America picks Obama: election day 2008
Though huge challenges lie ahead, Barack Obama and the American people celebrate the achievement of a historic election victory in November 2008.
The president-elect told a quarter of a million supporters in Chicago that “the dream of our founders is alive in our time”.
His mandate was assured, as Democrats swept to huge majorities in both the house and the senate.
But how much of Barack Obama’s victory is also down to George Bush’s handling of America’s economy and to America’s loss of face in the world?
Beyond Obama’s historic victory lies a challenge of vast proportions – not least the global economic crisis and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The dream of our founders is alive in our time.” Barack Obama
Obama had already pledged that both issues will attract his immediate attention, and he is warning of a tough road ahead.
But first, America allowed herself a moment to bask in what her people have done, to the envy and relief of much of the world beyond.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy tonight is your answer,” Obama told an enraptured crowd.
“It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this country has never seen.
“By people who waited three hours, four hours – many for the first times in their lives.”
Civil rights veteran Reverend Jesse Jackson wept as he watch Obama’s victory speech. “It is a moment of joy,” he said. “It is a moment of achievement. It’s also a moment of America rising to its highest and surest self.”
In Arizona, the crowds gather to hear Republican candidate John McCain’s concession speech booed at the mention of his rival’s name.
Student celebration the 'most moving' insight
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow shared the moment of Obama's victory with students at Howard University, the foremost African-American college in Washington DC.
Howard University speaks to the segregated city that DC still is, writes Jon Snow. But these young people are proud of Howard, proud of their place in it.
Last night, for every one of them, was a coming of age. Obama is both an emblem and a brand. They are of the post-civil rights, post-voting rights age.
They knew their man would do it and were already talking about it long before the maths had caught up with their emotions. When Obama's victory moment finally came, none of us would know how it would consume their passions.
Their parents were at school when Martin Luther King was slain. Their grandparents were the children of slaves. For them, America has crossed a rampart from which no retreat is possible.
Watch video of the election night report above.
Jon Snow added that one of the student's tears "provided the most moving insight into what it meant of anyone I ever saw or heard in Obama's four-year quest for the presidency".
'The dream of our founders is alive'
- Watch the hour-long Channel 4 News show on Obama's election victory- Watch Obama's victory speech in full