INTRODUCTION
Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.
Democrat Obama was elected as the first black president of the United States of America on 4th November, 2008. The 47-year-old senator from Illinois defeated Republican Sen. John McCain. Voters came out in record numbers on Election Day. About 130 to 140 million people exercised their franchise. Obama will be sworn in as President on January 20, 2009.
The election of Obama amounted to a national catharsisa repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Obamas call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country.
But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nations fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.
Senator Barack Obama, now President Obama
Obama, 47, a first-term senator from Illinois, defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, 72, a former prisoner of war who was making his second bid for the presidency.
To the very end, McCains campaign was eclipsed by an opponent who was nothing short of a phenomenon, drawing huge crowds epitomized by the tens of thousands of people who turned out to hear Obamas victory speech in Grant Park in Chicago.
McCain also fought the headwinds of a relentlessly hostile political environment, weighed down with the baggage left to him by President Bush and an economic collapse that took place in the middle of the general election campaign.
Democrat Barack Obama elected US President
defeating Republican John McCain
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer, said Obama, standing before a huge wooden platform with a row of American flags at his back, casting his eyes to a crowd that stretched far into the Chicago night.
Its been a long time coming, the president-elect added, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.
McCain delivered his concession speech under clear skies on the lush lawn of the Arizona Biltmore, in Phoenix, where he and his wife had held their wedding reception. The crowd reacted with scattered boos as he offered his congratulations to Obama and saluted the historical significance of the moment.
This is a historic election, and I recognize the significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight, McCain said, adding, We both realize that we have come a long way from the injustices that once stained our nations reputation.
Not only did Obama capture the presidency, but he led his party to sharp gains in Congress. This puts Democrats in control of the House, the Senate and the White House for the first time since 1995, when Bill Clinton was in office.
The day shimmered with history as voters began lining up before dawn, hours before polls opened, to take part in the culmination of a campaign that over the course of two years commanded an extraordinary amount of attention from the American public.
Smiling Obama after winning Democrat candidacy
As the returns became known, and Obama passed milestone after milestoneOhio, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa and New Mexicopeople rolled spontaneously into the streets to celebrate what many described, with perhaps overstated if understandable exhilaration, a new era in a country where just 143 years ago, Obama, as a black man, could have been owned as a slave.
For Republicans, especially the conservatives who have dominated the party for nearly three decades, the night represented a bitter setback and left them contemplating where they now stand in American politics.
Obama and his expanded Democratic majority on Capitol Hill now face the task of governing the country through a difficult period: the likelihood of a deep and prolonged recession, and two wars. He took note of those circumstances in a speech that was notable for its sobriety and its absence of the triumphalism that he might understandably have displayed on a night when he won an Electoral College landslide.
The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep, said Obama, his audience hushed and attentive, with some wiping tears from their eyes. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.
Obama will come into office after an election in which he laid out a number of clear promises: to cut taxes for most Americans, to get the United States out of Iraq in a fast and orderly fashion, and to expand health care.
In recognition of the difficult transition he faces, given the economic crisis, Obama is expected to begin filling White House jobs as early as this week.
Obama defeated McCain in Ohio, a central battleground in American politics, despite a huge effort that brought McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin of Alaska, back there repeatedly. Obama had lost the state decisively to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in the Democratic primary.
McCain failed to take from Obama the two Democratic states that were at the top of his target list: New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Obama also held on to Minnesota, the state that played host to the convention that nominated McCain; Wisconsin; and Michigan, a state McCain once had in his sights.
Obama supporters in Chicago
The apparent breadth of Obamas sweep left Republicans sobered, and his showing in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania stood out because officials in both parties had said that his struggles there in the primary campaign reflected the resistance of blue-collar voters to supporting a black candidate.
McCain called Obama to offer his congratulations. In the call, Obama said he was eager to sit down and talk; in his concession speech, McCain said he was ready to help Obama work through difficult times.
I need your help, Obama told his rival, according to an Obama adviser, Youre a leader on so many important issues.
Bush called Obama shortly after his victory news came to congratulate him on his victory.
