Race to Washington

'We're taking it back'

A couple of minutes after my last posting, I looked up at the TV screeen and saw a crowd gathering outside the White House. I left my hotel and walked the five blocks to the most famous building in the world.

What began as a trickle on 15th Street became a flood by the time I arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It was pelting down with rain, soaking the swelling crowd of thousands of joyous young Americans.

A young woman held a sign aloft. Its colours were running but the words were still legible: ‘Yes we did.’

At the centre of the crowd, pots and pans were being slammed together in celebration.

A chant of ‘Hey, Hey, Goodbye’ was hurled in the direction of the President’s house. If George W Bush was home he wasn’t getting any sleep.

A young man ran by me screaming, ‘We’re taking it back.’

Two Secret Service men were silhouetted on the roof of the White House. They didn’t need to worry. There was no threat in that crowd, only promise.

One or two young men looked a little tired and emotional. One shirtless young fella danced inside a semi-circle of elated black women.

The crowd was almost exclusively under-30. This was the Millennial generation on the march. One young woman wore a red T-shirt with an arrow pointing to her face and the slogan, ‘This is what democracy looks like’.

As Barack Obama was speaking in Chicago about the need for ‘a new spirit of patriotism and responsibility’, the crowd around the White House were chanting ‘USA, USA, USA’.

I spotted a couple of women in what looked like pyjamas. Another walked by in a tight red cocktail dress in unfeasibly tall high heels.

As I walked back towards my hotel, there was gridlock in the streets around the White House. The grey, misty early morning was alive with the sound of honking horns and screaming joy. As I write, just before 3 am, I can still hear those honking horns in the street outside.

Not even the most hardened cynic could be unmoved by the elation which animated that crowd this morning. But here is a thought: with sky-high expectations comes the risk of profound disappointment.

Obama will watch these spontaneous street-parties with humility and well-deserved pride. But he will also know he has a staggering debt to repay.  

Posted at 09:01AM Nov 05, 2008