"Together, we will change this country and change the world." This was Barack Obama's rallying cry as he spent 20 months touring America whipping up the support of the voting public.
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"Together, we will change this country and change the world." This was Barack Obama's rallying cry as he spent 20 months touring America whipping up the support of the voting public.
The Obama campaign pulled out all the stops to propel its 47-year-old Illinois senator into the White House - and left John McCain stuttering in its wake.
MEDIAWATCHTHE BBC may have put on its most expensive production ever for a US election but it was far from impressive. The graphics might have been state-of-the-art but links to correspondents across the States were regularly hit by audio failures and missing interviewees. Veteran anchor David Dimbleby was too often left looking at sea amidst the chaos. He failed to control panellist, John Bolton the ex-US envoy to the UN, who appeared to lose the plot several times including telling historian Simon Schama to wait for history to happen rather than predicting the future, calling one correspondent "ignorant" and insisting another be "fired". Dimbleby also failed to respond to Bolton's claims that, with Obama looking set to be elected, maybe the BBC, Britain and the world would stop accusing the US of being racist. Thankfully, Bolton vanished from the panel during a switch to a live link. Not the Beeb's finest seven hours. |
Obama accepted his party's nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. "America, we are better than these last eight years, we are a better country than this," he said.
Repeatedly breaking fundraising records, he simultaneously showed he was tough enough to beat the Clinton political machine and Republican attack adverts while keeping his cool on the trail.
He won over former rival Hillary Clinton, who said Obama was her candidate, while her husband, former President Bill Clinton, declared him "the man" to lead America.
Obama energised the youth vote in the primary season with huge crowds greeting him at rallies at home and abroad and his two books becoming best-sellers.
It has been a meteoric rise for the man who first attracted international attention just four years ago when he made a keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
He became the only current African American US senator in 2005 - and only its fifth in history.
Labelling his own campaign for change in all aspects of life - from foreign policy to healthcare, education and the legislative process - as an "improbable quest", Obama insisted: "few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change".
And, after an unrelenting year and half on the campaign trail, his moment of victory was summed up with a hug from his daughter Malia Ann and the promise to "reclaim the American Dream".
