WASHINGTON — Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation's first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. "Change has come," he told to a huge throng of jubilant supporters.
The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa and more.
On a night for Democrats to savor, they not only elected Obama the nation's 44th president but padded their majorities in the House and Senate, and come January will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.
Obama's election capped a meteoric rise — from mere state senator to president-elect in four years.
In his first speech as victor, to thousands at Grant Park in his home town of Chicago, Obama catalogued the challenges ahead. "The greatest of a lifetime," he said, "two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."
He added, "There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face."
McCain called his former rival to concede defeat — and the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House. "The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona.
President Bush added his congratulations from the White House, where his tenure runs out on Jan. 20. "May God bless whoever wins tonight," he had told dinner guests earlier.
Obama, in his speech, invoked the words of Lincoln and echoed John F. Kennedy.
"So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder," he said.
He and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.
Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession, and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan.
The popular vote was close — 51.3 percent to 47.5 percent with 73 percent of all U.S. precincts counted — but not the count in the Electoral College, where it mattered most.
There, Obama's audacious decision to contest McCain in states that hadn't gone Democratic in years paid rich dividends.
Obama has said his first order of presidential business will be to tackle the economy. He has also pledged to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.
-Well this isn't who I voted for but I guess we will see what is to come. All I have to say is that I hope he doesn't chance the constitution. That would really be a sad day.
What are your thoughts?
6 years ago
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2 comments:
I'm with you....hope he realizes what it would do to this country to try to swing everything to the extreme left. There are some of us who are still willing to take back the government just like our founding fathers if necessary!
Not all change is good.... It also sort of disgusts me how he played the race card on this deal, hell he is half white....Although I think it is very cool to have the first black man elected as president, I am extremely disappointed that Obama has been elected as that man. I'm sure many black people feel empowered and have a renewed sense of hope...and I'm happy for them. I am ashamed that the people in our nation treated the blacks so terribly years ago (some still do to this day). Although, with so many red flags in Obama's past (partial-birth abortions, links with terrorists...not to mention his inexperience...just to name a few), I think most Obama voters ignored those facts because they either wanted to make history or to see a change in the government. It sickens me to think about what could become of our nation. Obama must avoid the temptation to do an end zone dance with his friends. He must rather immediately and convincingly reach out to people who feel like he has looked down his nose at them and their values and culture. The people he once mocked as clinging to their guns and their religion are just as American as the people who voted for him, and almost as numerous, and the country will only become united if he respects them. If he, however, marginalizes them, if they continue to be the object of his scorn, the butt of his followers' jokes, there will be no unity. But that is just my two cents.
-Bryan
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