Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States Tuesday night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself, The Associated Press reported.
The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states - Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.
A huge crowd in Grant Park in Chicago erupted in jubilation at the news of Obama's victory, according to AP.
McCain called his former rival to concede defeat - and the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House. "The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly," McCain told disappointed supporters in 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.
U.S. President George W. Bush late Tuesday telephoned his apparent successor, Democrat Barack Obama, to congratulate him on his "awesome night," according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
"Mr. president-elect, congratulations to you. What an awesome night for you, your family and your supporters. Laura and I called to congratulate you and your good bride," she quoted Bush as telling Obama.
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.
South Korean government officials and diplomatic watchers in Seoul said the impending change of administration in Washington will have little impact on the solid alliance between South Korea and the U.S., though Obama is expected to take a different stand toward bilateral trade issues and North Korea from that of his predecessor, according to Yonhap News.
The office of President Lee Myung-bak is also firmly convinced of the continuation of the strong bilateral alliance under the Obama presidency, as the new U.S. leader has repeatedly pledged to further solidify the U.S.-Korea relationship throughout his campaign.
Lee, widely depicted as a pro-American conservative, has set repairing relations with the U.S. as his top foreign policy priority since his inauguration in February, saying bilateral relations had lacked trust under his liberal predecessors, Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung.
Lee's visit to Camp David, a U.S. presidential retreat, in April for a summit with President George W. Bush, symbolized the restored alliance relations.
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae is now preparing for Lee's possible encounter with Obama on the sidelines of the upcoming Group of 20 financial summit set to take place in Washington on Nov. 15, an official said.
Reflecting Seoul's wishes, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo told a recent parliamentary session that North Korea won't find it easy to bypass South Korea in its diplomatic approach toward the U.S. due to the solid Seoul-Washington alliance.