Barack Obama Elected President!!!!!!!

“Change has come to America,” he told an estimated 125,000 supporters who cheered him on in Grant Park in Chicago, his hometown. “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. I promise you — we as a people will get there.”

The 47-year-old senator from Illinois (who is married to wife of 16 years, Michelle, and has two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7) swept through traditionally Democratic states in the East and Midwest, as well as Virginia, Ohio, Iowa and Florida. (Obama’s victory in Ohio was particularly telling: No Republican has ever won the presidency without it.) He also lead in Electoral College votes.

“The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly,” a disappointed McCain told supporters as they booed in Arizona.

Along with his running mate Joe Biden, Obama will be sworn in as the 44th U.S. president on Jan. 20, 2009.

Barack Obama scored a barrier-shattering victory last night 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 his party padding its majority in Congress.

He had 338 electoral votes to John McCain’s 157, and was winning the popular vote by 52 to 47 percent. Obama was the first Democrat in decades to crack the 50 percent threshold.

The president-elect and his family took the stage at a massive rally of more than 125,000 people at Grant Park in Chicago.

“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,” Obama told the throng, which included Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who in 1984 became the first black candidate to win a presidential primary.

“If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” Obama said.

“I was never the likeliest candidate for this office,” said Obama, who paid tribute to his grandmother, who died Monday.

In January, he will become the 44th president of a nation that has struggled to come to grips with its history of slavery and its bloody battles for civil rights that raged just a few decades ago.

“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 of a century,” he said.

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep,” he said. “We may not get there in one year or even one term, but . . . I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

“There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can’t solve every problem,” he added. “But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.”

He sent a message to the rest of the world that the nation would defeat its enemies, and join with its friends.

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