With a fairly decisive victory last night, Pres. Elect Barack Obama is set to be sworn in as the 44th president on January 20, 2009. He is also the first African-American to hold the highest office in the United States.

All in all, the Democratic party made an impressive showing on these elections. The Senate is in their control (a 56 to 40 count, with a few seats still being decided by close races) and the House of Representatives is also in Democratic control (251 to 173, again with a few seats still being decided by close elections).

Some of the elections are so close that they have already triggered a re-count. My own state, Missouri, has Sen. McCain ahead by less than 7,000 votes. This is under a 1% margin, and automatically triggers a re-count. Indiana and North Carolina, both fall into the same boat with a less-than-1% difference.

Even with a re-count of these states, the outcome is already determined. Pres-Elect Obama came away with 338 electoral votes, more than enough to get him past the 270 he needed to officially claim the office.

Highlights of the Election

Some of the big events that happened last night are;

Pennsylvania Win – Pres-Elect Obama succeeded in carrying this hard-fought battleground state, for a gain of 21 electoral votes. This was the beginning of the end for the Sen. McCain campaign, as Sen. McCain badly needed these battleground states to have even a chance of winning.

Ohio Win – This was one of the final nails in the McCain campaign coffin, as no Republican has ever successfully gained the white house without taking Ohio.

California, Washington, Oregon and Florida Wins – In a nearly simultaneous results announcements, all these states handed the victory to Obama, and catapaulted him into the 300+ electoral vote range, clearly signaling that it was all over.

Shortly after this announcement, Sen. McCain conceded the election, and made a public speech congratulating Pres-Elect Obama and also enjoining his supporters to get behind the new president and ‘work together’ to make the United States a better place.

Pres-Elect Obama a little later, made his acceptance speech, thanking the people who voted for him, and saying; “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. I promise you — we as a people will get there”

America Has Decided

With a popular vote win of 51% (62,443,218 votes) to 49% (55,386,310 votes) and a change in party voting by at least 7 states (Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida voted Republican in 2004), Pres-Elect Obama clearly has the people at his back, and the opportunity to ‘make needed changes’.

With a Democratic President, Democratically controlled House and Senate, there’s many who worry that there won’t be enough ‘counterbalance’ to new spending initiatives and new governmental growth, but it’s also clear the American people seem ready to give Obama the chance to try.