Election night - perspective from an American in the UK

So it's election night in the US. It's 10:30pm, the polls are still open and will be for hours, and I've been watching the BBC on and off for most of the day. Any UK news has been relegated to secondary status in favor of reporting on the long lines (queues) and last-minute campaigning (unusual b/c of UK election rules).

Basically, there seems to be a sense of cautious optimism. The folks here have been "fooled" before (see: 2004 election, 2000 election), but with the polling being fairly strong in Obama's favor, they are pretty encouraged. There's no doubt who the BBC and general UK public wants to see in the White House, at all.

It's rather fun, and I wish that there was a pub showing the results as I would love to be with a crowd when it all rolls in. For what it's worth, I'm drinking some coffee just to stay up late enough to see the East Coast results come in.

I'll write again tomorrow, when the results start to reverberate through the public here. I'm planning on meeting another American for coffee tomorrow afternoon, so that's going to be lots of fun!

P.S. This is how silly reporting has gotten on the BBC's coverage of the US election. In their "Sports" segment, they've just reported on the Redskins' loss to Pittsburgh this weekend because there's been only one time since 193-something where the 'skins' have won/lost and the ruling party has remained in power/lost power respectively.