THE sky was cloudy but it was business as usual on 125th Street, the lively commercial area of Harlem where street vendors selling incense, shea butter and DVDs ply their trade alongside large chain stores such as H&M.
At first glance, Obamania was not in sight. Except for a sidewalk stall selling Obama T-shirts, there were no other telltale signs.
But chat up the locals, and a different picture emerges in this neighbourhood known as the capital of black America.
“It’s the biggest thing that we have been talking about so far,” said Monica James, during a lunch break from her 12-week course to become a medical assistant.
Though she had no time to spare for the just-concluded Beijing Olympics, “I’m surely going to take a bit of time off in between studies to watch the convention tonight,” she said on Monday, the start of the four-day Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Colorado.
Despite the DNC sometimes being derided as a party for the Democrats to celebrate themselves, most Americans did not want to miss what people like James called a historic event.
Cable networks tapped on the demand for political updates as the country witnessed the first African-American to secure a major party nomination bid for the Oval Office. Thus, no details seemed too small, no news deemed too frivolous.
There was an account of how the Obama campaign searched for weather reports of the past 20 years to be sure of no rain on the day that he delivered his acceptance speech in the football stadium.
Fox News Channel, which devoted almost every other minute to the DNC, provided a “visual timeline” on the hairline of Barack Obama’s running mate Joseph R. Biden Jr. The cable network showed images of how his hair (or lack of it) had changed through the years courtesy of hair transplants.
According to The New York Times, he got the news that he was selected as the party vice-president nominee while at the dentist as his wife went for a root canal.
Others remembered Biden’s remarks last year when he described Obama as a “clean African-American”, which led to a mini-controversy then – was he implying that others did not bathe regularly?
Then there was the “Fox Flashback” on the day Al Gore accepted the party’s nomination for the 2000 presidential election.
Nothing escaped the cameras when Hillary Clinton made her speech on Tuesday night. They recorded every expression of hubby Bill Clinton and Barack’s wife Michelle Obama as Hillary addressed the party, while political analysts of all stripes scrutinised every word she said, or rather, what she did not say that night.
Fashion statements were in, too. There was a brief segment on how Clinton’s staff tested pantsuits of different colours against the blue backdrop of the stage. In the end, as everyone throughout the world witnessed on CNN, Clinton wore a striking tangerine ensemble that evening.
Nielsen Media Research estimated that at least 22 million Americans were in front of their TV on Monday night when Michelle Obama was the star attraction. The numbers did not include those who followed the event online.
Viewership went up even higher the following night with 26 million people watching Hillary as she urged her “sisterhood of the travelling pantsuits” to back Obama. A staggering number no doubt.
For comparison’s sake, almost 28 million people tuned in to NBC’s closing ceremony broadcast of the Beijing Games last Sunday, the highest number of any closing Olympics since 1976.
In May, 31.7 million viewers watched David Cook crowned the latest American Idol.
A day after her speech, the Obama campaign sent out a mass e-mail signed merely “Barack” with the subject heading “Did you see Michelle?”
“Michelle was electrifying, inspiring, and absolutely magnificent. You have to see it to believe it,” Barack said in the e-mail, which included a video link of her speech.
If viewership is all in the millions, there has also been much talk about the millionaires in Barack and his Republican rival John McCain.
McCain, to the delight of his enemies and critics, appeared unsure about the number of houses he owned during an interview with a news website.
Depending on who you listen to, the Republican presidential nominee could own four, seven or eight homes. Blogs and news reports have since noted his expensive shoes – a US$520 (RM1,760) leather Salvatore Ferragamo.
Other millions in the news: Obama has raised US$339mil (RM1.1bil) so far for his campaign; McCain only US$136mil (RM460.2mil).
And so, out of this historic DNC are stories which are often incredulous and offbeat, so gleefully reported by media such as the New York Post which ran a column named “Hee Haw”, illustrated with a caricature of the Democrat Party symbol of a donkey.
