On Tuesday night, the contrast between the moods in Sellinger Lounge and the Village C Alumni Lounge could not have been more stark.
In Alumni Lounge, the Georgetown University College Republicans tuned in to Fox News with cautious optimism, hoping for a presidential upset by John McCain (R-Ariz.).
In Sellinger, the College Democrats hosted a celebration of what they expected to be major victories in the presidential election between Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and McCain and various Congressional races across the country. As many as 200 students had packed into Sellinger by 7:00 p.m. to watch results come in on the Lounge’s projection screen, and most were confident in the outcome.
“I don’t think it will be a late night,” Christopher Mika (COL `09) said around 8:00 p.m.
By 10:00 pm, the Lounge housed close to 400 students, leaving no available chair; by 11:00 pm, there was little room to move. When the networks called the election for Obama, fists pumped, hands clapped, and students jumped on chairs and couches-some even cried.
But for the GU College Republicans, it was a night of low expectations and disappointments, the first of which was the loss of Elizabeth Dole’s Senate seat just after 8:00 p.m. Shortly after, when Fox News announced that McCain had a lead in Virginia, pockets of scattered applause broke out in Alumni Lounge.
When Fox News called Pennsylvania for Obama at 8:30 p.m., the room let out a collective sigh.
“We felt like McCain was going to pull off another comeback,” Joe Gambino (SFS `11) said. “We’re less optimistic now.”
A little after 9:00 pm, Fox News called Ohio for Obama and the early chatter was flattened to a dead silence as a pundit announced that there was no longer a path to a McCain presidency. By then, what had been a crowd of about fifty people had thinned out to less than thirty.
“More people are in here to watch The Office on Thursday night than are in here right now,” Kelleigh Cosentino (SFS `12) said.
Meanwhile, the hundreds gathered in Sellinger by midnight closed their celebration with an emotional viewing of Obama’s acceptance speech. And as he descended the stage at Grant Park in Chicago, a student yelled from amidst the Sellinger crowd, “We’re running to the White House!” For many, the night culminated in a march to join the thousands gathered in front of the White House.
At the GUCR Election Night Watch, students were left to wonder what had gone wrong. Paul Courtney (COL `11), a member of the GUCR board, was disappointed with the choice of Sarah Palin (R-Ala.) for McCain’s Vice Presidential spot.
Not everyone there agreed.
“I loved Sarah Palin, that was the one bright spot in this campaign,” Gambino said. “I think she’s just going to stay in Alaska, get some more experience, and she’ll be back in four to eight years.”
-Additional reporting by Marie Negrin
