With Obama Win, Elation and a Lingering Divide

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Celebration in Harlem

A center of black culture and history, the New York neighborhood of Harlem welcomed the news that Barack Obama had been elected the first black president with a loud celebration.

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In rainy North Carolina last night, there were sullen faces and a bit of pouting at a sparse GOP party in the grand ballroom of the North Raleigh Hilton.

"Are you going to stay much longer?" one young woman sipping white wine asked her friend soon after television stations called the state's U.S. Senate race for Democrat Kay Hagan, who ousted Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

McCain worker Amy Crowe, 21, a college senior, said of Obama: "All of his policies are just reaching into my pocket. I just don't trust him. I don't think he has nearly enough experience. I know he picked an experienced vice presidential candidate, but that's not enough. I question his patriotism and, honestly, his political motives. He just came on the scene from nowhere. He hasn't proven to me that he is presidential material."

Carol Bennett, 65, a Republican candidate for a local state Senate seat, said Obama worries her. "Lawyers are trained to say what they have to say to get what they want," she said. "Is he sincere? I don't know. I don't think he will be all that effective because he will be lost in the woods."

Voters in Scranton cast their ballots under gray skies, symbolic of the city's political divisions.

In Whistle's Pub, on a downtown street of boarded-up storefronts, as results last night showed Pennsylvania swing toward Obama, Larry Falduto, 47, a McCain supporter, remarked: "It can't be true. I'm going home now." Then he walked out the door.

Sean Frost, 23, another disgruntled McCain supporter, said, "They elected a terrorist."

Earlier in the day, Paul Fuller, 48, a laborer and musician, said he initially supported Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton but switched to McCain.

"I grew up here, in an Italian-Irish neighborhood, and I'm Scottish-Irish," Fuller said. "There are not many African Americans in this section of town. I started thinking, 'If there's blacks voting for Obama just because he's black, I'll vote for McCain just because he's white.' But I always try to be educated and learn just what their visions are."

McCain backer Mary Salamone, 86, a lifelong Democrat, said she voted for a Republican for president for the first time. "I have nothing against the colored people, they're very nice," she said. "It's him I don't trust."

Brad Burgess, a college professor who said he was "passionately pro-life," said that in the event of an Obama victory, he planned to pray for the president daily. "He's our president and leader," Burgess said. "He makes decisions that affect us all."

As the evening closed in the Tennessee roadhouse, the mood seemed to change. Beer mugs were raised to the new president.

At one table, students Kirk Sudeuth and Courtney Rynd sat with their friends. Sudeuth had voted for McCain; Rynd for independent candidate Ralph Nader. But both acknowledged that something historic had just happened in the country.

"I'm interested to see what'll happen in the next few years," Sudeuth said. "I'll be in full support of the president. I'm all about a unified country."

"This is the most excited I've been in a long time," Rynd said. "I'm excited to be a part of this."