Obama wins US presidential election

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-5  |     ONLINE EDITION

US Democrat Barack Obama wrote his name indelibly into the pages of American history yesterday, engineering a social and political upheaval to become the country's first black president-elect in a runaway victory over Republican John McCain.

Less than an hour after sealing his hold on the White House, Obama and his wife, Michelle, stepped onto the stage holding the hands of their two daughters at a massive victory rally in Chicago's Grant Park.

"If there is anyone out there who 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 still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," the new president said.

He spoke warmly of McCain, the 72-year-old Arizona senator who was his rival in the longest and most costly presidential campaign in American history.

After McCain called Obama to concede victory, he spoke graciously of Obama at an outdoor rally in Arizona, commending the president-elect on his victory and emphasizing that he understood its special importance to African-Americans.

"The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona, many who booed and growled as he called for the nation to unify behind the victor and his running mate, Joe Biden.

Obama, a 47-year-old Illinois senator and son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father from Kenya, mined a deep vein of national discontent, promising Americans hope and change throughout a nearly flawless 21-month campaign for the White House.

Obama stepped through a door opened 145 years ago when Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Illinois politician, issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed African-Americans from enslavement in the rebellious South in the midst of a wrenching civil war.