By MAGGIE HABERMAN, New York Post
Barack Obama scored a barrier-breaking victory tonight to become the first black president of the United States - capping a 22-month quest that tapped into a national hunger for "hope" and "change."
At age 47 and still serving his first Senate term, the Democrat cleared a historic hurdle that seemed insurmountable just a few years ago - and was bolstered by Democrats padding their majority in Congress.
Obama held blue-tilting Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes by large margins, despite a massive effort by GOP Sen. John McCain to try to score a win there to shore up his faltering numbers elsewhere.
But for Obama, who merely needed to hold every state John 
Kerry won in 2004 and pick up one George W. Bush state in order to clinch victory, things started to break at around 9:30 p.m., when several media outlets called Ohio for the Democrat.
No Republican has won the White House without capturing battleground Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes.
And while key swing states Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado still hadn't been called, Obama held a slim lead in several of them.
Even without them, he was set to win California's 55 electoral votes, along with another 22 in blue states Hawaii, Oregon and Washington combined.
The historic day was studded with several key events:
National voter turnout appeared set to break records, with several states reporting long lines at polling sites.
Several experts said the turnout was on pace to break the 1968 record of 61.9 percent - and in states like Connecticut, officials said it was set to top 90 percent.
Roughly 187 million people were registered to vote, and, thanks to early voting in more than 30 states, some 40 million had already cast ballots before yesterday.
Obama-friendly New York saw heavy turnout in western parts of the state - and in the Big Apple, astonishing waits of up to four hours in places like Harlem started when polls opened before dawn.
The economy was the No. 1 issue for a whopping 62 percent of voters in exit polls - a topic that overwhelmingly favored Obama in the campaign.
While 72-year-old former prisoner-of-war McCain kept up a strong front as he zipped on a mad dash through seven swing states on Monday, his top campaign aides clearly signaled a loss was imminent.
"We did our absolute best in really difficult circumstances," a key McCain strategist told reporters on the campaign plane. "We had tough cards to play all the way through and we hung in there all the way.
"You look back in the middle of September - [the] economic collapse of the country - we did the best we can in historically different circumstances," he added.
McCain himself sounded a valedictory note as his campaign plane returned to Arizona yesterday, saying, "We've had a great ride, a great experience and it's full of memories that we will always treasure."
He added he was "feeling good, feeling confident about the way things have turned out," as he fondly recalled traveling in the GOP primaries - when he was broke and left for dead, but ended up coming back with a New Hampshire primary win.
Obama ran a campaign that sought to appeal to everyone and he rarely mentioned his race - but his candidacy was still buoyed by black voters thrilled with the prospect of seeing history made.
Initially, he drew on anger over the Iraq war, but by the end of the race, the combination of an unpopular President Bush and a crippling economic tide helped catapult Obama over McCain.
And he helped allay fears about whether he had the mettle for the job by first slaying his larger-than-life Democratic opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In the final days of the race, McCain was in search of a message that would stick against Obama - bringing out the now-infamous "Joe the Plumber" to help paint the Democrat as a socialist looking to "spread the wealth," as he rapped Obama's tax proposals.
At the same time, national Republicans brought out Obama's former pastor, the inflammatory Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in last-minute attack ads.
But nothing stuck.
Instead of last-minute rallies like McCain, Obama ended yesterday with his ritual Election Day basketball game with pals in Chicago, where he held a massive nighttime rally as the returns came in.
Obama had an emotional lead-up to Election Day, taking two days off the trail to visit his dying maternal grandmother in Hawaii less than two weeks ago.
She died Monday, and he was moved to tears as he discussed her passing at his final rally of the day.
Obama's campaign was also rocked Sunday when his Nevada state director, Harlem-bred operative Terence Tolbert, died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack at age 44.
I truly believe that The United States have truly progressed with the election of Barack Obama to it's highest position of Commander-in-Chief. I believe that the progress made over the last 50 years, has been outstanding.
ReplyDeleteToday, I am very proud to have The United States of America as my neighbour!