By Fergus Shanahan
For Chicago, home town to Barack Obama, the wait is almost over. Not a single person I have spoken to in this seething, edgy metropolis on the shores of Lake Michigan believes their man will not be crowned 44th American president tomorrow.
In the last days of this astonishing campaign, Obama is using the language of religious fervour, saying he has the “wind of the righteous” behind him.
And a truly Biblical crowd of ONE MILLION is expected to pay homage to the expected new President tomorrow night.
They are used to messiahs in Chicago. Pope John Paul celebrated mass here in 1979, an event still fresh in the memory of the huge Catholic community who define this city in the eyes of much of America.
Where the Pope walked, there will walk Barack Obama.
‘ On every draughty pavement here you see vividly why so many Americans are placing their trust in a man who – to be frank – has achieved nothing in life beyond making himself famous. ’
Grant Park, a vast lakeside expanse locals regard as Chicago’s front yard, is putting up tents and preparing the fatted calf for the return of the Prodigal President.
City bosses are nervous. Chicago has form for losing its head on big nights. And this will be the biggest night in its history.
All police leave is cancelled. Fire crews have been told to sleep in their uniforms. FBI agents overfly the gleaming steel and concrete spires whose reflections shimmer in the ruffled waters of the harbour.
Not even Al Capone got this level of attention as he strongarmed the local speakeasies in the Prohibition Thirties.
But nobody doubts the need for so much security. Senator Obama is a black icon in a nation that still harbours its share of Neanderthal white racists. He is, and always will be, a target.
For that reason alone, he deserves the utmost respect for having the courage to want his family to be the first black residents of the White House.
Such courage inspires Chicago, where an Obama presidency is seen as the key to reversing America’s moral and economic decline.
On every draughty pavement here you see vividly why so many Americans are placing their trust in a man who – to be frank – has achieved nothing in life beyond making himself famous.
I have reported on this epic campaign from many cities of America, but only in Chicago have I seen so many down-and-outs – mostly black – cadging dollars on street corners.
This is not a poor city. Far from it. But working-class blacks from the South Side of Chicago have long felt left behind as whites have done well.
From that cauldron of resentment rose a political messiah who prospered not by harping on about black injustice but by appealing to all Americans who believe that a fairer society will be a better and safer society.
That is why Barack Obama stands before America today just 24 hours from becoming – almost certainly – its first black President.
And here, in the Windy City, everyone believes Obama’s time has come – especially in a town hit as badly as any by the slump that is wiping out families across the Land Of The Free.
You see the signs of hardship everywhere here. The lift of my hotel is crammed with sweaty bikers dropping off ten dollar Domino’s Pizzas to guests who can’t afford the room service pizza at 20 bucks a throw.
You see it on the streets, where tourists walk five blocks to save a three dollar cab fare.
You see it in the faces of restaurant girls who try desperately hard to please you and then scan the credit card bill to see how much of a tip you have left for them to buy baby food with on the way home.
All these good people – and Americans ARE good and decent people – will be descending on to Chicago’s lakeshore tomorrow night to salute the man they believe can lay to rest the stumbling incompetence of the Bush era and restore pride, prosperity and confidence to the world’s most powerful nation.
Win or lose tomorrow, Barack Obama has transformed not just American politics but the way the world is run.
He is the first truly cosmopolitan leader, a product not of one place at one time but all places at all times.
In his search for his destiny, Obama has come up against a fine opponent.
Senator John McCain, seeking to keep the White House in Republican hands, is a great patriot. A war hero, a man of principle and courage. An honourable, decent and combative survivor of the great “Saving Private Ryan” generation that defeated Hitler.
But here in Chicago, much as they respect and admire Senator McCain, they have their eye on tomorrow.
As my friendly tramp told me as I bunged him the price of a cup of coffee, “Man, this is Chicago and Obama is our hero. Hell, boy, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
– The Sun
… more from The New York Times
Excitement and Anxiety Swirl as Chicago Prepares to Host Obama Event
By MONICA DAVEY
CHICAGO — Chicago is bracing for a gigantic crowd this week in Grant Park, the city’s iconic front yard, where Senator Barack Obama has chosen to spend election night.
As many as 70,000 people are expected to attend an event for local supporters. All available tickets were swept up days ago, and thousands of people have applied to be on a waiting list. Thousands more — maybe as many as a million people, Mayor Richard M. Daley has proudly suggested — are expected to pile into the downtown parkland and sidewalks and streets surrounding Mr. Obama’s official celebration.
“This could be a moment of history right here, and it’s high time for it,” said Patricia Cadagin, who stood last week peering through a new fence around the south end of Grant Park, one of blocks and blocks of fences erected as part of the elaborate security efforts. Ms. Cadagin, 82, who said she had voted early for Mr. Obama, will probably not be here on Tuesday night. “It’s going to be a big crowd and at night, and I’m a small woman,” she said. “Will I be here in spirit? You bet you.”
Chicago, it seems, is of two minds about this party. Many supporters in Mr. Obama’s hometown speak with pride of the potential of seeing the first African-American claim victory in a presidential campaign here on the edge of Lake Michigan, in view of their beloved skyline. Still, in hushed tones, some say they are worried about his safety in the public park and about how a huge crowd in this city, which has seen violence after events like basketball championships, might respond, win, lose or draw.
Even city leaders have sent mixed messages. On Thursday, Mr. Daley, a fierce Obama supporter, seemed to suggest the more the merrier. “You think I’m not going to invite people down?” he told reporters, according to The Chicago Tribune. “This is a celebration.”
A day later, city leaders cautioned Chicagoans to behave properly, warned them that people might be turned away if Grant Park became too crowded and stood at a city-run news conference beside ministers who suggested that those without tickets use “common sense” and stay in their own neighborhoods.
“We can’t have foolishness,” said the police superintendent, Jody P. Weis. “We can’t have mischief.”
Grant Park, known as Lake Park until it was renamed for Ulysses S. Grant in 1901, lies not far from the route of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession, was the home of at least four political conventions in the late 1800s, was visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1959, was the site of a clash between the police and antiwar protesters during the Democratic convention in 1968, and was the place where Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass with thousands in 1979. The park is home to the annual Taste of Chicago, as well as games of 16-inch softball played by generations of Chicagoans.
“You couldn’t have a place more infused with Chicago and more infused with everything that Chicago has experienced,” said the city’s cultural historian, Tim Samuelson, who noted that parts of the park were probably built on debris left behind from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
As Obama supporters searched for tickets on Craigslist and in other places (though it is unclear whether the free tickets are transferable and campaign officials say identification will be checked), federal and local law enforcement officials revealed little about their security plans but made it clear that they were extensive.
The city has kept on a special security chief it had hired in case the White Sox or the Cubs made it to the World Series. No sworn Chicago police officers will have Tuesday night off. Firefighters were told to take their gear home so they could respond quickly if called. Some of the city’s largest thoroughfares and some boat harbors will close. And parking will be banned through large swaths of downtown.
Last week, officials could be seen touring rooftops in downtown high-rises as helicopters flew over Hutchinson Field, the section of Grant Park where the Obama event will be held. Some downtown offices have been asked to send employees home early on Tuesday.
Fence companies, meanwhile, appeared to be certain winners, as fences and barricades rose all around.
Local and federal law enforcement officials said repeatedly that they were confident they could keep the event safe, even outside, even with uncertain crowd numbers. “We’re concerned about every venue,” said Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service. “We do this for a living.”
The Obama campaign declined to discuss the cost of the event, but city officials have suggested that the campaign might spend $2 million on extra city services for the evening. In discouraging those without tickets from going downtown, city officials and ministers described somewhat stark conditions at the official party: no chairs, no alcohol (though hot chocolate is expected), no bags allowed, and uncertain weather given the month and the town.
“It’s taken us a long time to get to where we are,” said the Rev. Albert Tyson, one of several ministers who called for calm. “We are on the precipice of the most historic event that this United States has ever seen. We certainly want to counsel folks all over the city not to do anything to mar this event.”
Susan O’Halloran, 58, who has volunteered for the Obama campaign, is among those who will have a ticket on Tuesday night. She was also in Grant Park 40 years ago, as a high school senior who had joined others to oppose the Vietnam War during the Democratic convention. She said she had been eating, relaxing and talking during the protest when police officers grew tense, pulling billy clubs from their belts. One chased her, apparently because she had a Super 8 movie camera, she said, and she fled; other demonstrators were later beaten, an event Ms. O’Halloran considers a scar on the city.
“I will be back on that field,” Ms. O’Halloran said. “And I don’t care how cold it is or how long I have to wait. It feels too historic.”
She said the possibility that Mr. Obama would be elected was “all part of the same thing” she was fighting for in the 1960s. “My reason for being there as a young woman was because there was something I wanted to see this country become. That’ll be the same reason I’m down there Tuesday night,” she said, her voice breaking. “The full circle is pretty luscious.”