US President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle acknowledge their supporters after Obama gave his victory speech during an election night gathering in in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday. (AFP)
WASHINGTON: Democrat Barack Obama captured the White House yesterday after an extraordinary two-year campaign, defeating Republican John McCain to make history as the first black to be elected US president.
Obama will be sworn in as the 44th US president on Jan. 20, 2009, television networks said. He and his running mate Joe Biden will face a crush of immediate challenges, from tackling an economic crisis to ending the war in Iraq and striking a compromise on overhauling the health care system.
McCain conceded defeat to Obama soon after the TV projections called California for Obama. He called Obama to offer his congratulations and said in his concession speech that Obama "inspired the hopes" of many Americans.McCain saw his hopes for victory evaporate with losses in a string of key battleground states led by Ohio, the state that narrowly clinched President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004, and Virginia, a state that had not backed a Democrat since 1964.
After a close battle in Florida, where Obama edged out his Republican rival, the Illinois senator won all 27 electoral votes from the fourth most populous US state. While Florida voted
Republican in eight of the 10 previous presidential elections, most opinion polls since late September had given Obama a slight edge. Florida, along with Pennsylvania and Ohio, has played a critical role in presidential elections for nearly 50 years. No candidate since 1960 has won the presidency without capturing two of the three. Obama led a Democratic electoral landslide that also expanded the party's majorities in both chambers of Congress and firmly repudiated eight years of Republican President George W. Bush's leadership.
The win by Obama, son of a black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, marked a milestone in US history. It came 45 years after the height of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King.
In a campaign dominated at the end by a flood of bad news on the economy, Obama's leadership and proposals on how to handle the crisis tipped the race in his favor. Exit polls showed six of every 10 voters listed the economy as the top issue. Tens of thousands of Obama supporters gathered in Chicago's Grant Park for an election night rally that had the air of a celebratory concert, cheering results that showed his victories in key states. McCain, a 72-year-old Arizona senator and former Vietnam War prisoner, had hoped to become the oldest president to begin a first term in the White House and see his running mate Sarah Palin become the first female US vice president.
'God bless my successor'
The vastly unpopular US President George W. Bush cloistered himself with family and friends as America voted yesterday, privately invoking God's blessing on whoever succeeds him, his spokeswoman said. Bush hosted a dinner with relatives and close aides, celebrating US first lady Laura Bush's birthday in a White House dining room with a dinner ending with coconut cake, press secretary Dana Perino said by e-mail.
"The president gave a toast at the start of the dinner thanking those present for all the work they've done and for their friendship. He ended by saying, 'And may God bless whoever wins tonight,'" Perino told reporters.
The president watched election returns with family and senior aides in the residence section of the presidential mansion, she said. "The president believes tonight is a night to appreciate the strength of our country and our democracy, as citizens from all over the country exercised their right to vote today, after a historic campaign," she said.
"The president is committed to a transition that is as smooth as possible, a process that has been under way for many months, and as soon as we have a president-elect we'll be able to do even more on that front," said Perino.
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