AMERICA'S 1st BLACK PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA! THE 44TH PRESIDENT! WE NOW KNOW WHO THE 44th PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS. Barack Obama has DEFEATED republican candidate John Mccain with a final vote of: 52 - 48 Now it is TIME FOR CHANGE. "Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation's first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. "Change has come," he declared to a huge throng of cheering supporters. The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa and more. On a night for Democrats to savor, they not only elected Obama the nation's 44th president but padded their majorities in the House and Senate, and come January will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994. Obama's election capped a meteoric rise — from mere state senator to president-elect in four years. In his first speech as victor, Obama catalogued the challenges ahead. "The greatest of a lifetime," he said, "two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."" -Yahoo!