Because of the awful time difference that just makes my life so much harder, I started the evening off by going to the theater to see Tartuffe (really great, by the way), while I waited for you guys to finish orbiting the sun so the polls could close and stuff could actually get done. After the play, at about 10:30, we walked over to Harry's Bar, an American ex-pat hangout since the early 1900s. Technically we couldn't get in the bar, because it was "invitation only", whatever that means. (Sorry, didn't realize I had to be "invited" to watch MY presidential election, but whatever). Actually, the entire street was closed off, as Harry's had set up a TV outside for the poor, invitation-less masses to watch. At this point, it was still only about 5pm on the east coast, so there wasn't much going on. Just a re-cap of how the 2008 election went down. Fun to reminisce, but not all that exciting, so we passed the time by chatting up the other eager Americans, American lovers, and secret American lovers pretending like the really coming to this area to hangout anyway, and are wondering why all of a sudden it's filled with such uncool people waving American flags and drinking Budweiser. Someday they'll realize that we are the reason they have TV shows to watch and cupcakes to eat, and they will come over to the dark side. But anyway, we did meet some very cool people there. Mostly other American students studying in Paris, but I also talked to two guys, one French and one Belgian, that were well-versed in American politics, and we had a lively discussion. Everyone here was pro-Obama, by the way. To the French, the Republican Party that Mitt Romney represents is their equivalent of the craziest Tea Party members, a theocracy, and a dash of Ann Coulter all mixed together. So that won't do.
Anyway, finally some results started coming in. Every time CNN would show that Obama was winning, even if the state was polling at 1%, everyone started cheering, and when Romney appeared to be leading in any way, shape or form, everyone started booing. As enough electoral votes came in so that Romney was leading Obama, I got interviewed in French by France3, a news station. They asked some pretty typical questions, but the main one was if I was concerned that since Romney was "ahead" (seriously, they had counted all of 6 states, and 4 were in the South), was I worried for Obama's chances? I wish I could have responded in English, but I kind of chuckled and said something along the lines of "yeah no, this won't last." I think they still struggle with the concept of red and blue states, and the whole electoral college thing. But then again who doesn't. After milling about some more and watching the agonizingly slow process unfold, we took shelter from the cold in another nearby bar. At this point it must have been 1 or 2 am, maybe even 3, I can't even remember, but I know that at this point Obama got Wisconsin (woo hoo!). Unfortunately, however, at about 4am all the bars started closing up, which was a real issue because they were far from calling the election at this point. So we wondered about the streets of Paris and found a cafe that apparently never closes. Ever. That is probably the only establishment of all in France that does so. Must be run by a foreigner. This was at about 5am now, so we ordered some hot chocolates and such from a very surly waiter (surprise, surprise) who did not seem please that that was all we wanted. So he proceeded to never bring us our order. Your loss, man, because all I wanted to do anyway was sit in side your warm cafe, watch your TV, and not have to order your 7 euro hot chocolate that probably comes in a mug the size of a Dixie cup. So we all sat, tired but warm, eyes glued to France24 (a French news station). And then it happened. At the bottom of the screen, I saw that "MSNBC has just granted the election to Barack Obama". This was at about 5:30, meaning I had been up for 20 hours, so I didn't really believe it at first. And then I saw that Obama had only broken the 270 mark by a couple votes, so I thought, "Florida is probably going to screw this up again, don't get your hopes up, Josette." But then, miracle of miracles, I saw that Fox News had also given the election to Obama. And then I, and nearly everyone I was with, started to cry. These were tears of exhaustion, and pent-up anxiety, and stress, but mostly joy. It was a strange experience, most everyone else in the cafe just gave a short little "woo hoo" and carried on with their meal, but it was also very profound. I don't think I would have had it any other way, actually.
After finally drying our tears, we took the metro to the American ambassador's residence by Place de la Concorde, where we had been invited to breakfast. Yeah, I'm cool like that. The shindig started at 6am, but even then there were tons of people. The event was co-hosted by a bunch of American businesses, like McDonald's and Disney and The New York Times, but also some French ones, so there were a lot of CEO-types and journalists and such there, but also quite a few students like us. There were more Republicans here though, I saw one or two elephant pins. But the ambassador was pretty happy because this means he will keep his job. We milled about for a bit and admired the building, and had some breakfast. I got interviewed two more times, then watched Romney's concession speech. Then a bit later, when Obama gave his victory speech, I cheered embarrassingly loud when he mentioned Biden (I guess not everyone's a big a fan as me), and then cried some more. After that, I realized it was 8:30 am, I had class at 1pm, and that I really shouldn't be eating any more mini bagels. So I left, took the metro home, where the newspaper headlines that greeted me were all some form of "Future Challenges at the White House" or "The Long Road Ahead". The French were I guess pleased, but much more reserved about Obama's performance. I guess they didn't realize I was just over the moon about having a president that would recognize my fundamental rights as a human being. But you know, handling the economic crisis is important too.
In the end, surreal as it was to spend a presidential election outside of the States, I highly recommend it. It both gives you perspective about America's standing abroad, and gives you some more distance from the crazy, manipulative, news cycle on steroids political machine and all the pundits that go along with that. Plus, it's the one day Parisians really want to hear your opinion on something because of the fact that you are American.
On the street in front of Harry's Bar.
In front of the TV outside of the bar, patiently waiting for something to happen.
Me, dead tired, with "Obama". A cardboard cut out of Romney is to his right, but I told my friend not to include him in the picture.
The decorations and some of the breakfast food offered inside of the ambassador's house. Classy.
