OBAMA: Win makes historic presidential election
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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
YOUTH VOTE: Large turn out in favor of Obama
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also spent her previous weekend
canvassing for the Illinois
senator in rural lowa.
That kind of loyalty and the
Obama campaign's early efforts
to harness young voters paid
off at the ballot box.
Exit polls showed that young
voters were supporting him by
a more than 2-1 margin, with
his greatest support coming
from black and Hispanic young
people. The preliminary results
are similar to those from polls
conducted before the election.
Overall, about two-thirds of
voters younger than 30 supported
Obama. And the overwhelming
majority of black voters and
about three-quarters of Hispanic
voters in that age bracket said
they voted for Obama. Many
young voters said Obama being
black was a non-issue.
Meanwhile, more than half of
white youth cast a vote for the
senator from Illinois, while more
than two out of five supported
John McCain, the senator from
Arizona.
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
Many young voters, black
youth included, saw this election
as their chance to help make
history. And they did.
"I've been wanting to vote.
I'm finally part of it," said
Chamar Morrison, a 19-year-old
sophomore at North Carolina
Central University who is black
and who voted for Obama.
She listed the cost of a college
education and the war in Iraq as
two of her top issues.
The exit polls showed support
for Obama steadily decreasing
as the age of the voters who
were questioned increased. For
instance, a little over half of
voters older than 65 supported
McCain. But this time, it was
the younger generations who
had the final say.
The survey results are based on a
random sample of nearly 18,000
voters in Election Day exit polls
and telephone interviews over
the past week for early voters.
The exit poll was conducted for
The Associated Press by Edison
Media Research and Mitofsky
International.
Mark Hugo Lopez, associate
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 vote, well over the
director at the Pew Hispanic
Center, said the exit poll results
fit his expectations. He also
noted that in 2004 young, white
voters went for President Bush
over Democrat John Kerry, like
the older age groups did.
This time, there was a shift in
favor of the Democrats.
Lopez said strong support from
young voters clearly helped
Obama win.
"I think they had a large
impact," said Lopez, who was
formerly the research director
of the Center for Information
and Research on Civic Learning
and Engagement, which tracks
young voters.
There had been some
speculation that Obama's race
may have been a factor in the
election. Many young voters,
however, said Obama's race
wasn't relevant. And Lopez
noted that his own organization's
surveys of young Hispanic
voters had found that about half
of them thought Obama's race
would help him win the support
of their age group.
Young voter participation,
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
which has ebbed and flowed
over the years, has been on
an upswing since the 2000
presidential election, though the
impact of young voters was not
as strongly felt because, while
they leaned Democratic, they
were more evenly split between
the major candidates.
In 2004, about 47 percent of 18-
to 24-year-olds voted, up from
36 percent in 2000, according to
the Census Bureau. No other age
group increased its turnout by
more than 5 percentage points
in 2004.
Overall, voters younger than 30
make up about 17 percent of the
electorate. Exit polls numbers
cannot, however, be used to
compare participation among
the age groups.
As the crowd at Chicago's Grant
Park became increasingly giddy
as it became clear that Obama
was on his way to victory, 21-
year-old Erica Ravi and 18-year
old Eric Reynolds, both students
at nearby Columbia College,
performed an impromptu rap
with friends.
"0 to the B to the A-M-A
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 found
their first in Florida, defeating
Rep. Tom Feeney, and another
in Connecticut, where 22-year
veteran Chris Shays was swept
away by the Democratic tide.
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.
I know Obama's gonna win
today," they said in unison.
"0 to the B to the A-M-A —I
know there's gonna be a change
today."
There were, of course,
some young voters who were
disappointed with Tuesday's
results. They included Joey
Yost, a 22-year old Republican
in Washington, D.C., who voted
for McCain via absentee ballot
in his home state of Ohio, which
went to Obama.
"I'm disappointed, but I knew it
was coming," said Yost, a recent
college graduate who works on
Capitol Hill.
"It's good that we've
become a powerful part of the
electorate," he added, referring
to young voters. "I just wish
we voted more Republican than
Democratic."
Associated Press Polling
Analyst Coralie Carlson and
AP writers Karen Hawkins and
Sophia Tareen in Chicago and
Gary D. Robertson in Durham,
N.C., contributed to this report.