Los Angeles News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Barack Obama's improbable march to the White House as the first black president in American history, a run begun two years ago when no one gave him much of a chance to win, ended in a sweeping, mandate-altering, electoral college win.

Rock solid blue states California, Washington, and Oregon -- with their 73 combined electoral votes -- added to Obama's 206 from the East and industrial mid West making him the 44th president of the United States.

CBS News projected John McCain would carry Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Kansas, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina and West Virginia, Montana -- all states he needed to win. And he did so in typical Republican fashion. But McCain wasn't able to land some of the big battleground states, all states won in 2004 by President Bush.

Barack Obama countered with wins in Ohio, New Mexico, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Vermont, his home state of Illinois, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware, New Jersey, the District of Columbia and Maryland, as he became the first black president in the history of the United States. And with a far-reaching, coalition-building mandate.

Early Wednesday morning, Obama was at 349 electoral votes to McCain's 147. 42 electoral votes remained up for grabs.

While addressing his tear-stained throng of admirers, supporters and fans, the President-Elect said "We are not red states and blue states, we will always be the United States of America."

Obama also said his victory showed "the dreams of the founding fathers were clearly evident." He called his win "a defining moment...change has come to America."

He wasn't kidding. Obama even won the redder-than-red state of Indiana. He sure worked for it. Obama visited the state 48 times, according to CBS News, and McCain only visited 2-3 times taking the state for granted.

Early Tuesday evening, Obama won the major battleground state of Pennsylvania. McCain had been hoping for a win in the usually blue state in an effort to peel a traditional state away from the Democrats and ease his way into the White House. McCain spent a lot of time in the state trying to turn it blue. Governor Ed Rendell, an Obama supporter, recently quipped he was going to charge McCain and Palin tax because they "were almost residents there."

Political pundits were closely watching Pennsylvania because while the state was typically Democrat-leaning, the unknown was whether Obama could bring Hillary Clinton's working class white supporters, especially females, into his camp. He won them handily. Obama put together big coalitions with white working class voters in Iowa and Pennsylvania and he commanded the Latino vote in the West in Colorado and Nevada. John McCain was able to hold on to his home state of Arizona but Obama even made that relatively close.

Obama put together a new Democratic coalition: men as a whole (which Democrats rarely do), black voters, Latinos, women (70 percent of single women) and the young; the latter group that normally never comes out to vote. He won them overwhemingly.

After Pennsylvania was placed in the Obama column, a senior Republican official told CBS News: "We need a miracle now."

That miracle never came.

At 8:20 PST, McCain spoke to his supporters to talk about America being "the greatest nation on Earth" and he said he knew what an exciting night this was "for all African Americans". In a gracious, emotional concession speech, McCain also gave Obama condolences on losing his grandmother.

McCain offered his "good will to Senator Obama, so we can all come together and bridge our differences."

CBS News anchor Katie Couric summed it up best. And beautifully. "It's a night many Americans never thought they would see...and it's a night millions of Americans will never forget."

Obama also won in Virginia, the Old Dominion hadn't voted for a Democrat since LBJ walked into the White House 42 years ago. Perspective? Obama was 5-years-old when the Democrats won that convincingly around the map.

Democrats were also big winners in the House and Senate and in gubernatorial races. CBS News exit polling found President George Bush, who is leaving office with one of the lowest approval ratings in recorded history, was a major drag on Republicans throughout the country.

Democrat Beverly Perdue was elected North Carolina's first female governor. Democrat Jay Nixon won handily in Missouri. The Democrats have a 29-21 advantage in governor's houses with one election still to be determined.

Democrats gained a Senate seat, the first of several they had in their sights in a country at war and anything but prosperous.

Elizabeth Dole was also headed to defeat in North Carolina. She was handily defeated by Democrat Kay Hagen. Dole's recent TV ad, suggesting Hagen took money "from Godless Americans" touched off a firestorm -- even some of Dole's supporters thought the ad was over-the-top -- and what was once a close election became something of a blowout.

When Dole leaves office in January, it will be the first time in 50 years, that neither a Bush or a Dole is serving politically at the national level.

In addition to picking up a Senate seat in North Carolina, the Democrats, hoping to get to a filibuster proof 60-seat mark, also picked up a hotly contested office in Virginia.

Students at Howard University, one of the nation's leading black colleges, could barely speak they were so filled with emotion upon seeing Obama clear the 270 hurcle. Said one male student, choking back tears, "This means, truly, that a black man 'can' be anything we want to be. This is an amazing night!' A teacher was so overwhelmed, she couldn't talk at all.

Meanwhile, an election night party...with 70,000 expected in Chicago, looks like more than two times that many people showed up to celebrate an historic night for the nation. Police estimated the crowd at Grant Park at more than 145,000. Some said the crowd neared 1 million. On a night of history, no one minds a little hyperbole with their drama.

One of the bystanders in the crowd, the Rev. Jesse Jackson...sometimes at odds with Obama, but both skilled politicians from Chicago. Jackson, a disciple of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s, once dreamt of being the first black man to make it to the White House. Cameras caught tears streaming down Jackson's face after Obama went over the necessary 270.

Oprah Winfrey, perhaps Obama's first and most ardent supporter, was also shown tears coming down her face.

Going into the election, the country was was going to make history one way or the other. America was either going to elect their first ever black president, first female vice-president or oldest man ever to assume the White House on his first term. But with a history of racial divide, Jim Crow laws, segregation and slavery in its past, the significance to America, white and black, of an Obama win ... well, it probably can't be measured, or even described in words.

When he started his campaign, almost two years ago, many people -- African Americans included -- questioned whether the junior senator from Illinois could make it all the way. Not that he didn't have the temprement or oratory, but would America vote for a black man? Virginia? Iowa? Nebraska???

The answer clearly seems to be, an emphatic, yes. It almost seems quaint now that we worried about it so ... much. But even days ago, as the race was tightening, pundits asked openly if the polls were lying and if maybe the "Bradley effect" was in play. It wasn't.

The economy was by far the top Election Day issue, according to an Associated Press survey of voters leaving their polling places. Six in 10 said so, and none of the other top issues - energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care - was picked by more than one in 10.

As if unwilling to cede the stage, both men campaigned into Election Day, long past time when long lines formed at polling places. Obama, bidding to become the first black president, greeted voters in Indiana, and worked the phones well into the afternoon. McCain greeted supporters in Colorado and New Mexico after transversing the continental United States the night before.

The same survey found that first-time voters were disproportionately young. About 20 percent were black, and roughly as many Hispanic in a year in which a black man was on the ballot for the first time.

The results 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.

In the first few thousand votes of tens of millions to be cast and counted, Obama had 51 percent and McCain 48 percent. With less than 10 percent of the votes counted, McCain and Obama were both at about 50-50. With about 50 percent of the vote counted, Obama started to pull away by about 4 points nationally. In the final analysis, it looks like Obama will have between a 6-8 point lead in the popular vote.

The White House was the main prize of the night on which 35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats were at stake. In both cases, Democrats hoped to pad their existing majorities, and Republicans braced for losses.

A dozen states elected governors, and ballots across the country were dotted with state legislative races and ballot questions on issues ranging from taxes to gay rights.

By tradition, the first handful of ballots were cast just after midnight in tiny Dixville Notch, N.H. Obama got 15 votes and McCain six. Some Democrats looks at that turnout, albeit a small one, as a precursor of things to come. Rarely do the Democrats get any votes in that small sampling, let alone win.

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. Turnout was heavy. In Virginia, for example, officials estimated nearly 75 percent of eligible voters would cast ballots.

Obama awaited the results at home in Chicago after a marathon campaign across 21 months and 49 states. At 47, with only four years in the Senate, he sought election as one of the youngest presidents, and one of the least experienced in national political affairs.

McCain, a prisoner of war during Vietnam, a generation older than his rival at 72, waited in Arizona to learn the outcome of the election. It was 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 a Republican, he did what he could to separate himself from an unpopular President Bush. 

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. The Clintons campaigned for Obama across the nation. Senator Clinton said she is not seeking a role in an Obama administration but some of her supporters see her as a natural Secretary of State or even as a Supreme Court justice.

"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.

After voting with her husband, the former president, Clinton called Bush "the lamest of lame ducks" and predicted that Obama would win and begin making presidential appointments and announcing economic policies within weeks.

The war in Iraq dominated the campaign early on, but by Election Day it had faded as an issue.

The economy mattered above all else, with millions facing foreclosures on their homes, joblessness rising and Americans tallying the losses in their retirement accounts after a stock market plunge.

Exit polling also suggested voters were not comfortable with McCain's choice of vice president...at all. As many as 60 percent of voters thought Sarah Palin "not ready" for the task.

The race was easily the costliest in history, in excess of $1 billion, more after the congressional campaigns were counted.

McCain accepted federal matching funds, and was limited to $84 million for the fall campaign.

After first saying he would go along, Obama reversed course, then raised and spent multiples of what his rival was allowed.

McCain sought to make an issue of that, saying Obama had broken his word to the public. At the same time, for weeks on end, he could not match his rival's television advertising onslaught.

Figures through mid-October showed Obama had spent roughly $240 million on television and radio advertisements.

McCain had shelled out about $115 million, and the Republican National Committee another $80 on his behalf.

The ballot issues ran from a measure to ban abortion in South Dakota to proposals outlawing affirmative action in Colorado and Nebraska.

Three states, including California, voted on gay marriage.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)