the presidency — cheers erupted from the people who had congregated in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party room at the Albert Lea hotel. Some clapped, some yelled and others danced. Family and friends hugged.
“The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly,” Arizona Sen. John McCain said in a congratulatory speech to Obama about 20 minutes later.
He talked of his opponent as a man who was able to instill hope in Americans and who had achieved much to be proud of, both for himself and for his country.
In the difficult times for this country, McCain pledged to help the new president and urged the country to come together and bridge their differences.
“Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans,” he said.
Eyes in the DFL room were glued to the televisions as the speech was given. . . .
Read the whole thing at the Tribune, where the real pictures from the party are posted.
The Owatonna People's Press has published a moving account of how the Local Somali community reacts to Obama victory. Nugget (though the refugee interviewed isn't Somali):
It’s been a long, dark road. Bawar came to the U.S. to escape a vicious civil war in his native country, Sudan, between the Islamic central government in the north and armies in the Christian south. [Omot] Bawar fled on foot after the violence swept over his village in the south. Many of neighbors died during the journey to the Ethiopian border, falling prey to crocodiles, hyenas and lions.
He has been a U.S. citizen since 2001, a privilege he never takes for granted.
“Here a man has the right to do whatever he likes,” Bawar said. “If you say something bad about political leaders in Sudan they send you to jail.”
We're recovering from a wedding celebration yesterday that illustrated that point. Blueman Hal was married to Dori, who works for an area newspaper, surrounded by friends ranging from a DNC member to Dean Barkley's press secretary. Hal's dissenting voice might earn him some criticism, but nobody's hauling him off to the hoosegow. Instead, a couple of hundred people running the political spectrum cut loose in Annandale last night.
We wanted to post a Bodeans song to commemorate the occasion, but couldn't find a good version of what we were looking for. So here's the song a Baptist preacher sang at a Lutheran wedding:
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