Obama elected to first black U.S. president

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details, background throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Yonhap) -- Sen. Barack Obama was Tuesday elected the first
African American president after a 21-month campaign that cost more than US$1
billion as his Republican rival John McCain conceded his defeat.

"I am honored to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the
country," McCain told a gathering of his supporters at a hotel in Phoenix, where
he was attending an election night party that was broadcast live nationwide.
The concession was made soon after major U.S. media organizations projected
Democratic Obama as the first black president of the United States in history
with victories in major battleground states.
Obama is expected to garner over 300 electoral votes after votes from California
and other western coastal states are tallied. He won 284 votes, including votes
of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virgia and several other major swing states in the east
coasts, as of around midnight. McCain has won 147 votes. A minimum of 270
electoral votes are needed for presidency.
In polular votes, Obama has won 45.1 million votes or 51 percent, and McCain 42.1
votes or 47 percent as ballot counting is underway as of midnight.
Millions of Americans went to polling stations across the country earlier in the
day. Most opinion polls showed Obama leading McCain by several percentage points,
with some suggesting the Republican Bush administration's handling of the recent
economic meltdown may have swayed some undecided voters towards the Democratic
candidate.
Out of the total 153 million registered voters, nearly 30 million people had
already cast absentee ballots by Monday, election authorities said. They are
predicting more than 100 million voters will show up at polling places to mark
the highest voter turnout in history.
Appearing on the CBS "Early Morning Show" earlier in the day, McCain called
himself an underdog but expressed confidence he could win several swing states
that may bring him the 270 electoral votes needed for the presidency.
"I think these battleground states have now closed up, almost all of them, and I
believe there's a good scenario where we can win," he said.
Responding to a question of how he will compete with Obama, who drew a crowd of
90,000 at a rally in northern Virginia on Monday, McCain said his running mate,
Sarah Palin, "had 20,000 to 23,000 on a very hot day in northern Virginia, too."
Democrats have not carried Virginia in a presidential election since 1964,
although the state elected both a Democratic governor and senator in recent
years. The northern part of the state, which is adjacent to Washington, D.C., has
seen an influx of young students and tech-savvy professionals.
Earlier in the day, the Arizona senator voted at a Phoenix church before going
back to the campaign trail in Colorado and New Mexico, in a notable break from
tradition.
He said he will continue stumping "until the polls close" to fight off Obama,
whom he described as being "on the far left part of the liberal philosophy in
America" with his "spread the wealth" tax policy.
Obama flew to Indianapolis immediately after voting at a Chicago polling station
along with his wife, Michelle, in a last-minute effort to take Indiana, another
traditionally Republican state. No Democratic presidential nominee has won in
Indiana since 1964.
Obama said that McCain will simply continue the economic policy of incumbent
President George W. Bush -- a policy which he said ruined the U.S. economy. Obama
also said the U.S. must regain global leadership, which has been severely
undermined during Bush's eight-year term.
McCain, meanwhile, denounced Obama as too inexperienced to deal with the current
economic crisis and called his proposal to pull out U.S. forces from Iraq naive.
Obama held an election night party in Chicago's Grant Park that is expected to be
attended by hundreds of thousands of supporters, while McCain hosted a party at
the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.
Also at stake are 35 Senate seats, 435 House seats and 11 gubernatorial posts.
Buoyed by Obama's popularity, Democrats expect gains in the Senate from the
current 49 up to the "super 60" seats, which can prevent a filibuster. Democrats
currently have 236 seats in the House of Representatives.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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