Grant Park Obama Election Rally

It is estimated that as many as a million people gathered at Grant Park, Chicago to rally for and congratulate Barack Obama on being elected the 44th President of the United States. I just happened to be in the area :)

The time has FINALLY come to elect a new President, and those in the Chicago area came to Grant park to watch it live. Me personally, I'm notably jaded having been to several major events only to have the team or person I was pulling for leave me hanging (see: 2007 ALCS, 2008 Superbowl, 2008 NLDS, etc). So I decided that I wasn't going *anywhere* until it was clear that Obama was going to win. I had no interest in being in a mob of a million whiny college students. After all, I just bought a PS3 and had some Saints Row 2 to keep me busy.

Once it was obvious that Obama was the guy... I met up with a co-worker and we headed on into the festivities. We wandered down to Michigan and Van Buren, right near the entrances to the park. There were two bridges going over the train tracks, closed off to traffic. If you had a ticket, you got to go over the south bridge and down into the area where Obama would be speaking. If you didn't have a ticket, you went over the North bridge across from the Buckingham fountain and up into the rest of Grant Park.

There were at least 20 jumbotrons with massive concert-style speakers scattered randomly around the park. There was plenty of space for everyone there, and probably at least another 100,000 people. Everything was organized well enough that nobody looked lost, but it was free enough that nobody felt stressed. No security checkpoints, just some cops on horses and walking police here and there. The whole atmosphere was electric.