Obama to be next president, commander in chief

[unhappycamper]

President-elect Barack Obama waves as he takes the stage at his election night party in Chicago's Grant Park on Nov. 4. (One uhc's favorite O pics)


Obama to be next president, commander in chief
By David Espo - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 6, 2008 5:32:38 EST

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 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, Iowa and more. He captured Virginia, too, the first candidate of his party in 40 years to do so.

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 in January will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.

A survey of voters leaving polling places showed the economy was by far the top Election Day issue. Six in 10 voters said so, and none of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was picked by more than one in 10.

Obama’s election capped a meteoric rise — from mere state senator to president-elect in four years.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_presidential_election_110408/%2e