The Tide

Obama wins presidency; Democrats widen majority in Congress

Thursday, November 06, 2008 By Steven Thomma (MCT)

WASHINGTON -- Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, swept to victory by an anxious country eager to change course at home and abroad. Obama, 47, becomes the first African-American in U.S. history to win the presidency and the first from the generation that came of age after the turbulence of the 1960s. He built his campaign on a mastery of the Internet as an organizing tool that will change the way presidential campaigns are run forever. His biracial background reflects the changing demographics of America in the 21st century. And his victories in formerly Republican states in the South, Midwest and West reflect a changing political order in the making. After an epic struggle, the first-term Democratic senator from Illinois defeated Republican John McCain, 72, a hero of the Vietnam War and a four-term senator from Arizona. Obama was at the vanguard of Democratic gains across the country that promised him a solid working majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Democratic challengers ousted Republican incumbent Sens. Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina and John Sununu in New Hampshire. Democrats also picked up open Republican Senate seats in New Mexico and Virginia. However, they failed to oust Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, apparently dashing their hopes of gaining a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate. Eager for a popular mandate to reshape the government, Obama appeared well on his way late Tuesday night to become the first Democrat to take a majority of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter eked out 50.1 percent in 1976. Obama sealed his victory by holding all the states that went Democratic in 2004, then picking off Republican states including Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio. Ohio was particularly important: No Republican has ever won the presidency without Ohio. No Democrat had won the White House without it since John Kennedy. There as everywhere, the faltering economy dominated voters' minds and tilted the political landscape solidly against the Republicans as the party of power and responsibility in the White House. Interest was intense. More than 40 million Americans already had voted by Tuesday morning, and total turnout was expected to top 130 million. The turnout rate was likely to rival the modern record of 67 percent set in 1960, the highest since women were granted the right to vote in 1920. The Democratic wins came at a moment of history when the country was unusually anxious, as eight years of a Republican presidency are ending with an economy sinking into recession, markets in turmoil and U.S. troops at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Bush, whose popularity plummeted following his close re-election four years ago, was all but invisible Tuesday, shunned on the campaign trail and watching the returns in the seclusion of the White House. He voted earlier by absentee ballot in Texas, where he expects to move after leaving office on Jan. 20. (MCT)