Make it the World's top position.
I've
put in my Facebook account that I am not that interested in the US
elections. It is because the US media had somehow helped Obama to win
the elections. And it is also recognized that African-Americans had
really cast their votes and hopes of a better America in their blood
sibling.
A history in the making,
definitely. Obama finished the first race. Other obstacles will soon
follow. And the world is watching, until he reached the finish line. But
criticisms will not start at the end of his term. These will hound him
during his term, and I think he's very prepared for any problems and
issues his presidency is about to encounter.
In
his being an African-America, Obama must be very prepared of any
assassination attempt from a highly racial country that he will lead
come January of next year. Some people are still narrow-minded despite
of several laws regarding anti-racial slurs and acts.
Accusations of him being a Communist or Socialist are still to be studied.
His
foreign policies are those of which should be observed, especially
Third World countries hanging by the US economics thread. It is
suggested that the Obama administration should alter some, if not the
most, foreign policies and help the Third World without strings
attached.
Regarding terrorism issues and
the US' wars of aggression, Obama will pull out the troops and respect
the patrimony of these so-called terrorist states. The US and any other
country has no right to intervene in a civil war or internal conflict in
such.
(1300, Philippine Standard Time)
_______________________________
by DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
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.
http://lvbamante.multiply.com/journal/item/17
