Phew.

I can’t – and won’t for your sake – describe the last few hours here in Chicago.

President-elect Barack Obama waves after giving his acceptance speech on Tuesday at Grant Park in Chicago.

For final stories that will appear in tomorrow’s paper, click here and here. There are many things I could say about tonight’s events.

The first is how early it all took place, breaking the trends of the most recent elections. This is no doubt something that those of us newspaper reporters appreciated immensely.

I was amazed by the people I saw. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more diverse group of people in one place, so it’s easy to see why Obama will end up winning by hundreds of electoral votes. This kind of “drubbing” (to quote James Carville) hasn’t been seen since Clinton’s re-election bid in 1996 (those political junkies out there will see the irony of me quoting JC).

To see a full video of Obama’s speech, go to the Huffington Post and scroll down the page. Those who have been following Obama’s campaign well will notice a few running themes, including some reminescent of his 2004 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. I won’t list them all for you, but they’re definitely there.

After the speech the crowd cut out relatively quick. Less than an hour later no one was left in the fields where he spoke.

I wish I could have made it over to the other side of the park again, but alas there was no time. It was at least a 30 minute walk to get all the way there. I was there earlier in the evening when results first came in and there was definitely a different atmosphere there, as everyone was sitting down watching a giant CNN broadcast. It was also closer to downtown, nestled right under a building that had the lights arranged to says “USA.”

Another interesting note is how accurate many of the polls were. There weren’t too many surprises. Many people, including myself were weary of the accuracy of polls giving Obama big leads, not sure how these would translate to election day.

Well I’m done for now, expect a few things in the coming days with more analysis and definitely look in tomorrow’s paper for all the stuff from myself, Kristi Oloffson, Yossi May and Brandon Foltz as well as all the elections staff.

Good night, Chicago. Wait, I mean Bloomington. Whatever.

Well, it took a while, but Barack Obama has won Indiana, putting it in the blue column for the first time since 1964. It was a little late for tomorrow’s print edition, but here’s the story that went online early Wednesday morning.

President-elect Barack Obama squeaked out a 13,000-vote victory in Indiana on Tuesday, putting the state’s electoral votes in the Democratic column for the first time since 1964.

Officials told The Associated Press there were “glitches,” but declined to elaborate.

– IDS reporter Zina Kumok and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Around 10 p.m. CNN called the election for Barack Obama by giving him Virginia. This was followed by what has definitely been the loudest cheer yet from this crowd at Grant Park.

Here in Chicago things got really crazy very quickly. Around 10:15 someone went on stage for a sound check. So far that has been the only person to set foot on the stage.

As I type, John McCain is delivering his concession speech in Arizona, which he began delivering around 10:20 Chicago time.

“I wish the outcome was different, my friends,” McCain said.

McCain urged his supporters to support Obama and America in the following term. He also thanked his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her work and support in the campaign.

“This campaign was, and will remain, the great honor of my life,” McCain said.

McCain just finished, around 10:28 p.m. here in Chicago, 11:28 Eastern Standard Time.

We are probably minutes away from Barack Obama taking the stage here in Chicago. The crowd is ready to erupt like they haven’t all night.

With Obama’s victory almost all but certain now, thousands in Chicago are growing antsy and anxious to see the next president speak.

A loud cheer went up when the TV airing CNN quoted McCain advisors who admitted his chances of winning the race were all but gone.

People in the crowd are waving flags and hitting beachballs in the air. The atmosphere very much feels like people awaiting a rock concert. Kristi just left the media section to join the thousands shoulder-to-shoulder in the crowd.

I’ve been relatively suprised how calm things have been here. But I’m sure that when the man of the night takes the stage this crowd will erupt for their next president.

A sea of people has formed at Grant Park, as Obama supporters await election results- most of which seem to be in Obama’s favor.

About a dozen American flags have been placed throughout the crowd, which is packed and is impossible to predict how many are here. There are two main areas where supporters are watching the results on big TVs airing CNN. The first is the main ticketed area where Obama will speak and where most of the press is. The other area is nearly a mile away on the other side of the park, where an even larger mob has formed, even though they are far from where Obama will speak. 

No word yet on how many people are here, but it’s definitely tens of thousands of people. CNN just projected Obama won in Ohio. No Republican since Lincoln has won without winning in Ohio. CNN also just gave Iowa to Obama.

One thing is clear: Obama supporters are getting excited- McCain’s chances are looking nearly impossible at this point.

From IDS reporter Lauren Clason at Conseco Fieldhouse:

Following defeated Democratic candidate’s Jill Long Thompson’s concession speech, lieutenant governor Becky Skillman fired up the crowd with praises of Republican Governor Mitch Daniels.

“Elections are about identifying challenges, proposing solutions, and effecting change,” Skillman said. “This past four years big change has come to Indiana…Hoosiers acknowledge that today, and we’re just getting started.”
Skillman said the two are already looking to the future of Indiana business.
“If you know Mitch Daniels, you know his mind is already at work, the wheels are turning,” Skillman said. “He is America’s public official of the year and he is ours for four more years.”
Following a video extolling Daniels achievements, the new Governor himself entered the crowd to thunderous applause.
“Before we get started, I need to alert all you bargain hunters to an amazing opportunity,” Daniels joked, holding up a “Ditch Mitch” bumper sticker. “They’re offering a once in a lifetime clearance on these over at the other headquarters.”

But Daniels thanked his opponents for their competition.

“They are people who love this state,” he said. “They campaigned aggressively and sincerely. I want to tell them both- Jill, Andy- we appreciate you and we wish you all the best in whatever comes next.”

Daniels looks at his re-election as an assignment from Hoosier voters to keep progressing in the way he has over the last four years.

“This is less an endorsement than an instruction,” he said. “This is less an award than an assignment.”

We’ve just gotten word from IDS reporter Sean Morrison at Jill Long Thompson headquarters that the Democratic gubernatorial nominee has conceded the race to Gov. Mitch Daniels. This makes it official, although Daniels has been up more than 15 points all night.

Daniels and co. are currently celebrating at Conseco Fieldhouse, home of the Pacers. Daniels is expected to make a victory speech soon.

UPDATED 9:07 p.m.

IDS City & State editor Deanna Krinn is monitoring local elections. She reports:

Our correspondent at the Justice Building downtown has been awaiting county election results for the past two hours or so, and apparently it sounds like there are some complications arising. Information gathered from a conversation overheard by Amanda from county election board member Guy Loftman makes it sound like the “precincts don’t add up.” Chaos would probably be the one word to describe the building right now. (Another bit overheard, it sounds like those counting are “all sitting there looking for calculators”).

Apparently none of the computers at the Justice Building have any updated programs, especially Microsoft Excel, so the “old version of Excel is limiting the amount of columns, and they need more so they’re scrambling to find computers with ‘07 or higher version of excel which is basically NO ONE,” Amanda said.

So far we only have one of Monroe County’s precincts tallied. Counting is going to take some time, it sounds like. I’m working to tally precincts as Amanda sends them in, so we’ll have this as updated as possible when we get more numbers.

UPDATE: So this year the votes are being counted and presented to the press a little differently than in years past in Monroe County, and it’s going to be awhile before we have any final numbers. While we’re waiting for final totals to come in, Amanda is working on getting some more information on what’s going on down there. We’ll keep you posted when we have more information.

IDS reporter Lauren Clason is in Indianapolis at Mitch Daniels’ rally inside Conseco Fieldhouse. She reports:

Republican Mitch Daniels has once again been crowned governor of the state of Indiana.

Supporters both young and old came out at his election night rally at Conseco Fieldhouse, including everybody from teenagers too young to vote to seasoned factory workers.

“He likes the average man. He takes care of us like we take care of him,” supporter Wayne Brown said.

Brown worked at Oxford Automotive in Greencastle before it closed. He met Mitch Daniels when he sent him an email asking him to visit the plant. To his surprise, Daniels and his entourage showed up hardly an hour later.

“He definitely listens to people,” Carol Brown said. “He got to know the working man.”

Abby Fivel and Cydny Audia,  17-year-old high schoolers at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatoy School, also came to show their support.

“He’s done a really good job with his past term as governor,” Audia said.

Both girls see this introduction to politics and important to their political decisions in the future.

“I’m in government right now and I’m just getting into politics,” Fivel said. “It’s still important even though we can’t vote.”

Murray Clark, Chairman of the Indiana State Republican Party, addressed the crowd at the rally in light of the conclusion that Daniels had been re-elected.