November 11, 2008 11:41AM

The Night We Made History

By Alexis Glick

There is nothing that I can say or write that will compare to some of the things that I have heard or read over the past couple of days since Sen. Obama became president-elect. I was particularly touched by Thomas Friedman’s piece in the New York Times the morning after the election called “Finishing Our Work.” Friedman talked about how long and how far we have come since the end of the Civil War. He wrote, “For nothing more symbolically illustrated the final chapter of America’s Civil War than the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia – the state that once exalted slavery and whose secession from the Union in 1861 gave the confederacy both strategic weight and its commanding general - voted Democratic, thus assuring that Barack Obama would become the 44th president of the United States.” Just the thought of that makes my heart skip a beat.

On Tuesday night, election night, I was located in Times Square at the Nasdaq Marketsite. I interviewed many executives, athletes, politicians and strategists, including Sir Martin Sorrell, the CEO of WPP, Mark Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League and former Mayor of New Orleans, Jay Feely, the kicker for the New York Jets and part-time wealth manager, Clinton’s former top Fundraising Chairman Hassan Nemazee, you name it, they were there. Also in the room were close friends, colleagues and family members. My husband invited them without telling me. It was such a great surprise. He knew that the past six months required endless hours, many sacrifices, missed moments to see friends and loved ones and that much of the hard work would culminate on that night. It was a night that I’ll never forget.

We didn’t know it at the time, perhaps we had a gut feeling, but we didn’t want to say it out loud to one another. We would witness history together. Times Square that night was the equivalent of Grant Park in Chicago. The streets were mobbed. It looked like New Year’s night. The screens were flush with election night coverage, the enthusiasm, the energy, the desire for change was palpable. As Pennsylvania and then Ohio were called, you could hear the crowds cheering, knowing that no Republican President had ever won without Ohio. The math was all but certain but the crowds feared an upset. At 11pm all of the networks called the race and the crowds began cheering. It still gives me chills. Many of us wanted to cry, hug each other, reflect, scream, jump for joy and most did it with perfect strangers. It had that eerie feeling of September 11th all over again but this time it wasn’t the nightmare that we lived through, it was the dream we hoped for.

I have often talked about how proud I am to have grown up in the melting pot that is New York City. My three sons have never known what color is and never will. To them there is no difference. As I often say in this blog and on my show, my children are colorblind. Sure, my oldest son Logan arrived home from school the next day and said, “Mom, we elected our first African American president last night.” Did he know what that meant? No. The great irony, as Thomas Friedman wrote that next morning, is that the “Buffet effect” countered the supposed “Bradley effect.” People went to the polls and voted for the man, the vision, the desire to see change, not the color of his skin.

My proudest moment in this election was listening to my children talk about it. I can’t tell you how many parents have echoed the same sentiments. The schools, which often get berated for not doing enough or doing the wrong thing, did a phenomenal job educating our youth. Some nights I’d arrive home to a lesson in American political history. My husband and I would turn to each other, look at our sons and listen with pride as they spoke so passionately about this election. We could see the twinkle in their eyes as they recounted pieces of history. Not to mention the record number of parents who felt the patriotic duty to bring their children to the voting booths. Somehow we felt they needed to understand how voting worked on THIS DAY more than any other.

I remember watching now President-elect Obama, Michelle Obama, Sasha and Malia stand behind those two archaic voting booths in Chicago. I was on television at the time. We talked over those live pictures for a half hour. New York Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks sat beside me in studio and we talked about the historic notion of seeing a black man vote for his name at top of the ballot for the highest executive office in the country. It seemed all the more meaningful having a black Congressman sit next to me as I watched his face light up with pride. I was so taken by the moment. I couldn’t help but feel that I was witnessing history. I watched as millions of other people did. You could see the senator wipe a tear from his eye as he held his face down. Just one day prior, his grandmother, who helped raise him, died. You could tell that he wanted to cherish that moment. So did I.

Many months ago, during the Reverend Wright controversy, Senator Obama gave a speech on race. It was back on March 18th. I remember emailing my producers and talking to my family about the speech. I believed it was the speech that defined his campaign and would eventually lead him to the White House. Here is just one of the highlights of that speech:

“I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.”

His presidency will not be easy. The road ahead will be paved with bumps, in some cases potholes, but if he can take some of what he said in that acceptance speech and convince each and every one of us as he did on that night, that “this is our chance to answer that call,” perhaps we will embrace his call to action and accept his faith in us to say, “Yes we can.”

If you want to read his speech on race relations on March 18t you can get it here.

16 Responses to “The Night We Made History”

Comment by GeneL

November 11th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

Lots of things have “made history”. A great many of them that were initially applauded, we later regretted. Obama’s racial background is not what bothers people. His past positions, actions, and associations, and how those will influence our future does. Are you ready for “A National Security Force” that is the equal in power and funding to the US military? I’m not.

This is a dangerous man, and a dangerous symbol. Watch your back.
Comment by RickS

November 11th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

Oh you children and your political naivete. As you celebrate B.O’s election as the first black president (or “mutt” president as he calls himself) you might remind yourself that you have also elected this country’s first Marxist president. But, I would imagine that might not make you feel as warm and fuzzy inside as having shed all that pent-up white guilt.
Comment by MIKE JONES

November 11th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

GET A grip Glick,this guy is a two bit phony. GOD HELP US.
Comment by Tom M

November 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

History is a double edge sword. This one has a high likelihood of being on the “blunder” side of history. This country does not require a white president nor a black one. It requires a man or woman of impecable character, wisdom, and courage. Nothing I have seen, heard, or read about BHO suggests that he has any of these traits. As Dick Morris has said, Obama might not be able to pass the security screening that is required of a WH staffer! Let’s get real here, when one looks at the exit polls, one thing is very clear, whites in the swing states preferred McCain by margins in the hundreds of thousands, with Blacks and Hispanics providing obscene % support to Obama. Put the lipstick on that pig and you have a racially defined voting block, not driven by judgement, rather by racial criteria. This whole trip could set back race relations decades, what a shame that would be.
Comment by Charlie Barker

November 11th, 2008 at 4:50 pm

What can I say that has not been said in such clear statements.
Those who wrote prior to me make judgments on facts rather than emotions.
I thought journalist deat with facts, but I know better.
Comment by Matthew Kelly

November 11th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

The media is so invested in this man that it will be practically impossible for them to be critical of him in his ‘rule’, which is how one of his transition advisors put what his team is planning. (Sovereigns rule, Presidents do not)

I’d like somebody in the 4th estate to actually do their job and tell us, finally, who this person actually is. We know where he went to school, but can’t see his transcripts. His childhood is sketchy. His associations are described in gauzy, non-descript generality.

I’ll tell you this, however, and that one way to finance all of these bailouts will be to gut the military. I said it here first - there’ll be massive cuts in military spending in the name of ’saving jobs’.

I’ll be waiting for the ‘Jobs Saved’ meter that will be going up on the big media websites after all these bailouts. One interesting number might be: “Cost of each job saved, in 2008 tax dollars”.

We just handed the keys to a 747 to an 10-year old. No military experience, no executive experience, no commercial experience, and apparently nothing in his educational background to indicate he can run anything. You did witness history being made: We will inaugurate the least qualified world leader since the French were coronating 8-year old boys.

We will, however, will get for the first time since Reagan a president who will make good on his campaign promise - we are going to get change. Everyone so far has made assumptions that the change will be good, but he’s warned us that we live too well by world standards already.
Comment by Bill

November 11th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

Journalists dealing with facts? And you’re talking about Fox News? Ha ha ha ha ha. That’s funny. Well, I gues they do have the facts, before they spin them to the right.

Alexis, congrats for being probably the only Fox employee with the guts to say something good about Obama! That idiot Hannity wouldn’t even acknowledge that the joke Obama told during a roast of Emmanuel was funny. I guess it would have killed him to say something positive, huh?
Comment by B Scott

November 11th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

I can just see it, sometime in the future, Alexis boarding a 747 ready for takeoff for her annual vacation. An announcement over the intercom… this is your pilot, welcome aboard, you passengers are about to experience a historic moment,you see I am blind, a diabetic,and have Parkinsons, but have had a lifelong passion to be a pilot,my peers at the hospital encouraged me, so here I am.While this is my first flight I want you to sit back and enjoy this historic moment, expect occasional spells of what appears to be turbulence but don,t worry, these are only side effects of my various medications.As the plane taxis down the runway, tears forms on Alexis eyes,and she write her next aricle for FBN.
Comment by 6ftrabbit

November 12th, 2008 at 8:16 am

One of the early Democrat agenda items will be to revisit the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment was passed by a Republican Congress in 1947. It has always been a thorn in the side of the Dems, and especially so now that they have at least 4 years and maybe 8 year opportunity to launch a campaign for President for Life Obama. There are several arguments that they will make to convince people to overturn it, among them the avoidance of all that political and social trauma and expense, taking the Presidents attention away from more important duties of the office, etc. All Obama has to do is be a nice guy for the next 4 years, and act reluctant. He is good at acting.

Be prepared.
Comment by John Gay

November 12th, 2008 at 9:00 am

Alex,

I heard you this morning say that the expectations for Obama were extremenly high. He promised everything to everybody. He set the high expectations. We did not. It is a shame that the changes that take effect could not be limited to those that voted for change. I enjoy the Fox Business Channel, but do not like your liberal views. Please keep your opinions to yourself. If you and your guest are so smart, you would have advised all of us to get out of the market before the collaspe.
Comment by TedN

November 12th, 2008 at 9:12 am

I guess this proves people use filters to see only what they want to see and/or a capable journalist failed to do their homework. Perhaps Ms. Glick would be better suited as a speech writer for the Dalibama?
Comment by chuck

November 12th, 2008 at 10:48 am

Speaking as GenXer which President elect Obama have in common I might add. He and I was born in the same year of ‘61. Though I didn’t vote for him he’s going to have “earn trust” I quote that from his speach becouse he said it. But speaking as GenXer who has beem maligned by the press as slacker don’t underestimate us. We’re smart and bigger than the boomers. Everyone who didn’t vote for him should let him earn the trust. But as a GenXer I feed vindicated and recogonize. U know twenty years ago and after I felt the press ignores us Xer’s. Well with one in the white house they should be intervewing those of our generation. The trasnform generation I might add.
Comment by Dennis

November 12th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

You may want to apply to CNBC, have you noticed the market has TANKED since the great one has been elected? Making history is NOT necessarily a good thing.
Comment by RickH

November 12th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Alexis;
I had you pegged for a lib many weeks ago, but I didn’t know that you had drank the Koolaid. Bummer!
Since you think your so smart do the math:
Obama + Pres of USA = Obamination
Obama + Recession = Obsession
I think you’ve caught the fever.
Comment by Marion

November 12th, 2008 at 9:39 pm

Why on earth did Fox Business hire Alexis Glick? This is simply an emotional piece and has no place on a business site. It really only serves as confirmation that Mrs. Glick has clearly been in the Obama camp all along. Now I will only watch FBN after 9am.
Comment by Marshall

November 18th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

If I wanted to watch newsmen and women drool over Obama, I can watch 6 other news channels. Stop acting like infatuated Jr. High girls and do your job.