Posts by Ari Melber

First appeared November 4, 2008
Chicago, Ill — This victory is more than historic. President-elect Barack Obama’s victory marks political progress far broader than race — especially because his campaign de-emphasized it whenever possible.
The tens of thousands of people cheering here in Grant Park, at what is shaping up to be one of the largest victory [...]

CHICAGO, Ill. — Barack Obama is presumably enjoying his first day as president-elect, but he also got right to work.
After an hour at Regents Park this morning, Obama hunkered down in a building near his campaign headquarters in downtown Chicago.  The plan is to spend five hours there, according to aide Jen Psaki. Obama will [...]

Chicago, Ill — This victory is more than historic. President-elect Barack Obama’s victory marks political progress far broader than race — especially because his campaign de-emphasized it whenever possible.
The tens of thousands of people cheering here in Grant Park, at what is shaping up to be one of the largest victory celebrations in U.S. political [...]

Grant Park is starting to fill with supporters of Sen. Barack Obama, though slowly.
Security appears more onerous than usual.  One person told me they knew people who got in line at 4 p.m. and were still waiting four hours later to get in. Some gates did not open to the public until 6 p.m.  But [...]

CHICAGO, Ill. — Unlike energized Sen. Barack Obama supporters and volunteers, many campaign professionals here are openly exhausted.
Traveling aides told me they’re just happy that their two-year national tour is over.  Several reporters sheepishly said that no matter what happens, they just hope this race is called early tonight.  One person is circulating an “off [...]

CHICAGO, Ill.– The Obama campaign has put together a pretty nice “victory” event here at sprawling Grant Park in Chicago. More than 100,000 people are expected to attend — though there’s only space for a few thousand to view Sen. Barack Obama directly.
There’s a small strip of coveted real estate between the stage and [...]

Sen. Barack Obama’s vote was recorded, broadcast, reported and blogged in real time. His campaign still turned the footage into one of the fastest ads of this campaign, cutting a simple GOTV web ad that is already moving around YouTube:

Sen. Barack Obama hit one swing state on Election Day, skipping across the Illinois-Indiana border to a union hall in Indianapolis. Indiana was a George W. Bush state that Republicans never expected to be competitive in October.

CHICAGO, Ill. – Sen. Barack Obama cast his vote this morning, both daughters in tow, and announced that the experience was a hit.

On election day, a candidate’s website becomes a crucial hub for outreach and mobilization. In another sign of their drastically different approaches to organizing, the Obama and McCain campaigns diverge sharply in how they are using their websites today.
Below are the main pages that greet visitors on both sites, taken from an early morning screen [...]