Obama becomes US President

Democrat Barack Obama beat Republican John McCain to become the first ever black President of the United States of America.

Obama will be sworn in as the 44th US president on January 20, 2009 and will face a crush of immediate challenges, like cleaning up the mess that a certain person has made. The mess includes the economic crisis, ending the war in Iraq and trying to overhaul the US health care system.

McCain's hopes for a surprise victory went out the window after losing out in a series of key battleground states like Ohio and Florida, which sent Democrats to defeat in the last two elections.

Obama is son of a black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas. His victory came 45 years after the height of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King.

"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, at this defining moment, change has come to America," Obama, 47, told 125,000 ecstatic supporters gathered in Chicago's Grant Park to celebrate.

"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," he said.

Obama won at least 338 Electoral College votes, far more than the 270 needed. With results in from more than two-thirds of US precincts, he led McCain by 51% to 48% in the popular vote.

Obama promised to ease the country's sharp political divisions and work for those voters who did not support him. A first-term Illinois senator, Obama led sweeping Democratic victories that expanded the party's majorities in both chambers of Congress and marked an emphatic rejection of President George W. Bush's eight years of leadership.

McCain, a 72-year-old Arizona senator and former Vietnam War prisoner, called Obama to congratulate him and praised his rival's inspirational and precedent-shattering campaign.

"We have come to the end of a long journey," McCain told supporters. "I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him but offering our next president our goodwill."

News of Obama's win set off celebrations by supporters around the country, from New York and Chicago to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King's home church.

"This is a great night. This is an unbelievable night," said US Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who was brutally beaten by police in Selma, Alabama, during a voting rights march in the 1960s.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights leader, joined the celebrations in Chicago, tears streaming down his cheeks.