Just hearing Jon Stewart voicing these beautiful, beautiful words is intoxicating: “At 11 o’clock at night, Eastern Standard Time, the President of the United States is Barack Obama.”
Politico has posted another article covering the atmosphere at the Daily Show last night. This quote from Larry Wilmore made me feel simultaneously proud of and grateful to these guys all over again: “When Jon finally said, ‘President Barack Obama,’ I was a little taken aback. It was like I wasn’t a correspondent then. It was surreal.” I can only imagine how much that must have taken them all out of their personae (and into the moment). What an amazing, unbelievable night.
yeah I was just watching that full screen hon my laptop. knowing it was totally TRUE made it more fun.
it’s a good sign that when Jon Stewart presents a fact to me, no matter how earnest he seems, I immediately feel the need to fact-check it somewhere else!
also…and this is kinda bothering me…like Stephen reminded us, Bush was actually the President at that moment. Obama just became the next president, the president-elect, however you want to say it…
but I’m a nitpicking nitwit! whatevs! right after that he told us the facts straight up about California and it was beautiful.
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yesyes I can read Jon’s “I’m proud to be an American” face after he finished this announcement~I keep wathcing those three seconds…
anyway poor Stephen, can’t wait to see how u r doing…
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My eyes tear up every time Jon calls it for Obama. Every. Time.
Rewatching this clip this morning, it is so interesting to see Stephen try to do his schtick after Jon calls it, then looking at his monitor, then you can just see it dawning on him and it just becomes so real, for everyone. It’s amazing. I’m so grateful that Jon and Stephen and the correspondents shared that moment with us.
I really loved this quote from Patton Oswald from the Indecision 2008 blog. It’s how I felt, too. After live blogging and random silliness all evening, his last post simply said this:
“I knew I said I’d be blogging ’til 8:30, but I’m kind of overcome right now.
My wife is crying, my dog is getting a belly rub, and I feel like I’m treading against the warm undertow of our bad history flowing away, turning to vapor as we move forward. Bluuuugh! There’s something in the air, and no matter what I do, my fingers can only type airy platitudes. Sorry guys.
Please imagine a fart sound in your minds, to counteract my pretentious, happy horses@#t. But we’re hip-deep in history right now. Go, enjoy it.”
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That’s fantastic. I don’t think this will sink in for a while yet. I’m dazed, and happy, and every news site I go to has something posted that overwhelms me all over again. I was just over at Salon, which has a photo of Jesse Jackson, face covered in tears as he stood in Grant Park last night, over the headline “America has cracked open”, and I’m choked up again.
I know there’s a big ugly world out there and a whole host of problems to tackle, but after eight years of misery, it’s impossible to feel anything other than a deep sense of gladness. It’s like being reborn.
With the civil rights implications of the election, I’m more eager to see Ambassador Young on the show tonight than ever.
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I have no idea which post to put this in, so I’ll write in the latest one. AMERICA: I’m so proud OF you, and happy FOR you. Congratulations to everyone. And I also want to give a word of thanks to Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and everyone who has been involved in their two shows. They’ve been a voice of reason and sanity for me these past 8 years. And I have no doubt they’ll keep me laughing in the future because they’re, of course, brilliant at what they do. :p
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Kind of brings new meaning to “I am America, and so can you.”
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Amen.
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Historic win! I still can’t believe it. It’s still sinking in. I rioted in Philly last night and it still hasn’t sunk in. I’ve lost my voice but I still want to yell and shout and scream and cry for my country.
In other news, so I’m snooping around HuffPo today and they linked to the clip in this post as well. But they had an interesting take on it.
Everybody watch it again. At 1 min 24 secs, is Stephen tearing up? I didn’t notice it the first time around, but now that HuffPo mentioned it, I’m starting to think it might be true. Am I crazy or do you guys see it too?
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Oh, I think it’s a very real possibility. DB and I were actually talking last night about the show, and I think she mentioned it then. Maybe that was on a chat and not on the site, though; it’s hard to keep track!
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Ooh, Philly, huh? My mom told me that on the news this morning they had video of people doing the electric slide in the streets. Was that you? ;)
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I think Stephen was genuinely tearing up as well. So beautiful!
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I agree, he was definitely tearing up and hid it as his character’s act. You can see his body language changed right before the “Hawaii” speech when he knew.
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This is an amazing clip. Jon’s “Walter Cronkite” moment. Goosebumps every time. I keep coming back to it today. And the wild cheers of the crowd, combined with the spontaneous YES WE CANs…who said that TDS and TCR were breeding a new generation of apathetic cynics? HA.
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We were actually chanting ‘Yes We Did’… It was amazing, and so many things from that night will live with me forever…
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I love watching this clip. I’m actually proud to be an American right now. And not in a defensive don’t-blame-me-I-didn’t-vote-for-him-pray-he-doesn’t-do-anything-stupid kind of way, but in a we-actually-did-good-this-time kind of way. :)
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It was really surreal watching Jon call it last night.
I still can’t really wrap my head around it.
At the beginning of the Election Special, it was weird, because I was SUPER stressed, and they definitely seemed like it too. The tone at the beginning, with Jon and Stephen especially almost had a tense undertone to it, like I know the rest of us were feeling as well. Then as the clock wound down, it got lighter and lighter until Jon actually called it, and it was like a huge weight had been lifted off of their shoulders along with ours.
How they ever kept calm and continued on without screaming and jumping around, is beyond me. I would have been crying and dancing around (goodness knows that’s what I did last night). And you could tell they fought it hard to keep it in, at least until after the show.
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I am so so happy I got to hear those magical words first from Jon Stewart’s mouth… I literally did a double take and started laughing and clapping and just, it was surreal. Still is surreal. This cannot be true, this is America where elections fail… but it is.
I watched Obama’s acceptance speech and I cried. I actually cried, as the biggest cynic about politics in the world and believed that there was no such thing as hope or decency in politics… I cried. I wanted to run around screaming the the streets. I cannot believe this.
Thank you so so so much. To everyone, especially Jon and Stephen. Every time I watch this I still get goosebumps and tear up. Just. Just unbelievable.
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Raise your hand if you cried! *both arms shoot up in the air*
The only other time I cried(REALLY cried) watching anything remotely political was when Jon gave his post-911 speech. I watched it in my college dorm room that September and I clearly remember that being the moment my heart dedicated itself to Jon for the rest of its comedy-loving life. And while my heart’s already jointly dedicated to Stephen, his tears last night cemented that loyalty forever.
AMERICA WINS!
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I know! I realized last night that the only two times I’ve cried watching the Daily Show was watching Jon’s 9/11 monologue and Obama’s victory. Hope conquered fear.
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Some of my favorite moments with these guys is when they break character. Usually it’s because of the hilarity that ensues, but this time… Especially when the proud character Stephen regressed to the real Stephen and he wiped his tears away… You could feel how important this was.
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After reading all these beautiful comments and watching this video AGAIN, I’m crying AGAIN. It’s a joyous kind of crying though. This is all just so big and I still haven’t completely wrapped my head around it. Obama winning, hearing it first from Jon Stewart, watching Stephen’s reaction as he took it all in, watching Obama speak last night, feeling relief that the election season is finally over…It’s a lot to absorb. I’m just so proud to be an American right now!
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I just now realized (around the hundredth or so viewing of this clip) that Stephen teared up. As if I couldn’t love the man any more…
HAPPY!
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That was the most perfect moment. I cried last night because I was so proud of this country. I am proud to be an American once again.
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