On the way to work this morning I saw some road kill... not a fox or rabbit, a full sized deer! I asked a guest later in the day who told me there is a national park nearby and it's not an unusual sight.
The day we've all been waiting for is finally here...after two years of hype, Americans can go to the polls. All though the day I've seen pictures of queueing people waiting up to four hours to vote, but every person is determined to wait and get their vote.
It's amazing to see this level of enthusiasm for an election, although we have heard of some dirty tricks going on. Republicans going down the queue telling people that "Democrats vote tomorrow" or that a special form is needed to vote.
Almost as soon as the polls opened the opinion polls started speculating, mid-afternoon we interviewed a pollster who said it will be closer that we think.
After the show I headed to Georgetown as that had been recommended as the most decent place to go in Washington DC. It is largely full of clothes shops but has some nice bars and coffee shops among some beautiful architecture. I did discover this lovely photo oppertunity whilst I was there....A boarded up Starbucks with a poster of Obama and "Hope" written below.
We headed back to the hotel to watch the results come in, and around 9pm it was looking sure to be Obama. The people I was with retired to bed so I headed back to the office to watch the rest of the coverage.
Since 24 hour news has been standard, TV and radio reporting has stayed much the same with the broadcasting technology advancing year by year, but this election was the battle of graphics.
Each broadcaster this year (Including the BBC) went for big touch screens operated by the presenters. CNN's looked like a big iphone and smoothly enlarged a USA map in party colours with a pie chart of every stat you could imagine.
CNN were the victors by some margin though...especially with their party piece. In Chicago they had a tent with 32 cameras in for their reporter and guests. Once in front of the cameras they could beam a 3d hologram like image back to the studio like they were in the room. It was exactly like Star Wars!
The result came and I thought John McCain gave a great speech, a very gracious defeat, another rare sight in British politics.
Watching Obama's speech was watching history, here was a victorious American that knew it was no time for whooping and cheering and delivered an inspiring and "lump in the throat" speech. I felt very proud and confident that America has chosen a great world leader.
After the speech I decided to head back to the hotel, the streets were alive with beeping horns and cheering people all over the place. There was an amazing euphoric feeling everywhere. The soundscape was so amazing I recorded my journey back to the hotel.
As I neared the hotel I wondered how many people would be celebrating at the White House. As it's only a 10 minute walk I decided to check it out before heading to bed.
As I got closer and closer, the crowds and noise grew and grew, with people high fiving and dancing on cars. The White House was packed with people carrying banners and chanting Obama's name, every American face was beaming. One banner read, "why wait till January?" in reference to the inauguration being 2 months away.
The chanting crowds and anti-Bush songs were made all the sweeter as Bush was in residence, I imagine he had ear plugs in last night!
We headed back to the hotel to watch the results come in, and around 9pm it was looking sure to be Obama. The people I was with retired to bed so I headed back to the office to watch the rest of the coverage.
Since 24 hour news has been standard, TV and radio reporting has stayed much the same with the broadcasting technology advancing year by year, but this election was the battle of graphics.
Each broadcaster this year (Including the BBC) went for big touch screens operated by the presenters. CNN's looked like a big iphone and smoothly enlarged a USA map in party colours with a pie chart of every stat you could imagine.
CNN were the victors by some margin though...especially with their party piece. In Chicago they had a tent with 32 cameras in for their reporter and guests. Once in front of the cameras they could beam a 3d hologram like image back to the studio like they were in the room. It was exactly like Star Wars!
The result came and I thought John McCain gave a great speech, a very gracious defeat, another rare sight in British politics.
Watching Obama's speech was watching history, here was a victorious American that knew it was no time for whooping and cheering and delivered an inspiring and "lump in the throat" speech. I felt very proud and confident that America has chosen a great world leader.
After the speech I decided to head back to the hotel, the streets were alive with beeping horns and cheering people all over the place. There was an amazing euphoric feeling everywhere. The soundscape was so amazing I recorded my journey back to the hotel.
As I neared the hotel I wondered how many people would be celebrating at the White House. As it's only a 10 minute walk I decided to check it out before heading to bed.As I got closer and closer, the crowds and noise grew and grew, with people high fiving and dancing on cars. The White House was packed with people carrying banners and chanting Obama's name, every American face was beaming. One banner read, "why wait till January?" in reference to the inauguration being 2 months away.
The chanting crowds and anti-Bush songs were made all the sweeter as Bush was in residence, I imagine he had ear plugs in last night!
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