Kaili Boyd

Thousands of voters and spectators flocked to 42^nd Street and Seventh Avenue to watch the election returns Tuesday night on Time Square.  It was a scene similar to New Years Eve or the night the NY Giants won the Super Bowl.  New Yorkers and tourists alike snapped pictures and video to mark the occasion – the night that an African American would become the 44^th President of the United States

So many people turned up to watch the big screens on time square that police set up barricades on Seventh Avenue, to prevent on-lookers from walking into traffic while they took photographs. 

Even in the early hours of the presidential watch, crowds would cheer as more results came in and Barack Obama’s numbers increased.  As the numbers steadily rose, more people came out to watch history in the making.

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This week we were asked to go out into our beats and ask people where they wanted to see the country in the next four years. I talked to a lot of great people in Mott Haven and Melrose…some who would talk on tape, others who wished to remain anonymous. I noticed it was hard to get women to talk to me on the record, though many had something to say. I also ran into some people who just thought that didn’t have an opinion that was valid. Some of them gave me the best clips.

Angel Deliz, Small Business Owner

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Crystal Foncesa, 16, HS Student

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Ms. Williams, Retired Airline Employee

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John Darwin, 42, Personal Trainer/Martial Arts Instructor

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Tarshay Cummings, 23, Unemployeed Marketing Specialist

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I have no clue why so many people seem to believe that Sarah Palin did well last night. She really couldn’t got toe-to-toe with Joe Biden on the issues, all she could do was just repeat the canned spam that someone gave her to read, and most of it wasn’t that great.

I don’t really believe that the terms Hockey-Mom and Joe Six-Pack belong in a formal political debate. To go one step further, wassup with her giving a shout-out to her brother the school teacher? Are you kidding me with this??? Not cool. If Obama had done the same thing in a debate, someone would be ranting about the dumbing down of American Politics. I find that completely appalling.

I don’t care what the rest of the media is saying. Her grade from me for last night’s performance:

A big fat T – for Trailer.

As most of us probably are, I’m following this election more closely than I have ever followed an election before.  I haven’t generally considered myself a politically minded person, yet Bill Maher’s show on HBO has peaked my interest enough that I want to know more.

So like most of us at the J-school and hopefully out there in the real world, I took a gander at Sarah Palin’s interview with Charles Gibson.  Unfortunately I did not see it when it aired.  My first glimpse of it was a clip or two from Real Time, and Bill was sure to show that clip of her being asked about the Bush Doctrine, looking like a deer caught in someones headlights.

What I find most interesting is that when I later attempted to view the entire interview on ABC.com, that section of the interview was left out.  I watched the whole thing twice just to be sure.

For a second I thought I was loosing my mind and didn’t see or hear what I thought I witnessed on Real Time.  But when I looked for the same interview on you-tube.  I found several different parodies of that question done by different people on the Internet.  My frustration in not being able to find the full interview quickly, is why I turned to ABC.com.  

This is a little disturbing to me because I’m not quite sure what ABC is trying to do here.  Though it is rather embarrassing that she couldn’t remember what the pinnacle doctrine of the current administration was, it shouldn’t have been edited out of the interview.  It was what she said.  Did they edit it out because it’s embarrassing for the country should she and John McCain be elected, or did it happen because the station has a Republican bias?

I feel sorry for her that she was caught off guard like that but she should have expected it and been prepared.  I understand in an interview that broad, you can’t be prepared for everything. But that’s just tragic.

Here’s a link to the video on ABC…

http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Sarah%20Palin%20Charles%20Gibson&type=

Here’s the one on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubsUQKd9c7c