Election Night - Comedy Central Party

One Down...


Welcome to Election Day with Tommy Christopher! Here's what's going on.

Tonight, I will be in New York at the Comedy Central viewing party, where I will be posting live updates and videos. You can see those on the next page. The bash starts at 8, but I will be posting updates before then, as well.

Additionally, we are doing a special 4 hour edition of Unusable Signal, from 8pm until midnight, EDT. Wendy, Tom Fitzsimmons, and Caleb Howe will anchor. We'll have live results, commentary, and field reports. Yeah, I said it, field reports! I'll be calling in from New York, Caleb will call in for the first hour from his voter suppression outpost, and Christina Cedeno is live in Grant Park! Plus, we'll have guest commentators. Click here after 8pm to listen live.

But, first things first. With .000001% of precincts reporting, Barack Obama has a 100% lead in New Jersey. I cast my historic vote at 7:13 am Eastern. My polling place was busy, a good sign for turnout. The bad news is, my town is 96% Republican. Blech.

If you feel inclined to do so, email me your Election Day pix at TommyChristopher@comcast.net, along with your name and location, and I'll post them.

Let the updates begin: (Updates in video player and at the bottom of the next page)



Here is the video player. This is where all of the updates will appear. I have it set up to show my most recently uploaded videos, so check back periodically. You can even go deep into the Tommy Christopher catalog, if you've got the time. The first one is of me voting.



My Unusable Signal co-host, Christina Cedeno of YesToDemocracy.com, is in Chicago's Grant Park.

She told me an interesting story. She noticed that, on her way in to the general media area, a staffer who checked her credentials called another man over, who pretended to be another journalist. I say "pretended" because they ran the same ruse on her twice. The purpose was to nonchalantly quiz her about her credentials, in order to weed out scalped, stolen, or forged credentials. Talk about political theatre!









My oldest, Justin, voted for the first time today. He just turned 18 in October. What a great time to cast your first vote!


2:21 pm It is killing me to be stuck in the office 'til 4:30. I have to say this, though. This story about Black Panthers that Drudge is pushing makes about as much sense as a backwards "B" on the face.

Who, exactly, are these guys supposed to be intimidating? White people? That would only hurt Obama, since the overwhelming majority of his supporters are white.

If these guys were at a polling place in Altoona, where they probably don't have costume rentals, it would make more sense. And if the news organizations "breaking" this story were someone other than Drudge and Fox.



Wright Ads in Grant Park



4:30 pm EDT: Christina informs me that CNN has graciously provided the video feed for the general media area in Grant Park, which, from her description, sounds like the press equivalent of Hades. That, she points out, means that there are anti-Obama ads airing at the Obama celebration. She mentioned, specifically, seeing the Rev. Wright ad that the National Republican Trust has been running. Halfway through the ad, he stops and says, "I can see my house from here!"

It's funny, I tried to think of an equivalently scummy ad that could come on at McCain's party, but there aren't any that come close. That says something. The best we can hope for is that, right after a Sarah Palin speech, one of those "Holiday Inn Express" commercials will come on.



8:56PM OK, sorry so late, my computer was acting up. So, they called PA for Obama, huh?


8:57PM OK, I'm gonna get a drink and call my radio show real quick. It's 347-677-1645

9:01PM OK, I have a drink now. Obama takes Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, but hey, McCain got Wyoming! Nice!

9:02PM Ohhh, but Arizona, no call yet. Oof! Y'know, I didn't drink beer before this election.

9:15PM Obama has an encouraging lead in Florida. 52-48 with 49% reporting. I just went to get food, and I got lost. This is a big place.

9:16PM The people from PuckYouPalin.com are here, hopefully I'll get to interview them before Palin loses.

9:19PM Jeanne Shaheen wins in NH. That's 55 Dems so far!

9:20PM Dammit, I feel enormous pressure to be funny. Where's my beer?

10:06PM I'm back! The Daily Show is on. I just talked to Jane Kaszmarek.

10:06PM She looks younger and prettier in person. So, Obama's gonna win, huh?


10:18PM There will be more celebrities here later, I'm told, but I haven't even annoyed all of the ones who are here now.


10:27PM Make sure you're checking the videoplayer for updates. I'm gonna try typing even less. I'm on my 3rd light beer, you feel me?

10:22PM David Knowles calls it for Barack Obama! Nice song selection. Iowa has gone for Obama.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2008/11/04/paint-the-white-house-black/

10:30PM I tried to enable Twitter from my phone but it didn't work!

11:27PM Hi, it's me again. Obama is the Prez!!!!

11:28PM McCain's giving his concession speech. Now, it's all reasonableness and niceness. This was one ugly camaign.

11:39PM Hello,everyone! It's Diana. What a celebration here at Comedy Central. There have been some celebrity spottings, like my fave so far, Detective Batista from "Dexter", as well as Robert Sean Leonard from "American Pie", Jane Krakowski and Jack McBreyer from "30 Rock", Morton Sperlock of "SuperSize Me" fame, and we're still waiting for an expected appearance from Jon Stewart himself. Tommy is lovin' life right now, totally in his element. Yay for Obama/Biden!!! BTW - a little piece of advice: don't rely on Verizon's VZ Navigator when trying to get around Manhattan.

0:11AM This is a great moment.

0:14AM I remember sitting around with some other writers in Denver, telling them that this election was already decided, and we just didn't know it. Either Barack Obama would win, as every step of this campaign made it obvious that he should, or there were too many people afraid to step forward, and all of this excitement was flirtation. Tonight I have my answer, one I didn't think I would get.

0:52AM Well, things are winding down a lot, so I'll wrap up now. Check out the radio show, they're doing an extra 2 hours, and I'll have more from this event tomorrow. Good night, and Happy Election Day!