Election Night-Harry's Bar

Well, Alex had a lot of fun this week. It was a great week. He saw Normandy, (D-Day), but most importantly, he watched history unfold on Tuesday night/early morning as Barack Obama soundly defeated his Republican opponent, John McCain.
It was a glorious moment for Alex, and he was sure to live up every minute of it. He headed to Harry's Bar, the oldest American bar in Paris, at around 10 o'clock. Results wouldn't start coming in until way after midnight. He was proudly wearing an Obama t-shirt and was carrying a placard as well. The second he stepped onto Rue Daunou, he was an instant celebrity. He held up his sign with pride as people cheered him on through the massive crowds of people. His ultimate goal was Harry's bar, in the middle of the small Rue. It was here that every president for the last 80 years had been polled as winning in the straw poll held there; and this night was no exception. Obama won the straw vote 272 to 170.

It took Alex forever to get through the massive crowds of people. Everyone wanted their picture with him, and he was just eating it up. Drunk and high alike, he posed for everyone. There were some cute girls to say the least; two of which are featured below...

He of course made some new Facebook friends including the one on the right; not the drunk guy with the beer.

At one point during the night, Alex came up on the rafters surrounding Harry's Bar. This was to keep out the common uninvited folk. Well, with the help of his friend David, Alex was boosted up on to the rafters, which erupted the whole street in cheers. He got O-BAM-A cheers going as well as YES-WE-CAN! It was super intense. The rafters can be seen below. Watch the movie at 4:40, you'll see him the 2nd time on the rafters. Unfortunately, it lost it's cool the second time around, but a reaction none-the-less, albeit a weak one...

USA UN MINISTRE AU BAR AMÉRICAIN
par latelelibre

He went to a party at Porte Maillot as well; even bigger and more people! On the way there, he met up with two girls studying abroad while sailing under Paris on the Metro. They, being the political geekies such as Alex, were on their various electronic devices checking constantly. One showed the other her phone, and they both immediatley received looks of horror. Alex informed them that he did not want to hear any results. He simply wanted to party as if Barack won. That way if Obama did end up winning, Alex would have nothing to regret; he lived out history spectacularly. If McCain won, (WHY IS MCCAIN NOT A SPELLING ERROR BUT BARACK OBAMA IS!? RACIST COMPUTER!), he would have just had a great night out on the town. Either way, he was making the best of it, and cared not for results till the morning after.

Eventually, he staggered out onto the street at around 3' AM. The street was still packed with people, enamored by Obama, however somewhat diminished. As the Metro was closed already, he began his trek home, dreaming of Obama's acceptance speech that he'd be giving in a few hours...

The next morning, he woke up to papers filled with Obama's face in them! We'd done it, Alex had helped reclaim the White House!

Beyond that, Alex saw himself in Euronews, TF1, LCI, Express.fr, LCP (France's C-SPAN), and countless other things. He'll post the links below. It was a marvelous night for America. Yet, he realized we still have a lot of work to do to fix our nation. Thanks to the previous generation's errors, we now find ourselves in severe debt, and continued destruction of our world, both physically and culturally. We must reverse this cycle if we're to have hope for our own children. Together, we must dig in and build not only America, but the world. Continued laziness will lead to our ultimate destruction. The time is now, we are the ones. Obama provides us with opportunity and hope to fix the future; but it's going to take work.

Regardless, it was an amazing week for Alex.



Links:

Euronews:
L'Express.fr:
YouTube #0:
YouTube #1:
YouTube #2:
YouTube #3:
Challenges.fr:

LaTeleLibre.fr:
Radio Interview (RTL):
VPodTV:

If anyone comes across this post who was there that night, and saw Alex, leave him a message or e-mail Alex at alnpeacock@gmail.com.

PAiX