WASHINGTON, D.C.: Barack Obama swept to an historic election victory that made him America’s first black president but pleaded for time to heal and transform the global superpower.
“Tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,” Obama told 240,000 euphoric supporters, many in tears, at a rally late Tuesday after defeating Republican John McCain.
Obama, 47, will be inaugurated as the 44th US president on January 20, and inherit an economy mired in financial crisis, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a nuclear showdown with Iran.
“Even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime, two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,” said Obama.
“The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep, 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,” Obama said in his hometown of Chicago.
“I promise you—we as a people will get there.”
Senator Obama solidified traditional Democratic states and cut deep into the Republican territory that his rival needed to control to win the White House.
World celebrates
Obama’s win was greeted with euphoria across the United States and reverberated around the world.
New York’s Times Square exploded in joy at a moment of healing for America’s racial scars and a crowd gathered outside the White House. In Kenya, where Obama’s father was born, President Mwai Kibaki declared a national holiday.
Democrats also made huge strides in Congress, and will hold an unshakable monopoly in power in Washington.
Gracious in defeat
After a bilious campaign, McCain was gracious in defeat, and noted that Obama’s election was a moment to cherish for African-Americans.
“The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love,” he said.
“Though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours,” he told a crowd of supporters in Phoenix in his home state of Arizona.
President George W. Bush who has been in control through eight turbulent years also congratulated Obama.
“Mr. President-elect, congratulations to you,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino quoted the president as saying in a phone call to Obama.
“What an awesome night for you, your family and your supporters. Laura and I called to congratulate you and your good bride.”
Stunning ascent
Obama’s inauguration will complete a stunning ascent to the pinnacle of US and global politics from national obscurity just four years ago and close an eight-year era of turbulence under Bush.
Obama is promising to renew bruised ties with US allies, and to engage some of the most-fierce US foes, like Iran and North Korea. He has vowed to tackle climate change and provide health care to all Americans.
His presidency also marks a stunning social shift, with Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas, the first African-American president of a nation still riven by racial divides.
Forty-five years after civil rights icon Martin Luther King laid out his “dream” of racial equality, Obama’s election broke new barriers and may have helped heal some of the moral wounds left by slavery and the US Civil War.
Change campaign
When he launched his campaign on a chilly day in Illinois in February 2007, Obama forged a mantra of change that powered him throughout the longest, most costly US presidential campaign in history.
He knew success was likely after capturing Pennsylvania, the battleground state which McCain needed to win to keep his long-shot hopes of victory alive.
And in a sweet moment for Democrats, he also seized the key Midwestern states of Ohio, Iowa and Indiana, as well as the southwestern state of New Mexico, all states won by Bush in 2004 to close out McCain’s possible route toward the White House.
McCain’s message
McCain had argued Obama was too inexperienced to be US commander in chief and would pursue “socialist” redistribution policies that would leave the economy mired in recession.
McCain, 72, an Arizona senator, would have been the oldest man ever inaugurated for a first term in the White House.
Obama gave early notice of the way the night would unfold by capturing the key northeastern state of Pennsylvania—McCain’s best hope of winning a Democratic state and stopping his rival from claiming the White House.
He later added Ohio, the decisive state, which swept Bush to victory in 2004 and another Republican state, Virginia, which had not voted Democrat since 1964. He also won Florida, ground zero of the 2000 recount debacle.
So far he had won 28 states including the district of Columbia for 349 electoral votes.
McCain had won 20 states but had not broken out of the Republican heartland and the south for 159 electoral votes.
Other battles
In the Senate, Democrats wrested control of five Republican seats, including in the traditionally Republican state of Virginia, followed by New Hampshire, North Carolina and New Mexico—reaching a 56-seat majority in the 100-seat chamber.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell clung on in Kentucky, meaning Democrats were unlikely to win the 60 seats they need in the 100-seat chamber needed to frustrate Republican obstruction tactics.
Senate races in Alaska, Minnesota, Georgia and Oregon however were still too close to call.
Democrats also won 20 seats in the House of Representatives, solidifying their majority to 251 against 171 of the Republicans. Six House races were still too close to call as of 6 p.m. (Manila time)-- AFP
Copied from the Manila Times Internet Edition
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