City responds to Obama win

By Dan DuChene
Nov. 5, 2008    ·    11:00 p.m.

The call was made at 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Inside the Ypsilanti Obama headquarters on Michigan Avenue, a deafening cheer filled the room.

Patrons from the Elbow Room emptied out onto Washington Street and chanted "Obama" and "Yes we can!"

Residents in Apartments above store fronts downtown opened their windows and shared their excitement with passer-byes below.

Minutes before the major networks announced their prediction, State Representative Alma Wheeler-Smith, D-Salem, was on he cell phone checking up on ballot returns for her re-election in the Obama election headquarters in Ypsilanti. By the end of the night, rather early the next morning, Smith managed to defeat her Republican opponent Tom Banks by nearly a 45 percent margin.

Though her election seemed apparent at that point in the evening, Smith said she would rather talk about the national presidential race.

"It was just a really wonderful evening," she said. "A spectacular win."

Smith said she thinks the Democratic Senator from Illinois will be able to create more jobs in the area as President Barack Obama because of a focus on manufacturing job creation in his economic plan.

"Ypsilanti has been very hard hit," she said.

Just then a group of campaign staffers and volunteers, sitting in folding chairs huddled around a couple laptops, burst into a frenzy of cheers, claps and hugs. The energy quickly spread throughout the entire room.

Ryan Rotter, an Eatern Michigan Univeristy graduate student studying political science, had been helping the Obama campaign in Ypsilanti by volunteering his computer support services, as well as some canvassing. He said paid Obama staff were not aloud to give comments to the press.

"Fantastic," he said. "When Ohio came in I was absolutely thrilled."

Another EMU graduate student who had been volunteering her time at the Obama campaign office in Ypsilanti by oganizing camvassers in ward 3, Wendy Dorman, said she had been "nervously optomistic" until this point.

Reffering to candidates she's supported in past presidential elections, she said, "I've been excited before."

After the win, Dorman said, "I feel just overwhelming relief."

At 11:20 p.m., a karaoke singer in Pub 13 was stopped before he could perform "Pepper" by the Butthole Surfers. As the bar quieted thier conversations with one another, employees scrambled to turn up the volume on the television sets lining the walls.

"The American people have spoken and they have spoken clearly," said presidential challenger, Sentator John McCain, R-Ariz. He said he and his opponent had "argued our differences and he has prevailed."

Conceeding the election from his rally in his home state, McCain not only noted the historic undertones in the election, but congradulated Obama for his ability to inspire his followers. He told his campaign and supporters the loss was his fault, and not theirs.

He said it was time to "come together, to find the necessary compromises, bridge our differences."

After McCain's speech, a man who chose to remain anonymous was sitting at a table by himself in the back of the bar. When asked how he felt about the results, the man shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's histoty."

Becoming obersvabley upset with being asked to share his opinion, the man said, "I didn't vote for either one. I couldn't care either way."

Ypsilanti resident Jeff Haller had also watched events of the night transpire from Pub 13. He said he had voted for Obama and was happy with the results.

"I feel like I can finally be poud of my country," Haller said.

Haller was also pleased with McCain's concession speech.

"He was well spoken and gracious," he said.

Joseph Rock, another Ypsilanti resident watching returns from his stool in Pub 13, agreed that McCain's speech was "gracious."

He said he had voted for Obama, but was not overly optomistic about the future.

"I think there's hope," Rock said. "I'm not sure he's going to be a good president, but there's hope."

John Owen, who was sitting at a table near by, shared Rock's reservations toward becoming too optimistic. He said he was nervous.

"I don't know how the country is going to take it," Owen said.

Though he has lived in the United States for several years, Owen is still a U.K. citizen and cannot vote. He said he wishes he could, though.

Although he said he doesn't really see a lot of overt racism here in the states, he pointed to the fact this is the country's first minority president. And though he acknowleges that Obama's win has broken barriors, he thinks a women elected president first would have helped to ease the population in.

"It will be interesting to see the path that we take," Owen said.

Lisa Atkins was sitting with Owen. The 30-year-old Ypsilanti resident said, "I'm in shock."

She said, "I never thought I would live to see the day we elect a black man as president."

She said it is a good change.