After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, I didn’t quite know what to do to help myself take it all in. I found a message board called ‘Win it For’ that was started at some point before the World Series and was filled with stories from people who wanted the Red Sox to win the World Series for someone or other. I spent about 5 hours, reading it straight through, the morning after the World Series and it was the best way I could have celebrated the Red Sox winning.

On November 4, when Barack Obama was announced the winner of the 2008 Presidential Election I was searching for a similar sort of catharsis. Not so much because of Obama winning (which was nice) but because the election had been building as an event for almost 3 years ‘ from the speculation of who would run, to the announcements, to the campaigns, to the primaries, to the general, and finally, November 4th came and went. I thought maybe I’ll collect a few thoughts from friends, or collect all the Facebook status messages, or collect a few links that helped tell the story. As I thought about it, I decided I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted without going overboard. And I won’t lie, despite my attempts at making this document impartial, there’s no way it could have been. And though I’ve tried to make its focus 11/4, Election Day, there were certain events from the campaign that creeped in.

I wanted to create something to look at a couple years from now to remember the election and hopefully present a good representation of what both sides of America were feeling on that day as evidenced by the response in the press and on the blogs. I didn’t capture everything, though I’ve certainly tried. I want to consume all of this information, have it put on a microchip in my brain. Until that’s possible, I just read a lot. I don’t know how many of these links will work in a year or 5 years, (when this doc might be helpful to show younger people who may not have ever remembered having a president who isn’t black), but here’s what I’ve got. At the bottom is a list of all the sites I used and the domains that helped.

This is a LONG post, when you get bored, bookmark it so you can come back later. There are several different sections. If you want to skip around, you can use the Contents Section below.

Celebrate! – A run down of the celebrations.

WINS! – A list of 38 sites and their winning posts.

Winners and Losers – 18 lists of election winners and losers.

Turnout, Voting, and Polling – Articles and stories about voting, polling, and turn out.

Reactions – Reactions from the world, pundits, and celebrities.

How Obama Won – Some thoughts on how Obama won.

Why McCain Lost – Some thoughts on why McCain lost and what next for the GOP.

Expectations and Advice – There are a lot of people with expectations and a lot of people with advice.

Race – Obviously electing the first black president is going to bring up comments on race.

Money and Business – What will the impact on your money and you business be?

The Media – Without the media, wherever would we be!?

Humor – Without the humor, wherever would we be!?

Miscellaneous – Without the miscellaneous, wherever would we be!?

Personal Stories from Friends – Just what it says.

273 Status Political Status Messages in 27 Hours – Just what it says.

Via – Here’s a list of all the sites I used in putting this together ‘ the sources.

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”