Ann Nixon Cooper has pretty much seen it all.  She was born in 1902 and has lived to witness two world wars, a great depression, the invention of television, the beginning of commercial flight, space exploration and so many life-altering events.  But it was the historic moment on November 4, 2008 that left the biggest impression on Mrs. Cooper’s 106 years of life.

Ann Nixon Cooper of Atlanta was Mentioned in Obama's Victory Speech

Like many around the world, she watched President-Elect Barack Obama accept victory to become the first African American President of the United States.  It was something she never expected to see in her lifetime.  “It’s been a great pleasure to me…the changes.  It means a lot, that I have lived to see it blossom out, don’t you know,”  Mrs. Cooper says.

She was born in rural Tennessee and moved to Atlanta where she married and raised a family.  Her husband was a well known dentist in the city at that time.  It was an occupation that allowed the Cooper family to enjoy a nice home, a busy social life and the ability to provide everything they could for their children.  But despite the monetary success, the hatred and discrimination that plagued the south for decades prevented them from enjoying basic human rights that most of us take for granted.

Mrs. Cooper recalls being ridiculed on a city bus after taking a seat towards the front.  White passengers shouted racial slurs and asked how she dare take a seat in front of them.  It was a time when blacks were banned from businesses, denied access to education and did not have the right to cast a ballot, something most of us take for granted today.  “Well I had forgotten those days, they don’t mean anything to me anymore when we couldn’t vote,”  she says as her conversation quickly turned to the present.  “I can get out and go vote.  I voted downtown the other day.  At city hall.  All by myself.”  And she voted for President-elect Barack Obama.  A proud moment at the polls that caught the attention of media around the world and Mr. Obama himself.

Mrs. Cooper on her 40th Birthday, 19 Years Before President-Elect Obama was Born

“She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin,”  Mr. Obama said about her in his acceptance speech Tuesday night.  “She was there for the buses in Montgomery, a bridge in Selma and a preacher in Atlanta who told the people that we shall overcome.  Yes we can.”  Mrs. Cooper says she was proud to vote for Mr. Obama and the thought of being part of historic change makes her happy.

Not only did the new President talk about her in his speech to the world, but he also took time to call her and personally thank her for supporting him.  On a day when a 106 year old woman can vote, and a 47 year old black man can be President, Ann Cooper says all she can do is smile, be proud of her ever-changing country and enjoy life everyday.  Regardless of how many years or decades Mrs. Cooper has left, she will never forget the words of the man who changed history in 2008 “America, we have come so far.  We have seen so much.  But there is so much more to do.  So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if our children should live to see the next century;  if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see?  What progress will we have made?”

By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

Today’s blog is easy, in fact, the soldiers here at Patrol Base Gaines Mill did all the hard work for me.  You’ve seen the pictures, read the blogs, now meet some of them in person.  A few of the guys are a little camera shy and couldn’t be tempted to record messages, but the ones we did coerce into speaking did a great job.

done

On the way over to the election night party at the US Embassy in London I bragged to my cabbie that I hadn’t seen this much excitement about a race since the Kennedy-Nixon race in 1960 (ok I was 5 years old and supported Nixon but I remember).

At the bash itself it was pretty bipartisan but my trusted cameraman Mal noted a tell tale sign.   Everybody was lining up to take pictures with the Obama life-size cardboard cut out.  There were few takes for the McCain version.

By the end of the evening (early morning for us), all balance went out the window and a cheering throng of Barack supporters were delerious.

Not so the man himself.  As I watched his victory speech with dawn breaking over London I couldn’t help but notice what others did.  A new air of seriousness.   Solemnity.   As if it now truly hit him what a weight of responsibility he had inherited.

Expectations are high of course.  Way too high.   Around the world.  This is the fifth US Presidential election I ve covered from abroad and I’ve never seen anything like it.

From the dusty streets of Nairobi and Djibouti.   To the packed scenes in Bangkok.  To the olde world atmosphere in Berlin and Paris.  People were watching and involved.

Even in my London neighborhood my newspaper vendor and druggist would ask me regularly how the campaign was going.

Now they and…and .we…have a result.

And now…as most pundits quickly also noted….the hard part begins.

By Alicia Acuna

Denver, Co - 8:34 pm: Tonight U.S. Representative Mark Udall stepped up to the mic to make his victory speech in his run for the U.S. Senate.  In his remarks, Udall, thanked his opponent Republican Bob Schaeffer, then turned to the people of Colorado saying “I am humbled and honored that you have asked me to be your next United States Senator.”  Udall replaces two term retiring Republican Senator Wayne Allard.

More than 17 million dollars was spent on the combined campaigns. The Udall win marks the first time since the 1970’s that Colorado has two Democrats representing the state in the U.S. Senate. In 2004, Democrat Ken Salazar also replaced a republican.

Mark Udall will  join his cousin to the South, Tom Udall, a Democrat who also made a successful run tonight for the U.S. Senate in his state of New Mexico.

The Udalls are awaiting results from Oregon’s U.S. Senate race tonight, where their cousin Republican Gordon Smith is fighting to hold onto his seat.

Here in the state capital, as soon as FOX called Ohio for Obama,  EVERYONE from the secretary of state’s office ran behind the curtain to where we believe her office is.  There has been a lot of tension here tonight. This was ground zero in the 2004 election and everyone was focused on the provisional ballots as the most likely source of litigation.

Whether it is wishful thinking, or all the networks will turn out to be wrong, the primary media contact for the state GOP in Ohio is not ready to concede.  When I reached John McClelland you could hear it was extremely busy in the room where he was, people calling over each other, and a few choice works appeared to be flying.

McClelland who has been very forward leaning with information about the race said point blank they are not ready to concede because they were over performing in many of  their counties. And he claimed that the counties yet to be counted were predominantly Republican.   His bottom line is that the number of votes being considered, so far, was just to small to make it real.

About a half hour from now we are expecting another news conference from the secretary of state where we will get the first real numbers…..