Obama Victory: History in the making

The following is a rush transcript of a live report from Senior Political Correspondent Bryce Macombe.

HHWT-News Anchor, Walter Jefferies: Now let's check in with our senior political correspondent, Bryce Macombe, who's at Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park in Chicago.  What's the mood like there, Bryce?

[Amidst a cheering, chanting, dancing crowd BM is bumping and grinding with an anonymous woman, microphone in hand.  Rock music can be heard in the background.  He is oblivious to WJ's question.]

WJ:  (raising voice) Bryce?  Bryce!

Senior Political Correspondent, Bryce Macombe: (startled, looking off-camera)  Wha?  Jefferies?  Oh right. 

[Realizing he's on camera, BM snaps to composure, getting his microphone caught in strands of red, white and blue beads draped around his neck.  He takes the beads off quickly and casts them aside.]

BM: Walt?  Must be a satellite problem.  I didn't catch that.

WJ: What's the mood like there, Bryce?

BM:(finger in ear, hollering into microphone) Come again, Walt!  I'm having a little trouble hearing!

WJ: (raising voice) I asked how Senator Obama's supporters were responding to the news of his victory!  What's the mood was like there?!

BM:  The mood? (looking around behind himself) Surprisingly somber, Walt. 

WJ:  I'm sorry, did you say somber?  I don't see how...

BM:  Definitely.  Very downbeat.  

[A group from the crowd dances through the frame, one woman embraces BM, kissing him on the cheek, another puts strand of red, white and blue beads around his neck.  The group continues on dancing out of frame.]

BM: People...

[Getting the beads tangled in his mic again.  Swings them over his shoulder.]

BM: People are just plain worried about the future.  You can see it in their faces, Walt.  

WJ:  I'm sorry, Bryce.  It seems to me that the whole atmosphere there is festive and... and... well, celebratory.

BM: Yes, well.  Not to a trained reporter, Walt.  Trust me.  If you were still out there in the field you'd realize that, on the inside, these people are very sober about the difficult tasks that lie ahead.

WJ:  Really?  But it just seems...

BM:  I mean, look.  No flipped cars.  No tear gas.  No burning dumpsters or shattered store fronts.  This is nothing at all like when the Bears won the Super Bowl in '86.  It's almost as if everyone realizes that the nation is on the verge of a very trying and difficult period and that the next president will have immense challenges facing him right at the onset with few economic resources at his disposal.

WJ:  Okay.  Okay.  But everyone there really does seem jubilant.

BM:  Oh, that's probably because Oprah just took the stage.  She's big here, Walt.  

WJ: And you seemed to be pretty jubilant there yourself, Bryce.

BM: What, that?  (dismissive) Pfff.  You know how it is.  'To know the people one must move among them,' right?

WJ:  Yes, well.  Don't you think it's possible they're reacting to the historic nature of this election?

BM:  (confused) 'Historic nature'?  I-I don't understand.

WJ: (dumbfounded) C'mon, Bryce.  You're joking.

BM:  No.  I mean it's a presidential election.  Happens every four years. What's the big deal?  

WJ:  (leading) The long-standing demographic barrier that's just fallen?

BM:  'Demographic barrier'?  What demographic?  Obama?!  He's, like, the 26th lawyer to be elected president.  Nothing new there.  The 16th senator...

WJ:  Not a professional demographic...

BM:  What?  Educational?  He's, what, the 14th president from the Ivy League.  The eighth to have attended Harvard alone.  Or do you mean economic?  There've been, what?  A dozen middle class presidents?   The 37th family man to win the highest office in the land...

WJ:  Okay, okay.  In many ways he isn't much different than previous presidents.  But clearly the most obvious difference...

BM:  Oh wait.  I think I know what you're getting at.  Yes.  (snaps back into serious reporter tone)  Today was a historic election, Walter, for on January 20th of next year this nation will inaugurate its first president to have sprung from the loins of less than two white parents.  All previous presidents have had at least two white parents, but president-elect Obama has had less white parents than any president in history.  Fifty percent less, in fact.  It is a truly momentous occasion, and as you can see all around me, people are soaking it up.  Basking in the momentous historic-ness of the moment.

WJ: Well, I don't think that's really the best way to put it.  

BM:  I'm sorry.  Is it 'spranged from the loins'?  I thought it was 'sprung'.  I mean, you 'sprang your ankle' not your loin, right?...  

WJ:  No-no, I didn't mean...

BM: ...Of course, you could sprang a groin but your groin isn't technically your loin, is it?

WJ: Bryce, I meant that Barack Obama will be the first African-American president.  His father was Kenyan and his mother was American.

BM:  Right.  His mother was a white American.  That's really only one different from McCain.  He had two white parents.  Obama had one white parent.  I really don't see what's the big deal here?  I mean...  I guess I could see if his dad had been a white Kenyan...

WJ:  It's not just a matter of his parents.  It's his whole life experience.  He's had to overcome prejudice regardless of the purity of his racial background.  It's a matter of perception in this country.  Whether you look black or not.  The security guard who follows a black man more closely through a department store; do you think he cares if he has a white mother?  The cop who tails you waiting for the slightest excuse to pull you over; does he consider the racial makeup of your parents?  The loan agent sitting across the desk...

BM:  (interrupting) Wait a minute, Walt... The first black president?  Does that mean, then, that he's also probably the uh, um... ya know... most...well-endowed president in history?

WJ: That's completely inappropriate Bryce!  I don't...

BM:(craning neck to look beyond camera, interrupting again) Uh...  I'm sorry, Walt, but I think we have to break away.

WJ: Oh?!  Okay.  Is the president-elect taking the stage for his victory speech?

BM: (still looking beyond camera, on tip-toes now)  Uhhh, not that I know of, but I think I just saw Obama Girl in a conga line and I'd like to break in on that, if you don't mind.  This is Bryce Macombe signing off. (races off camera) 

WJ: That was Bryce Macombe in Chicago.