Voters from a broad swath of America's diverse ethnic enclaves and economic communities celebrated Obama's win Tuesday night, particularly those in the African-American community.
Thousand's flocked to Chicago's Grant Park to await the election results. In Harlem and Times Square in New York, Americans took to the streets to celebrate. There was particular jubilation among black Americans.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was seen crying in Grant Park when election results were announced.
African-Americans poured into the streets of Washington, D.C., waving flags, honking car horns and setting off fireworks.
"I've been an Obama supporter from the beginning," said Sophie Logothetis, an elementary school history teacher who waited an hour to get into Grant Park, "and I just had to be here."
In Harlem, Jeff Mann, a 51-year-old construction worker said, "You can't be anything but joyful. Obama is going to change the world," said Jeff Mann, 51, a construction worker in Harlem.
Crucial to Obama's victory was winning all of the states that Democrat John Kerry won four years ago and the flipping of Ohio, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, Iowa, Florida and Nevada, states that all voted Republican in 2004.
Obama, 47, the son of a black man from Kenya and white woman from Kansas, served just two years in U.S. Senate before declaring his candidacy and ultimately taking on one of the most experienced politicians in the United States.
A moderate conservative who tried to emphasize his credentials as a maverick and distance himself from an unpopular president, McCain, 72, was unable to motivate his base and overcome his associations with Republican incumbent President Bush.
Obama built a coalition grounded on a base of near unanimous support from black voters, who made up 13 percent of the national vote. Obama also won nearly 70 percent of the vote of Hispanics. While John McCain was able to win white voters by 54-44 percent, Obama made inroads with them as well.
Voters shifted to the Democratic Party in this election, with Republican turnout falling to its lowest point since 1980.
By almost every quantifiable measure -- from the $640 million Obama raised in the month of October to the nearly $1 billion the campaigns have spent combined to 9 million newly registered voters -- records have been shattered.
Yet another record may fall once the number of voters is tallied. Turnout was heavy throughout the day and could surpass previous voting turnout records. The existing records were set in 2004 when more than 122 million Americans went to the polls, and in 1960 when 64 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Each of the candidates was a dark horse who pundits predicted would never make it past the first weeks of their parties' respective primaries. Obama ultimately beat out Clinton for the nomination, the first glimmer of future success.
In perhaps the greatest and most calculated flip-flop of his campaign, Obama forwent public financing allowing him to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from donors contributing small amounts of money, proving that he was not just a neophyte who could make good speeches but a scrappy politician from Chicago.
McCain, too, changed course. In the final weeks of the campaign, the Arizona senator struck a more negative tone and, along with vice presidential running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, began attacking Obama's relationships and judgment.
In the third and final presidential debate, McCain assailed Obama for his relationship with 1960s radical William Ayers and his campaign began aggressively using auto-dialed calls -- known as robocalls -- to voters to relay negative messages, frequently focusing on the Democrat's experience and readiness for the White House.
That strategy didn't seem to achieve the desired effect, with voters responding in polls in the race's final weeks that they were turned off by the negative ads and attack tactics.
The economy is nationally the overwhelming issue for voters who cast their ballots in today's historic presidential election, according to early exit polls.
Despite the possibility of Obama becoming the nation's first black president, the turnout of black voters as a percentage of the national vote was 13 percent, just slightly higher than in 2004, according to early exit polls.
The economy has long dominated the campaign, and voters' concerns became heightened when the major banks and credit markets needed a massive federal bailout to avoid a fiscal catastrophe.
Four in 10 voters said their family's financial situation was worse than it was four years ago, and eight in 10 are worried the current economic crisis will hurt their family finances over the next year.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
