Amerika wählt!

That was the TV announcement headline all night long (and morning). And wählen we did!

The perspective from Göttingen was perhaps a little less exciting than what I saw in Chicago on TV--no screaming masses or even horn-honks as are quite normal for the football (soccer) season (even late at night). I debated getting dressed and going into town around 4 AM, but then remembered that I have no bike now and buses don't run late, and it didn't really seem worth it since there probably wouldn't be many people up and about. And I was very comfortable reading and working at home.

So far I have yet to meet a single person who didn't seem excited that we've chosen a new direction. Not surprising as some 80% of Germans are pro-Obama. I actually don't know who the other 20% is, but I imagine some bit of that is from psycho-neo-Nazis in the hills somewhere. Fortuntely Germany has a lot fewer of those than the US (and Tennessee in particular).

The news coverage was rather complete, but I found it very funny to be watching German commentators who are clearly not used to American-style elections. Every 5 minutes or so there was a review of the Electoral College system and shocked faces discussing the long lines and historic-yet-pathetic voter turnout. (Germany has manditory voter registration and turnout is apparently usually in the 80-90% region. The thought of long lines and voting machines is also foreign and apparently un-democratic in my critical German friends' eyes. And German elections are on Sundays--FINALLY! so this is what people here do on Sundays!)

I'm going to have to rewatch the speeches sometime as they were voiced-over so loud that I basically couldn't hear the original English. It's very odd because the German was off by a few seconds and if I started to listen to it I couldn't easily go back to the English without missing some. So eventually I gave up and just listened to the German. And they talked during the Pledge and Anthem. Not amused here!

As an aside, German elections are very boring. I think people here must have been a little relieved to have some excitement. Germans don't actually get to vote for the Chancellor, but insead vote for Bundestag (Parliment) members and for a political party. The winners of votes go to Parliment as well as about as many party-chosen officials. The entire thing seems silly and complicated to me, but the Germans like it that way apparently. It also makes the system very un-popular in the sense that German politicians have no incentive to cater directly to the general population with populist promises. Very important when you remember what happened to the Weimar Republic in the 1930's.

Also, some phrases from the night:
"Wir wollen ein bißchen vorsichtig sein..." -- that is, Germans hate risk. They refused to call it at 4 when it was clear all Obama needed was CA and WA.
"Gänsehautmoment" -- goose-skin moment. This became very boring after about five uses.
Any state name, esp. New Jersey, prounounced by the German announcers.