Our Election Night in Paris

On Election Night, Suzie and I attended the official U.S. Election Night party, which was held at a place called the Cineaqua near the Trocadero.  Because of the time difference, the party didn't start until 10:30 p.m., and was scheduled to go through the night, which meant that we were going to have do so something we hadn't done in a long, long time, namely, staying up past midnight.  We were also conscious of the fact that, polls notwithstanding, a small possibility existed that we would be saying "Vice President-Elect Palin" by the end of the night, which made us both a little, shall we say, nervous.

So at 10:30 we got on the Metro and headed for the party, wearing our Obama pins.  At one stop, a very serious, very French-looking woman got on and sat down directly across from us.  About 5 minutes later she noticed our Obama pins and said, in perfect English (because, it turned out, she was American), "Oh, are you going to the party, too?"  We ended up walking with her to the Cineaqua, and heard all about her interesting work (a former corporate lawyer, she is now working for an NGO that uses senior, retired or semi-retired attorneys to provide international legal services to NGOs and others who can't afford it).

As we exited the Metro stop and cleared the building directly in front of it, we were presented with a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower, lit in a deep blue light.  To the left, a series of spotlights were panning the dark sky, announcing the location of the election party, and giving a wonderful festive air to the evening.  Outside the entrance to the party there was a long line, which was due in part to the ample security check each person was given before they were allowed to enter.  (Suzie and I had both commented that the U.S. Election Party was probably not the safest place to be in Paris, threat-wise, so we appreciated the security efforts, although their necessity was a sad reflection on the Bush legacy.)

The crowd in line was happy and festive, a mix of young and old, mostly Americans but a fair number of French also.  There were also hostesses hired by France 24, an international news network, to find and accompany special guests into the party; the hostesses were wearing on their backs LCD screens showing the France 24 feed (I assume), which made them look like some kind of futuristic robo-women.  I noted to Suzie that this was every man's dream come true, an attractive woman and a TV all in one, especially if the combination came with an appropriate remote control.  She laughed but then again I bet she didn't expect a comment so crude would show up in the blog.  Anyway, here's a couple of clips of the wait to give you a sense of the scene:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-jXj_B19J0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzU8UXsUw7I]

Pardon the quality of the video.  The camera doesn't do well in the dark, and when we entered the party, we were informed that we could not take pictures with the still camera, which I was required to check, although as it turned out the no-picture rule was broken by others more times than I can recall (and by me, too, with the little video camera).

Once inside the party we got a better sense of the crowd, which was mostly American, mostly ex-patriots, but otherwise a nice mix of young and old, well-dressed and casual, married and single.  There were also a huge number of journalists.  On the lower level, TV5 Monde, another French international TV network, was broadcasting its coverage of the election live, which was interesting to watch, and throughout the party there were a large number of cameramen and reporters doing reports and interviews.  At one point in the evening, Suzie and I were interviewed by a young woman reporter for Radio France International's Arabic language section; she told us our interview would be translated in to Arabic and broadcast the next morning (if peace comes to the Mideast soon, you will know now whom to credit).

The Cineaqua itself was a good location for the party, if a little small.  It is a strange combination of an aquarium (with some very beautiful and interesting exhibits) with a scary-film theme.  Thus, at one point during our walks about the party, we came across this exhibit of none other than Ahn-old himself, looking a little worse for wear.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8-IvsXLSE4]

The other slightly frustrating thing about the party was the food.  Not so much the quality (although in truth that wasn't really up to our expected French standards) as the distribution and the quantity.  If you were a French caterer, and you wanted to really frustrate an American crowd, how would you do it?  Eureka, I discovered the answer:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspBTU395J4]

Petite, indeed.  And we laughed even more when we discovered what was being prepared at this station:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btS5jPrk4qQ]

Yes, tiny little one-bite cheeseburgers, each individually make, carefully and slowly, by the chef, down to carefully pealing each tiny slice of cheese and carefully placing them, one by one, on each tiny patty of beef.  After waiting for the better part of 10 minutes, here's what we ended up with:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbm0F9VEzh4]

Bon.

After a while, it was time for some serious election-return watching.  We had exhausted our drink tickets, and consumed enough food and caffeine to keep us awake, so we squeezed into the not-nearly-big-enough theatre showing the CNN election feed, and awaited the first batch of big results.  As you can see from the following clip, which shows the reaction to the results, this crowd was, not surprisingly, hardly a representative sample of American voters:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt-V42CB-co]

I should make an observation here, because I can foresee someone named Palin viewing that clip and going into a tirade about how these aren't "real" Americans but rather a bunch of privileged left-wing hypocrites who don't even love their country enough to want to live there, and if they really loved America they'd be working in the U.S. instead of eating baguettes and Camembert and pretending to be something they aren't, and that just shows that the only "real" Americans are on the right and why the hell don't you all just stay in France, anyway?  And truth be told, there's a little grain of truth in that tirade, in that the people in that room probably don't have the kind of emotional attachment to the U.S. exclusively as do people who've never traveled outside the country.  That's only natural; when you've seen that there are other places with happy citizens that function more or less as well as the U.S., it's more difficult to see the U.S. as the overwhelmingly bright, shining, exceptional place in the same way as many on the right do.  But that doesn't mean that the expats (and others, like me) cheering for Obama aren't "real" Americans, or that they don't love their country.  In fact, the fervent reaction results, I think, from the fact that many of them saw the Bush years as a repudiation of they believe America stands for -- tolerance, acceptance, respect for human rights.

I should also make another observation here, to preempt the potential Palin protest (alliteration is a beautiful thing, no?).  Those who know me will affirm that I am anything but a leftist.  In fact, I'm pretty much a dead center-of-the-road guy, who leaks off to the right on some issues and off to the left on others.  But I voted for Obama and I cheered on his victory on Tuesday night.  Why?  Because the right in the U.S. is lost and without a compass, and badly needs reforming, and that'll never happen absent a solid defeat.

But I digress.  Eventually Suzie and I were able to score some real seats in the theatre, and we settled in and watched the returns come in.  When Pennsylvania was called for Obama, the crowd went wild.  Then the next big round of results came in, with more cheering:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSaVnfX8ts]

Finally, when Ohio was called for Obama, everyone pretty much knew McCain was done; with the West Coast's block of electoral votes certain to go for Obama, the gig was up.

We finally left at about 4:30 a.m. and took a cab home.  We were tired, but not as tired as we had expected, and we were happy because "Vice President-Elect Palin" never materialized.

As I mentioned in my groggy post yesterday, it is a great week to be an American here.  My French instructor noted today that it is as if the collective French view of America changed overnight from disgust and disdain to respect and admiration.  The election drew huge media coverage here; in the last few days it was almost as intensive as in the U.S.  A quick story:  My son Andrew went stakeboarding on Monday with a couple of French kids he had met at the local skate park, and one of them asked him about the U.S. elections, including asking him if he knew what the "swing states" were!  Which brings me back, finally, to the reason why this election was so important.  We may like to pretend (and the right may like to believe) that what the world thinks of us doesn't matter, but that simply isn't true, for two reasons.  First, it is not correct purely as a factual matter; if America is hated in the world, that has real, solid, actual repercusions.  And second, if the world is critical, it may be worth considering what they are saying.  For sure, some of it may be envy, some of it may be self-serving, but at least in the past 8 years, much of it was, malheursement, dead on correct.