Liz's FBN Excellent Chicago Adventure on Election Night

Oh What a night.

Hi Gang, I'm back from covering Election Night live from Grant Park in Chicago. I don't need to go through all the superlatives to explain what being there was like, but I do want to give you a window into what it was like to be one of the thousands of international media to cover the historic evening. Here's my play-by-play, ALL TIMES EASTERN:

4:30pm Monday  Left the Fox Business set a half hour early to catch a car to LaGuardia airport and my 7:00 pm flight to Chicago.

5:15pm Just as Executive Producer Gary Schreier anticipated, I get there so early that after I check in and get my Auntie Anne's pretzel and lemonade, I hop the earlier flight.  Sat next to a guy in charge of Risk Management for a top accounting firm. He gives me all the inside dirt about how excited Chicago is for election night. He said all his clients (many of them Obama supporters) have one concern: get their taxes down.

8pm  Arrive at O'Hare. Have NEVER seen O'Hare airport so quiet. You could hear a pin drop. One of the workers tells me, "No one's traveling. They all want to stay home to vote in their district."

8:24pm Absolutely no traffic. Walk into the Hilton Chicago, dump my stuff and head outside. It's a balmy 65 degrees. November in Chicago? I brought cashmere! Too late to shop, everything's closed so I head to the Fox owned-and-operated station WFLD to see my old pal from Cleveland television, Lauren Cohn. She's the main anchor there. The station is abuzz, their political reporter has 2 phones planted to his ears, and Lauren's got every fact about the election firmly planted in her brain.

9:15pm I decide to hoof it back to the Hilton because it's so warm out. There's a guy playing saxophone on the Michigan Avenue. The song? "So Happy Together." There are little tables out with people selling Obama campaign pins. The bestseller? A pin with a mock-up front page of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Obama Wins!"  The old "Dewey Defeats Truman" misprint still haunt the media to this day but clearly Chicago is confident.

10:30pm My crew and I meet in the bar for our meeting. Producers Barnini Chakraborty, Michele Nunes, along with photographer Lance Laralin (who flew out from FBN's San Francisco bureau to cover this) are completely prepared. We talk about every possible outcome, every contigency plan, you name it, we're ready for it. Lance is suprisingly cool, considering his wife is due to have their second child in, oh, 4 days. 

11:30pm We all head to our rooms. I read through all my notes for the 17th time before calling it a night.

TUESDAY, ELECTION DAY 7:00am

7:00am I wake up with one thought: This is FBN's *first* Election Night. I'm beyond proud of how quickly we've come up to speed. We've got reporters covering every single angle with the central focus being the economy and the financial crisis. Neil Cavuto will shepherd the coverage.  We're all focused but excited.

8:00am I can't believe it. I brought 2 cashmere sweaters, boots and handwarmers thinking it would be freezing on Lake Michigan but it's 70 degrees outside. I have no back-up plan that doesn't include wool of some kind. Pulling a McGyver, I put on my nephew's surf shirt which I sleep in.  It's got the words "Clout Malibu" on the sleeves but I doll it up with an Hermes silk scarf.   I'm good to go.

1:00pm We head to the location. Lance is already there. I'm stunned at what a perfect vantage point Fox Business has landed.  Out of the thousands of international media, I'm on a riser right to the left of the stage. We're on the 'cool kids' riser with the BBC, MTV, the Associated Press, CNN, ABC, Entertainment Tonight and the NY Times. The quarters are CROWDED but no one's complaining. Yet.

1:20pm Walk into the Fox tent where Major Garrett, Fox News' superstar reporter (who's brilliantly covered every step of the Obama campaign) is sitting working quietly on his laptop. I know he's tired but he doesn't look it. He's working the phones. I wait until he's off and pick his brain about what the campaign is telling him regarding the "day after."  Will Senator Obama hold a news conference? "Probably not." Will he name his economic team right away if he wins? "I'm hearing no." Do you want some of my chocolate I brought? "Not yet, but thanks!" 

1:45pm I decide to scope the media area. There's a catering tent with no food in it. There's a table with Obama t-shirts, pins and bumper stickers in case the media need props for their live shots. There are 50 port-o-potties with fancy handwashers, thank goodness.

2:00pm We're trying to figure out how to get Terry Duffy, the Executive Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group to our location for an exclusive interview for 4pm ET. The crowds are lining up and have clogged Michigan Avenue, along with Roosevelt, the main access point to the park. Our bookers in NYC are working the phones, while Barnini maps out a route through which he can get to us. We're all set.

2:15pm I head to the media entrance to see how Terry's going to get through (he doesn't have a ticket or a campaign pass so we'll have to get him his guest pass). Heading back to our riser, I spot the CNN tent with a big "Private, NO ENTRANCE" sign on the door. Of course, being a typical reporter, I walk right up to the door and walk in.  My husband is a Senior Producer for Special Events so I thought I'd go in and say hi to his buddy Alec.  There are a bunch of guys staring at me. "I'm a spy from Fox Business," I joke. They only sort of laugh. Alec spots me. I say a quick hello, turn to go and see their Hologram set up. I try not to stare but it's pretty amazing.  TV people all love to check out each others' fancy toys.  I'm quite sure rapper Will.i.am will look cool in it. Hank Paulson? Not so much. Remember, we ARE the Business Channel.

2:40pm I head back to the risers. I'm now ensconced in our space and decide I'm not moving much anymore. The riser has become so crowded that you can't move without having to duck and bend to avoid interrupting other people's live shots. We're ready.

3:00pm FBN Executive Producer Terry Baker is in my ear: "You're up first, Liz." I do my first hit of what will be around 13 for the night.  The general crowds won't be let in until 9:30pm ET but I've got the front pages of both Chicago papers which I hold up, and duck out of the way so Lance can pan and zoom around to show every aspect of what's going on.

4pm ET Success! Terry Duffy makes it through the crowd! He schleps to our riser and stands next to me as David Asman, back in NYC, tosses to me for the interview. Terry talks about what big business is looking for from the next president and how their new fund which will allow people to trade Credit Default Swaps-- hence giving them a real price-- is coming along. He's one of Chicago's top business leaders. It's a great coup to get him exclusively.

For the next several hours we land interview a bunch of folks, among them Reverend Jesse Jackson, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri who, btw, PROMISES to work on getting a President Obama to CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING, Christie Hefner of Playboy, Democratic strategist Nancy Skinner. 

8:15pm I go to the catering tent to grab some food. On the menu? Chicken Noodle stew and pumpkin cake. I'll eat anything out in the field so I'm thrilled. I sit down with Lance in the Fox tent and literally, AS I'M TAKING MY FIRST BITE, Michele Blackberrys me from the riser: "THEY'RE LETTING IN THE CROWDS EARLY! PEOPLE ARE RUNNING TO THE STAGE!" We drop our forks and run.

For the next 2 and a half hours, we describe the scene for our viewers. I run into the Univision anchor who tells me the Hispanic vote will count for some 9 million votes.  He believes that Cubans in Florida who traditionally vote for Republicans will flee the party in droves and vote for Barack Obama.  When John McCain gives his concession speech, the crowd of 250,000 falls silent. They applaud for him and for Sarah Palin.

10:55pm Andy Hoffman, our Executive Producer in NYC gets in my ear and says, "California polls are about to close. Vamp til the top of the hour." Neil throws to me and I detail the scene. Grant Park is historically resonant for this event: FDR brought his campaign trail through this park, Queen Elizabeth drew huge crowds in the '50's, and violent, anti-Vietnam War protests happened here during the Democratic Convention in 1968.  What a difference 40 years makes. Everyone is jubilant but calm. 

11:00:00 pm ET Fox Business and Fox News call the election for Barack Obama. Neil tosses to me. The sound is deafening, the crowd is going wild.  I've put on headsets at this point but the cheering is blasting through. After describing the moment, I say, "Neil, let's just listen."  And we did. FBN's director took shot after shot from every angle possible of the celebration.  We've all just witnessed history. 

People keep asking me what it was like. I can only say I'm proud of this country and I'm proud of Fox Business.

See you on the air!