Political groups cheer, mourn election results

If the stickers, megaphones and sea of blue T-shirts didn't make everything clear, the message scrawled across the chalkboard of a Huntsman Hall classroom last night did: "Penn Baracked the Vote."

The Penn Democrats election night party brought at least 80 students out to watch the results roll in.

Decked in Penn for Obama gear and surrounded by signs and snacks, they gathered in front of two giant screens - one tuned to CNN and one to MSNBC - to see what would come out of many months of work and hope.

In between ecstatic eruptions as the networks forecast winners, the students who led the campaign clapped, cried and proclaimed disbelief that they had made it so far.

Some of the Penn for Obama crew double-checked the commentators' calls on laptops in the back of the room. But most attendees spent the night jumping and hugging as the map turned blue.

The shouts spilling from the room when MSNBC first called Ohio for Obama were so strong that they drew in crowds from the rest of the building.

The proudest moment for most was Pennsylvania being called for Obama early in the evening - a sign that their hundreds of hours engaging the campus and community had paid off.

During one of the few times the room was quiet, College junior Mukul Sharma, Penn Dems vice president and member of the Democratic Ward Council, announced the results from Penn's polls: 3,731 votes cast for Obama and 752 for McCain.

"Now if you do the math," Sharma said, "and I'm not too good at math, that's 83 percent."

Penn for Obama executive board member Elizabeth Celata said the time she spent tabling today was representative of that excitement.

"We ran out of the tattoos we were giving out by 11 am," she said. "We had a lifesize cardboard cut-out of Obama and everyone wanted their pictures taken with it.

Members of the College Republicans are disappointed, but not surprised, by last night's election results.

"This was all to be expected," said College junior and College Republicans President Zac Byer at the group's results watching party. "We were realistic."

College freshman Aliana Greenberg also anticipated that the win would not go to McCain. However, she is accepting of the results.

"I'll be okay with it," Greenberg said. "I'm not the biggest Republican."

College senior Lindsay Larner said she thinks it is important for Republicans to give Obama a fair chance.

"People are looking for the country to come together," Larner said.

She added that she hopes Obama chooses people for his cabinet who are experts, regardless of their political party.

College and Wharton sophomore Sarah Brown also said she thinks Obama should work with members of the opposite party as president.

"I would certainly hope that he would listen to Republicans because they make up approximately half the country," Brown said.

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