First Draft of History: How Southern California's Papers Covered Last Night

Still stunned over the passing of Prop 8 -- a reminder that California is not a completely Blue state -- but it was hard not to get caught up in the historic moment last night when every news outlet, pretty much simultaneously, declared Barack Obama the president-elect at 8 p.m. PT. After two elections that weren't determined until after election day, it was nice to once again go to bed knowing the hard-fought contest's results.

It also gave newspapers across the country ample time to plan out their splashy front pages for Wednesday. Here's how our regional papers looked this morning:


The Los Angeles Times and the Daily News. The Times plays up the Prop. 8 angle right below the head "It's Obama." (Really? I dunno about that hed. It feels kinda cheesy, and can be read several ways. Nonchalantly -- "Oh, hey, Obama won." Negatively -- "F*@k, it's Obama!" Game showy -- "Herrrrrre's Obama!") The Daily News (I'm sorry, I hate what they've done with the paper's nameplate, in that big, red box), meanwhile, goes more traditional.


La Opinion and The Bakersfield Californian. I continue to like what the Californian does with big news stories, blowing up photos and using minimal text.


The San Bernardino Sun and The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario), which combined operations a while back.


The Press-Enterprise (Riverside) and the San Diego Union-Tribune. Press-Enterprise getting quite wordy with that headline.


The San Francisco Chronicle. It's not SoCal, but I was struck by this front page. I'm thinking the designer was inspired by those Shepard Fairey posters.