Fittingly enough, we found out during the final 8 or so minutes of The Daily Show. Perfect!
When they called Ohio. Knew at that point McCain had less than 1 in 10000 chance to win according 538.com’s simulations.
I was watching the election coverage for awhile at a friend’s house. While it seemed a foregone conclusion that Obama would win, by the time I left he was still at 200 and I expected to have to wait til midnight for him to get at least the 270 needed to win. But as soon as I got home he was up to 353 and he was being declared the winner!
I went to bed at 207. Woke up, went out and pick the local paper from out of the driveway, :Historic Win."
We were at a party in a hotel ballroom with several hundred guests, mostly Indonesian, hosted by the US ambassador to Indonesia. Very boring party, really - we didn’t know many people there, and it was kind of snotty, because it was invitation-only, and let me tell you, invite-only parties by the US ambassador are very la-di-da in Jakarta.
When they called Ohio for Obama, we knew it was all over. Later, when the major news media called the election for Obama, an announcement was made at the party.
The point of the party - something like it is held every time there is a US presidential election - is to show Indonesia how our wonderful free and democratic elections work. So, they had pictures of both candidates, and supplies of buttons you could pick for either McCain or Obama. My husband and I grabbed Obama buttons, but noticed that almost no one else wore a button, period.
I figure that’s because a lot of the Americans there were associated with the embassy, and they are not allowed to be partisan. (In fact, a couple of them commented to us that they felt frustrated because they weren’t allowed to show their feelings.) As to the Indonesians, they are a polite bunch and probably felt it would be presumptuous to be too rowdy in favor of any American candidate.
However… I did watch one of the Embassy guys closely, and saw him smile a lot when things looked good for Obama.
When the announcement was made, first there was silence … and then the crowd erupted into cheers. Not everyone, mind you, but enough to show quite a high level of approval.
As for me, I was whooping with the loudest of them.
I woke up and came to my computer and found out on the internet.
I had to get up this morning and check the internet to find out. . . I was terribly sick yesterday and couldn’t get out of bed, much less sit up to watch election coverage.
I bailed from the expat hangout at 3:30AM (9:30 eastern) and saw on the internet that everyone had called Ohio at 4.
On CNN (or MSNBC?) in the official election-watching hotel suite of my congressional candidate’s campaign, drinking vodka with his campaign staff while he chewed on his fingernails, stone-cold sober. (Actually, he wasn’t chewing on his fingernails, he was smiling and happy, outwardly.) I’d say it was the coolest way I could think of to find out I picked the winner in my first general election.
Checked the news sites as soon as I got home from work this afternoon.
I got up and typed ‘president’ into google. There was no way I would have managed to stay up until 6am. I wasnt at all surprised by the result.
Got a text.
In bed with flu all week, so I was sleeping in. My husband woke me up briefly and said “He won, I knew you’d want to know”. Once I surfaced slightly more I sat up in bed and put BBC News24 on to watch some of the summary coverage. I’ve been in tears several times so far… It feels like a good day 
My husband and I were planted on the couch, beers in hand, watching ever since I got home from work, and stayed up until somewhat after President-Elect Obama’s acceptance speech in Grant Park.
When I came on here this morning and saw some of the thread titles (I went to bed too early last night for the final results, but was very hopeful). Then I went over to CNN.com to see what colors all the states were.
Before I went to work last night, logged on and saw Obama was close to winning. “Stole” a demo radio from my store’s electronics department, set it up in my pharmacy, and reflexively called my department neighbors over when NPR announced that McCain was about to speak, shortly after NPR called CO for Obama. Heard the concession speech, got on the PA, and announced to customers and employees that McCain had conceded the election to Obama.
…and then took a dozen calls from other employees who asked what “conceded” meant. I bummed a number of people out, but when the cashiers found out, they were shrieking with glee.
:smack: Serves you right for using those big scary words.
I had fallen asleep and woke up briefly when I heard the voice of Jon Stewart. Then the audience going wild.
I was up until 4 watching for Chambliss, Stevens, and Coleman. Which serves me right, as it appears that those states still aren’t settled. But they might all be reelected, since they’re all leading. 
I was listening to a news-talk radio instead of watching T V. At 7:10, ten minutes after our polls closed, almost two hours before the California polls closed, their pundit declared Obama the winner, right after he took both Pennsylvania and Ohio. He pointed out California was a given for Obama and said, “Oregon, Washington, Hawaii . . . any two will put him over the top.” Florida and Michigan didn’t matter any more. The national organizations held off until Calif. closed, but it was pretty obvious from that point on.
For the first time ever, our President-elect is younger than me. I’m feeling ancient this morning.