Obama win resonates across city

Las Vegas Sun

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008 | 2 a.m.

When the giant TV screen on the front of Planet Hollywood projected an Obama win in Pennsylvania, Shaun Singleton, 37, screamed from the Strip sidewalk, “This is the dream!”

About 60 people stood silently nearby as Singleton yelled again, “This is Martin Luther King’s dream!”

The crowd dispersed when the giant screen went back to commercials, but Singleton stayed put. He had to. He was handing out coupons to nightclubs.

“What this means is, this is not a black thing,” said Singleton, who is black. “It means white people voted for him too.”

•••

By 7:45 p.m., talk among the disappointed 200 or so GOP faithful gathered at the Sportsbook Bar and Grill at the Palazzo on the Strip was about the need to rebuild the party, about how much work needed to be done.

“Tonight is about the future,” Gov. Jim Gibbons told his crowd.

“We are going to make Nevada a Republican state and we will never look back.”

He said the party was lucky that it had candidates “willing to jump in the ring and get dirty and muddy and bloody.”

By the time John McCain delivered his concession speech, the crowd was more interested in the results that were finally coming in for local races. The volume for McCain’s speech wasn’t turned up until near its end, when he mentioned Sarah Palin, and with that there was finally a cheer from the crowd.

•••

Emotions overflowed at Seven Seas Restaurant and Lounge, for decades one of Las Vegas’ most venerable black-owned businesses.

First, Pennsylvania. Then that toughest of battlegrounds for Democrats, Ohio. The 40 or so, mostly African-American patrons knew the significance of the Buckeye State.

“Yea! Yea!” roared several middle-aged men sitting at one end of the bar as CNN confirmed the Ohio result. They raised their glasses and beer bottles.

“This is huge!” yelled one.

The emotions running at the Seven Seas – for decades one of Las Vegas' most venerable bars and seafood spots owned and frequented by African-Americans – overflowed.

“It’s like a dream come true,” said Cansas Howard, a nurse at the Cheyenne Care Center who was sitting at the rectangular wood-topped bar. “To actually see this happening? It’s a glorious thing.”

Howard, who has four children, said when her youngest ones were old enough to take it in, she would tell them: “We finally got a black president – and we were around to see it. Remember it!”

Howard and a couple of other patrons echoed another theme: They were proud that Obama took the high road, and refused to let the attacks on his character and his skin color get to him.

“The greatest thing is that he’s bridged the gap between the races,” said Judye Conner, the wife of the long-time Seven Seas owner, Louis Conner. “I just cried when he would rise above the negative, time after time. What a great campaign he ran.”

Paul Perry, 44, sat in a corner of the bar and reflected. Until now, he said he’s always told his children that they could do anything. But until tonight, he always knew – and they always knew – there were limits.

When his youngest daughter, now just 2, gets older, Perry said he would make sure she knows how important this night was.

“When she gets older, she’s going to understand,” he said.

•••

The 7:30 p.m. performance of Zumanity at New York-New York let out just as Obama walked onstage in Chicago to deliver his victory speech. About 100 audience members fresh from the Cirque show stopped in front of the TV screens they were passing.

New Jersey residents Marianne Stoelting, 51, and Susan Eckstein, 69, took turns putting their arms around their friend Janet Lindsey, 62, as she wept. Lindsey would look at the TV, then turn away, then look back, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I never even dreamed of it happening,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

She said she voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary because she did not think a black man could win. “Then, all of a sudden ...”