At the Obama party...

Carrie Whitaker reports:

Brothers Mike and Ryan Welch and family friend Andy Sutthoff got to Cadillac Ranch on Sixth Street downtown -- where Obama supporters were gathering -- around 5:30 p.m. on election night and scooped up one of the best seats in front of a big screen TV tuned to MSNBC.

A little more than a half an hour before the polls closed in Texas and zero percent counted in Ohio, the three men in their late 20s and 30s wore Obama stickers and watched patiently.

Obama is "a breath of fresh air," said older brother Mike, 31, from West Chester, who got turned on to Obama when he was running for Illinois senator.

"I bought an iPod and strangely enough, Barack was the only senator with a Podcast," Mike said. "I like that he doesn’t sound like a politician and he doesn’t line up with lobbyists."

Sutthoff, 26 of Monfort Heights said he like the prospect of "having a president who can string three words together."

Cadillac Ranch was steadily getting more crowded around 8:30 p.m. Blue Obama signs hung everywhere and sat as place markers on tables. The crowd ranges from teenage and college-aged patrons to middle-aged men in business suits.