Obama claims victory, says change has come to America
5/11/2008 16:56
Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama yesterday claimed victory in the
US presidential election, saying that "change has come to
America."
Addressing his supporters in Chicago, Illinois, Obama praised his
Republican rival John McCain for the long, historical presidential race and
urged Americans to unite and support a "new spirit of sacrifice."
"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," Obama said.
In a related development earlier,
President George W. Bush called Obama to congratulate him on his victory in the
elections shortly after McCain conceded defeat.
Projections showed that Obama
won a landslide victory with at least 338 electoral votes while McCain only got
156 votes. Under US election system, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to
capture the White House.
Obama, a 47-year-old first term senator hailed from
Illinois, made history by becoming the first African-American president-elect of
the United States.
He became a clear winner even in the early hours of the
much-publicized Election Night when US media were jockeying for eyeballs to
project polling results and declared McCain's defeat in key battleground states
such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In a televised speech made in Phoenix, his
home state of Arizona, McCain congratulated Obama on winning the presidency,
saying that "the American people have spoken."
McCain, 72, urged his
supporters to rally behind the new president-elect and vowed to help his
ex-rival to deal with multiple challenges facing the country.
"Whatever our
differences, we are fellow Americans and please believe me when I say no
association has meant more to me than that," the Arizona senator said.
"It is
natural tonight to feel some disappointment but tomorrow we must move beyond
it," he added.
The Election Day dawned yesterday with Obama leading in almost
all national and state-by-state pre-election surveys, making it a tough uphill
climb for McCain to seek a upset.
Analysts in Washington said that a
well-managed campaign, a sharp downturn of the US economy in October and a heavy
voters turnout on the Election Day are among the factors that help Obama to win
the White House.
Obama's life tells a different story from previous
presidential hopefuls. He was born on Aug. 14, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a
Kenyan father and a white mother from the American heartland.
However, his
father left the home only two years later for a graduate degree in Harvard and
then a job in Kenyan government. Obama only met with his father again once at
age 10.
Obama's mother remarried an Indonesian oil executive when he was six.
The whole family moved back to the southeastern Asian country. He eventually
returned to Hawaii for high school and stayed with his grandparents.
After
graduating from the Columbia University in 1983, Obama was "possessed with a
crazy idea -- that I would work at a grassroots level to bring about
change."
He moved from New York to Chicago, Illinois, in 1985 and worked as a
community organizer in a poor African-American area for three year, when he
realized involvement at a higher level was needed to bring true improvement in
such communities.
Obama attended the Harvard Law School and was elected the
first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he returned
to Chicago where he practised civil rights law and taught the Constitution at
the University of Chicago.
Obama decided to make his first run for a public
office in 1996 and won a seat in the Illinois state senate. Four years later, he
sought a seat in the US House of Representatives, but unsuccessfully.
In
2004, Obama beat all other six Democratic rivals to win the nominee in the
congressional elections. His remarkable oratory skills also impressed the
party's presidential candidate, John Kerry, who named him the keynote speaker at
the party's national convention, where Obama, for the first time, stepped on the
national political stage. In November, he overwhelmingly captured 70 percent of
popular votes in the congressional elections and became a Senator.
In the
Senate, Obama's voting records coincided with those of the Democratic Party's
liberal wing. he criticized the Iraq war from the beginning and worked on
Congress ethical standards as well as increase use of renewable fuels. He also
built his reputation as a new breed of politicians by working without parties
and races divides.
Obama announced his bid for the White House on Feb. 10,
2007, in Springfield, Illinois, where former President Abraham Lincoln delivered
a speech in 1858.
He joined seven other politicians in the Democratic camp,
including former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the first half of 2007,
he raised US$58 million, setting the record for fundraising by a presidential
campaign in the first six months of the calendar year before the elections,
although he was trailed by Clinton in national polls in 2007.
However, Obama
was highly successful at enlisting supporters, especially among youth,
minorities and those with higher education, and mapped a strategy to campaign
not only in primary states but also caucuses states. In the first caucuses held
in Iowa on Jan. 3, 2008, he scored a surprising victory.
After the Super
Tuesday on Feb. 5, Obama tied Clinton. With victories in 10 more consecutive
contests in the rest of February, he surpassed the New York Senator to become
the most potential nominee. Finally, on June 3, he clinched presidential
candidacy and later chose senator Joe Biden as his running mate.
During the
presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly chanted the message that he would bring
the changes the country needs and "revive American dreams."
He has promised
that if elected, he would take the country in a new direction by withdrawing US
combat troops from Iraq with responsibility, enacting universal and affordable
healthcare and adopting tax policies favoring lower-and-middle-income
families.
During the national campaign, he led Republican rival John McCain
not only in polling numbers but also campaign fund.
Obama met his wife,
Michelle Robinson, in June 1989 when he worked at a Chicago law firm. They
married on Oct. 3, 1992, and had two daughters, Malia Ann and
Natasha.
Xinhua
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