November 03, 2004
"Victory"
I was actually at Ken Salazar's "Victory Party" last night. It was a bizarre evening--the scene of the one of the only big Democratic successes of the night the party went down in flames. The crowd was overflow. We snuck past some security guys to get in, hoping for free food. But the food was lousy and quickly consumed by throbbing crowds, while the beer was 4$ apiece.....
Salazar was ahead all night. Those in his personal circle were in high spirits. The rest of us campaign workers sullenly watched the results coming in everywhere else, including a clear defeat for Kerry in Colorado. The chairman of the state party frequently interrupted the networks to pump us up, even though most of our candidates were going down.
The evening became increasingly unbearable for me as we cheered every little Democratic success, despite the gradual loss of hope for Florida and finally Ohio. We were happy to see Salazar win and it obviously validated our efforts. But the enthusiasm displayed when he first came out to speak was a tad forced to say the least.... In the end I headed home, just in time to see Salazar's victory speech on TV, replete with his staples on family, faith, and hard work--a language he'll surely need 6 years down the line as well. By then, hopefully, more alcohol had been consumed, and the cheers were more genuine.