Well, the very instant the polls closed, with no votes officially counted, the News Gods have called Vermont for Barack Obama, and declared Peter Shumlin, Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders re-elected.
Vermont’s the first state in Obama’s column… the first of many to come.
We’ll be live-blogging this joint. Feel Free to post thoughts, news, etc., in the comments below.
Just had our first speeches from the podium tonight. Pat Leahy proudly noted that Vermont was the first state in Obama’s column, and continued…
The “women’s right to choose” line got the biggest cheer.
Leahy then introduced State Rep. Margaret Cheney, Congressman Peter Welch’s wife, who introduced Welch. The Congressman gave a brief victory speech (in which he announced the re-election of Cheney to the State House) in which he talked about solving problems instead of waging ideological battles.
(Which is fine if the other side does it, too.)
Leahy and Welch both referred to the re-election of Bernie Sanders, which drew big cheers from the audience as well.
…VT Dem chair, stopped by the media table to answer a few questions. He boasted of the huge and successful GOTV operation, and the large number of volunteers who worked on the campaign (Jack Lindley’s snarkiness notwithstanding). He had no numbers to report, but expressed confidence about the Treasurer’s and Auditor’s races.
I’ll try to bring you some quotes, but damn it’s loud in here.
…and blew the roof off the place. The cheers were deafening and went on and on. He gave a brief stemwinder, touching on all his usual themes — establishing health care as a right, ending discrimination of all kinds, sustainable energy.
The cheers for Bernie were much, much louder than for anyone else. He may not officially be a Democrat, but that didn’t stop this Democratic gathering from showing that he’s their favorite son.