US Election Night 2008
BBC 1

Election Night Live: America Decides
ITV 1

I WATCHED the September 11 attacks unfold shockingly live on television (quite by chance, I’d only tuned in to set the video recorder), so it seemed like a good idea to sit up all night to watch the 2008 American elections and take a chance on the result being another “turning point” in history. Well, Barack Obama won and we’ll have the first ever black President in the White House, so that part will make the history books – even if things don’t work out quite how the Obama-voters hope and the cheering multicoloured crowds and noble rhetoric are forgotten by history in years to come.

Our election coverage on both main terrestrial channels certainly offered a sharp contrast. Right-wingers would have been much happier watching the BBC’s US Election Night 2008, where David Dimbleby and the entire team of reporters had bagged themselves a jaunt to the United States at the licence fee-payers’ expense. Broadcasting from Washington (although we actually could have been anywhere), Dimbleby presided over a round table surrounded by political pundits. So anxious was the Beeb to avoid any accusation of lefty bias, things seemed to have swung to the opposite pole. This is an election night position which seems to come naturally to Dimbleby, as has been noted before. “How far to the left is Obama?” he worried out loud at one point. “What is America in for?” Throughout a long night of techno tedium (with Jeremy Vine chained to his whizz-bang touch screen map) and elitist debate, the mood in the BBC studio remained remarkably sour and bad-tempered.

Dimbleby’s guests included the spectacularly truculent John Bolton, George Bush’s former ambassador to the United Nations, forced out of office in 2006. Looking like a furious bureaucrat from a Tintin cartoon adventure, he fired off accusations of “bias” at hapless BBC reporters as they popped up on the studio screen. One who had the temerity to suggest to a Republican politician that he was “putting a brave face” on the night’s voting ignited Bolton’s especial fury. “You should fire that reporter”, he spluttered at Dimbleby.

In the next seat, TV historian and Obama fan Simon Schama struggled to get a word in. Why would no one admit the obvious election result? “If you’re going to write history before it happens…” snarled Bolton. “That’s naive”, snapped back Schama.

Over on ITV 1, the mood could not have been more different. Election Night Live: American Decides was the programme for Obama fans, throwing neutrality to the winds in favour of a carnival atmosphere. A beaming Alistair Stewart was the anchorman, speaking to us from a more modest studio in London, with just a couple of talking heads at his elbow. The focus here was on the euphoric crowd scenes in Times Square, New York and Grant Park in Chicago. Roving reporters did more vox pops among the cheering Obama supporters than the Beeb had managed thus far, along with interviews with black soul singers, TV presenters, pastors and college principals. While the BBC continued to refuse to call the result, Stewart’s guest and electoral guru Sir Bob Worcester declared it as early as 2.40am. “Statistically, psephologically, any way you look at it, he’s done it”, announced Stewart, “but don’t got to bed yet, there will be incredible scenes to come.” Stewart could certainly have done with a few more experts to argue the toss with him, but there was no doubt which channel had predicted the result and captured the popular atmosphere of the event most realistically.

Back at the Beeb, the grudging and negative attitude dragged on into the wee small hours. While Dimbleby still refused to announce the Democratic victory (“we go state by state”), he nevertheless continued an interminable post-mortem on the Republican defeat, quizzing his Republican pundits on where it had all gone wrong: John McCain’s campaign, the economy, Sarah Palin? Only an on-screen slanging match with ratty old Gore Vidal (“You have the advantage over me – I don’t even know who you are”) lifted the mood of despondency and sour grapes. By the time of Obama’s acceptance speech, ITV’s reporter in Grant Park was in need of urgent sedation (“It’s a privilege to be here, the people of the USA have done a decent thing today”), while Dimbleby spoke through gritted teeth about the “real significance” being a black President rather than a Democratic Party win. This election night was hardly Dimbleby’s finest hour.

Now that all the tears and hyperbole have died down, of course, dark thoughts about similar scenes of jubilation greeting Tony Blair’s election in 1997 begin to sneak back into your mind. For Obama, such huge expectations can obviously never be met. Times are tough and every idol has feet of clay. So perhaps we’d better just hold on to the hope for as long as we can manage it: that Obama can really change America for the better and that he turns out to be a black John F Kennedy (minus the assassination) rather than a black Bill Clinton or – God help us – a black Tony Blair.

Helen Chappell