Obama sweeps US elections, creates history

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.

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 and Iowa.

A huge crowd in Grant Park in Obama’s home town of Chicago erupted in jubilation at the news of his victory. Some wept.

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.

Obama
and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their
oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.

As
the 44th president, 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, 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.

Fellow Democrats rode his coattails to
larger majorities in both houses of Congress. They defeated incumbent
Republicans and won open seats by turn.

The 47-year-old Illinois
senator was little known just four years ago. A widely praised speech
at the Democratic National Convention, delivered when he was merely a
candidate for the Senate, changed that.

Overnight
he became a sought-after surrogate campaigner, and he had scarcely
settled into his Senate seat when he began preparing for his run for
the White House.

A survey of voters leaving polling places on
Tuesday 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.

“May
God bless whoever wins tonight,” President Bush told dinner guests at
the White House, where his tenure runs out on Jan. 20.

The Democratic leaders of Congress celebrated in Washington.

“It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change,” said Senate Majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Said
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California: “Tonight the American people have
called for a new direction. They have called for change in America.”

Shortly
after 11 p.m. in the East, The Associated Press count showed Obama with
338 electoral votes, well over the 270 needed for victory. McCain had
127 after winning states that comprised the normal Republican base.

The
nationwide popular vote was remarkably close. Totals from 58 percent of
the nation’s precincts showed Obama with 51 percent and McCain with
47.9.

Interviews with voters suggested that almost six in 10
women were backing Obama nationwide, while men leaned his way by a
narrow margin. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a
slim advantage in a group that Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.

The
results of the AP survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of
nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews
over the past week for early voters.

Democrats also acclaimed
Senate successes by former Gov. Mark Warner in Virginia, Rep. Tom Udall
in New Mexico and Rep. Mark Udall in Colorado. All won seats left open
by Republican retirements.

In New Hampshire, former Gov. Jeanne
Shaheen defeated Republican Sen. John Sununu in a rematch of their 2002
race, and Sen. Elizabeth Dole fell to Democrat Kay Hagan in North
Carolina.

Democrats also looked for gains in the House. They
defeated Republican incumbents Rep. Tom Feeney and Ric Keller in
Florida, 22-year veteran Chris Shays in Connecticut and Rep. Robin
Hayes in North Carolina.

At least two Democrats lost their
seats. Rep. Kevin Mahoney fell after admitting to two extramarital
affairs while serving his first term in Florida. In Louisiana,
Democratic Rep. Don Cazayoux lost the seat he had won in a special
election six months ago.

The resurgent
Democrats also elected a governor in one of the nation’s traditional
bellwether states when Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon won his race.

The
White House was the main prize of the night on which 35 Senate seats
and all 435 House seats were at stake. A dozen states elected
governors, and ballots across the country were dotted with issues
ranging from taxes to gay rights.

An estimated 187 million
voters were registered, and in an indication of interest in the battle
for the White House, 40 million or so had already voted as Election Day
dawned.

Obama sought election as one of the youngest presidents, and one of the least experienced in national political affairs.

That
wasn’t what set the Illinois senator apart, though — neither from his
rivals nor from the other men who had served as president since the
nation’s founding more than two centuries ago. A black man, he
confronted a previously unbreakable barrier as he campaigned on twin
themes of change and hope in uncertain times.

McCain, a prisoner
of war during Vietnam, a generation older than his rival at 72, was
making his second try for the White House, following his defeat in the
battle for the GOP nomination in 2000.
A conservative, he stressed
his maverick’s streak. And although a Republican, he did what he could
to separate himself from an unpopular president.

For
the most part, the two presidential candidates and their running mates,
Biden and Republican Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, spent weeks
campaigning in states that went for Bush four years ago.
McCain and
Obama each won contested nominations — the Democrat outdistancing
former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton — and promptly set out to
claim the mantle of change.

“I am not George W. Bush,” McCain said in one debate.

Obama
retorted that he might as well be, telling audiences in state after
state that the Republican had voted with the president 90 percent of
the time across eight years of the Bush administration.

Obama becomes first black US president

A
supporter holds up a t-shirt after it is announced on television that
Barack Obama has been elected the President of the United States. AP

WASHINGTON:
Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president Tuesday
night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as
America itself.The son of a black father from Kenya and a white
mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his
victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in
hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.A huge crowd in Grant Park in Chicago erupted in jubilation at the news of Obama’s victory. Some wept.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.Obama
and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their
oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.As
the 44th president, 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, 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.Fellow Democrats rode his coattails to
larger majorities in both houses of Congress. They defeated incumbent
Republicans and won open seats by turn.The 47-year-old Illinois
senator was little known just four years ago. A widely praised speech
at the Democratic National Convention, delivered when he was merely a
candidate for the Senate, changed that.Overnight he became a
sought-after surrogate campaigner, and he had scarcely settled into his
Senate seat when he began preparing for his run for the White House.A
survey of voters leaving polling places on Tuesday 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.”May God bless whoever wins
tonight,” President Bush told dinner guests at the White House, where
his tenure runs out on Jan. 20.The Democratic leaders of Congress celebrated in Washington.”It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change,” said Senate Majority leader Harry reid of Nevada.Said
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, “Tonight the American people have
called for a new direction. They have called for change in America.
“Source: AP

‘Time to reclaim the American dream’

CHICAGO:
It had been a long time in coming but change had come to America,
Barack Obama, the man who would be the first African American president
in the White House, said Wednesday after his historic landslide victory
to tens of thousands of wildly cheering crowds.In a midnight
speech laden with significance and emotion, Obama said: “It’s been a
long time coming but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in
this election, change has come to America.”"Americans had sent a
message to the world,” the United States’ president elect said soon
after his Republican rival John McCain conceded defeat.”If there
is anyone out there that still doubts that America is a place where all
things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is
alive in our time; who who still questions the power of our democracy,
tonight is your answer,” he began by telling the crowd of 125,000
people at the Grant Park.He said it was the answer told “by
lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation
has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many
for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this
time must be different; that their voice could be that difference”.It
was the answer, he said, spoken by the young and old, rich and poor,
black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Democrats and Republicans… “Americans
who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of
red states and blue states; we are, and always will be, the United
States of America”.Sending his message out to the world, Obama,
who described himself as “never the likeliest candidate for this
office”, said: “This is our moment. This is our time - to put our
people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids… to
reclaim the American dream.”Declaring that “the new dawn of
American leadership is at hand”, he said Americans had proved once more
that the “true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our
arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our
ideals - democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope”.A
little bit earlier in the evening, Obama said, he got an
“extraordinarily gracious call” from his Republican rival Senator John
McCain. Paying a tribute to McCain, who conceded defeat, Obama said he
had “fought long and hard for this campaign, for this country”.Standing
on an open stage with flags waving behind him and an ocean of people in
front, Obama said he looked forward to working with McCain and his
running mate Sarah Palin to “renew this nation’s promise in the months
ahead”.He also thanked vice president elect Joe Biden, his partner in this journey.Injecting
a personal note, Obama said he would not be where he was without the
“unyielding support” of his best friend, the United States’ next First
Lady Michelle Obama. To his daughters Sasha and Malia, he said: “I love
you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with
us to the White House.” The entire family was present on the podium.He
talked about his grandmother, who passed away Monday. “And while she’s
no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching along with the
family that made me who I am…”"But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to - it belongs to you.”The
road ahead, said Obama, would 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. I promise
you - we as a people will get there.”

Record Election Day rally on Wall Street

NEW
YORK: U.S. stocks had their biggest Election Day rally ever on Tuesday
as investors looked forward to the end of the uncertainty surrounding
the long fight for the White House, while global credit markets showed
more signs of a thaw.U.S. voters went to the polls to decide who
will face the challenge of leading the world’s largest economy out of
its worst financial crisis in 80 years.Polls close in parts of
Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) and over the following
six hours in the other 48 states and the District of Columbia.In the United States, the benchmark S&P 500 stock index rose 4.1 percent, to a four week closing high.Europe’s FTSEurofirst 300 stock index climbed 4.3 percent, and Japan’s Nikkei rose 6.3 percent to a two-week high.Global stocks, as measured by the MSCI World index, have risen 21.8 percent from their 5-1/2 year lows hit in late October.Interbank
lending rates fell to their lowest in five months as the sector tried
to put the worst of the credit crisis behind it, but overnight deposits
at the European Central Bank hit a record high, showing banks are still
hoarding theircash.The global credit crunch, which
stemmed from a collapse in the U.S. housing market, has prompted banks
to pull back lending to each other and to businesses and households for
over a year now.There were other mixed signals emerging about
financing conditions, with issuance of commercial paper down for a
third consecutive day on Monday. Companies use this short-term debt to
fund their operations.On Monday, the Federal Reserve said most
U.S. and foreign banks had tightened lending standards across the board
in the last three months.Synchronized rate cuts by central banks
and emergency government packages worth some $4 trillion may have
prevented a banking sector meltdown, but the world economy is in poor
shape.New orders received by U.S. factories took a surprisingly
steep tumble for a second month in a row during September, according to
the U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday.In an attempt to deal
with the economic slowdown, Australia cut interest rates sharply.
Australia’s bigger-than-expected 75-basis-point rate cut followed cuts
in the United States, China and Japan last week. Britain and the euro
zone are expected to follow suit on Thursday with half-point reductions.”Each
of the big developed economies now is either in a severe recession or
well on the way,” said Rory Robertson, interest rate strategist at
Macquarie in Sydney.Australia’s central bank said there was
significant weakness in major economies in explaining why it cut rates
to 5.25 percent, the lowest since March 2005.Similarly, the
German economy will go through a weak spot in coming quarters,
Bundesbank President Axel Weber said, before showing signs of
brightening toward the end of 2009.ELECTION STIMULUSThe
banking crisis and global economic slowdown present a huge challenge
for either presidential candidate in the U.S. elections on Tuesday.Democrat
Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain in five of eight closely
fought states as polls opened, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby
polls released on Tuesday.Obama advocates a second economic
stimulus package to revive the U.S. economy. Valued at $175 billion,
the plan would include funding for infrastructure and a round of tax
rebates.McCain wants a $300 billion housing plan that would use
some of the funds from the recent $700 billion Wall Street bailout
package to buy up troubled mortgages.The United States needs a
new fiscal policy boost to complement aggressive steps taken by the
Federal Reserve to shield the economy from a global credit crisis, one
of its top policymakers said.”There are limits to what the
central bank can do. Our efforts must be complemented by fiscal
policy,” Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher told the Texas
Cattle Feeders Association in prepared remarks.EU PRESSES FOR REFORMMeanwhile,
EU leaders continued to press for an overhaul of financial market rules
that were seen lacking as the current banking crisis spread around the
globe, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded world leaders agree
quickly on a newframework.”It mustn’t take years, it must be done in months,” Merkel said in Berlin.On
Tuesday European Union finance ministers backed proposals for a reform
of the G8 club of major industrial nations and an end to the
self-regulation in global financial markets that critics say caused the
credit crisis.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French
President Nicolas Sarkozy want a “Bretton Woods”-style reworking of
supervision of global capital markets.Bretton Woods, a meeting
of allied nations in July 1944, established a framework for regulating
global money and finance after World War II.Underscoring the
widening effects of the credit crisis, German luxury car maker BMW
abandoned its 2008 earnings forecast and cut production after a 60
percent plunge in quarterly profit.On Monday, automakers
reported that sales in the United States, BMW’s biggest market, fell
nearly 32 percent in October, to their lowest in more than 25 years.European banks and insurers warned of tough times ahead.UBS,
Royal Bank of Scotland and reinsurer Swiss Re all said they face more
writedowns of toxic assets or other losses because of accounting rules
in the current quarter, and showed the financial crisis is causing more
pain for consumers and businesses.(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide)

Relatives in Kenya cheer win

KOGELO:
Barack Obama’s Kenyan family erupted in cheers Wednesday, singing “we
are going to the White House!” as Obama became the first
African-American elected president.In the western village of
Kogelo, where the Democratic candidate’s late father was born, police
had tightened security to prevent hordes of media and onlookers from
entering the rural homestead of Obama’s step-grandmother, Sarah.But
the elderly woman and several other relatives came outside Wednesday to
cheer for Obama in a country where the Democrat is seen as a “son of
the soil.”Across Africa — where Obama is wildly popular — people
stayed up all night or woke before dawn Wednesday to watch the U.S.
election results roll in. In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, people
chanted “Obama! Obama!” as the results were announced on television.”He’s
in!” said Rachel Ndimu, 23, a business student who joined hundreds of
others at the residence of the U.S. ambassador for an election party
that began at 5 a.m. “I think this is awesome, and the whole world is
backing him.”Many hope an Obama presidency will help this vast
continent, the poorest in the world. Some are looking for more U.S. aid
to Africa, others simply bask in the glory of a successful black
politician with African roots.Obama was born in Hawaii, where he
spent most of his childhood reared by his mother, a white American from
Kansas. He barely knew his late father. But that has not stopped
“Obamamania” from sweeping the continent and particularly Kenya, where
his picture adorns billboards and minibuses.

CHICAGO:
Cheering, screaming and weeping with joy, an estimated 50,000 Barack
Obama supporters welcomed his election Tuesday night in a delirious
victory celebration in the senator’s hometown.Many had crammed into Grant Park to be a part of something that would be remembered for generations.”I
want her to be able to tell her children when history was made, she was
there,” said Alnita Tillman, 50, who kept her 16-year-old daughter,
Raven, out of school so they could be at the park by 8 a.m., more than
10 hours before the gates opened.The crowd went wild with joy as
the news that Obama would be the nation’s first black president flashed
across jumbo TV screens in the park where Obama was to speak later that
night. Many held both hands high up in the air, waved American flags,
jumped up and down and cheered.As Obama left his Hyde Park home
in a motorcade, heading for the restivities, residents rushed out of
their homes and lined the streets to wave, clap and cheer.The
downtown Chicago park — where police fought anti-war protesters during
the turbulent 1968 Democratic convention — was transformed on an
unseasonably balmy night by white tents and a stage lined with American
flags and hung with red, white and blue bunting.Lighted windows in the skyscrapers lining the park added to the festive atmosphere, spelling out “USA” and “Vote 2008.”The crowd erupted in cheers each time an Obama victory was announced in another state.The
rally felt like a cross between an outdoor rock concert and a big
family outing. Many people wore Obama T-shirts and buttons and ate
pizza. By 9 p.m. several babies slept on their mothers’ chests. Other
children snoozed in strollers.In the crowd was Lisa Boon, 42, of
Chicago, who said she burst into tears earlier in the day pondering
what an Obama victory would mean.Boon said her father was the
cousin of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black Chicagoan who was abducted
and killed in Mississippi in 1955, purportedly for whistling at a white
woman.”I was thinking of all the things done to Emmett and injustices to black people,” she said. “This is amazing, simply amazing.”Stephanie
Smith, 27, and her husband flew in from Nashville, Tenn., and staked
out a spot on the sidewalk with folding chairs and a box of doughnuts
early in the morning.Even without tickets, Smith said it would
be worth it to be standing in the park to hear the words, “Our next
President of the United States is Barack Obama.”

McCain concedes, congratulates Obama

PHOENIX: 
Republican John McCain concedes the presidential race to Barack Obama,
saying the Democrat has achieved a “great thing” for himself and the
country with his historic victory.McCain — with wife Cindy on
one side and running-mate Sarah Palin on the other — urged his
supporters to put aside partisan differences and work to get “the
country moving again.”Speaking from outside the Arizona Biltmore
Hotel in Phoenix, McCain told his supporters: “It’s natural tonight to
feel some disappointment. Though we fell short, the failure is mine,
not yours.”

Hillary Clinton hails victory

WASHINGTON:
US Senator Hillary Clinton called the election of Democratic nominee
Barack Obama as US president “an historic victory for the American
people.”The wife of former president Bill Clinton, Senator
Clinton narrowly lost the centre-left Democratic Party’s presidential
nomination to Obama before endorsing the Illinois senator.”This was a long and hard fought campaign but the result was well worth the wait,” Clinton said.”Together,
under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe
Biden and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build
a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world.”

JUBILATION
America celebrates

CHANGE
America will never be the same

REACTIONS
Resounding buzz for change

PROFILE
A man inspired b