At the Huffington Post-23/6 party

Posted by Sam Thielman:

The Huffington Post's 23/6 party was a partisan hub in fashionable SoHo. Deafening whoops rang out as Obama inched closer and then claimed the presidency.

Cramped partygoers at the Huffington-Barry Diller joint Web venture's HQ munched on pizza and cupcakes and knocked back beers while two huge screens broadcasting CNN and MSNBC proclaimed the results. (Fox News was relegated to a small corner of the room behind the baked goods.)

As 23/6 staffers liveblogged the election, the young, tech-savvy crowd held forth on the reasons to vote for Obama.

"I actually liked John McCain in 2000," said Ron Mwangaguhunga, a blogger for HuffPo. "This John McCain is totally different." Mwangaguhunga, who is American-born Ugandan, said that he had decided to "pretty much vote like a Democrat. If John McCain had been 'John McCain in 2000' and Obama had been Hillary Clinton, I might have voted differently."

Though united by support for the Democratic candidate, different people voted for different reasons. Michael Frederick, a 29-year-old software engineer for Google, said that he supported Obama on "healthcare, taxes, the Iraq war, things like that," but added later, "He just seems more relevant. That he knows how to use a computer means something to me."