Waiting for Obama

A recent Tuesday, 10:42 p.m. The shock that President Obama had won a second term so early in the evening had just started to sink in as hundreds of supporters crowded around a giant projected image of an empty stage in Chicago.

The party above San Francisco’s Democratic headquarters, which had been bumping for more than two hours since victory had been declared, was showing signs of fatigue.

Mayor Ed Lee had long since waved his arms and laughed from behind a podium as reporters crowded in to cover both local and national triumphs.

Half-eaten boxes of sushi were laid to rest on tables. The floors were slick from spilled libations. Balloons taped to the walls and ceiling drooped, their short lives lived out. The line at the bar grew, as last call seemed imminent.

Revelers, many of whom had spent their afternoon making calls to places like Wisconsin and Colorado urging people to vote for Obama, had already danced to repeated playings of Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” The battle they had fought for months had been won, but they couldn’t go home without hearing from the newly re-elected president.

Some sat, but most stood in front of the big screen, waving “goodbye forever” to Mitt Romney as he gave his concession speech. Time seemed to slow down. Tweets from viewers in other parts of the country flashed onscreen, reminding the president that tomorrow was a workday and that a speech sooner rather than later would be appreciated.

Just as it felt as if another minute of waiting would be intolerable, Obama and his family appeared to the tune of Stevie Wonder’s Motown treasure “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.” In Chicago and San Francisco, the rooms lit up.

“Despite all the hardship we’ve been through … I’ve never been more hopeful about America,” Obama said. “We remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.

“We will continue on our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.”

It was end of an evening and the start of a new day. It was time to go home.