World watches as U.S. makes history
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wrote the second paragraph of his on chapter in American history tonight, becoming the first black man elected President.
It was feared Election Day would be marred by polling misconduct, legal challenges, and perhaps even violence. None of that was apparent, with many poll workers and election officials giving credit to early voting turn-out.
As polls closed on the East Coast, the count started as expected, with the first state called being Kentucky, going to McCain. Vermont fell next, going in Obama's column.
The first battleground state, Virginia was projected to go to Obama. Pennsylvania fell to the Illinois senator next, and things began to look bad for McCain.
Florida, and it's hotly contested 27 votes, was too close to call until later in the evening. By the time it tallied to Obama, the writing was on the wall.
The Great Lakes states next went to Obama, including Ohio with 20 electoral votes. Soon after that, McCain insiders began admitting there was no combination left that would net the needed 270 electoral votes.
Even though the heartland states from Texas through North Dakota went to McCain, he lost both swing states of New Mexico and Colorado.
At 10:00 pm CST, just as the polls closed on the West Coast, the major networks all projected Obama to win California, giving him well over the 270 electoral needed to lock up the election.
Obama might have won the electoral college in a landslide, but the popular vote was far closer, where he took 52%, while McCain gathered 47%.
By 10:45, John McCain, the Republican candidate, had conceded the win to Obama with a telephone call and a gracious speech. McCain complimented Obama on the race he ran, and pledged to work with him, saying
"Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."
McCain thanked his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, his campaign staff, and all of his supporters. The Arizona senator said his campaign had been the great honor of his life, and called for all Americans to work together to solve the problems we face:
I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.
Soon after, President-Elect Obama took the stage at a huge victory party in Chicago. His speech was complimentary to McCain and palin, and conciliatory to the country, at on point pledging to those who did not vote for him:
"I hear your voice, I need your help, and I will be your President, too".
In soaring rhetoric rivaling that of Ronald Reagan, Obama acknowledged the challenge of solving two wars, the economic crisis and difficulties around the globe, saying:
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.
There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in 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.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.
This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.
It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.
Time and again, he reiterated his campaign chant of "Yes, we can" calling it a time honored American creed. The jubilant crowd chanted it back to him at every occurrence.
As he concluded his speech, he was joined on stage by his wife, Michelle Obama, and running mate Joe Biden and his wife.
Meanwhile in the nation's capital, a crowd of about two hundred Georgetown University students gathered outside the White House, waving Obama campaign signs, also chanting the familiar "Yes, we can"!
Their mood was less conciliatory, however, as there were a few anti-Bush signs, one reading 'Why wait, evict Bush now'.
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