Obama: 'All things are possible'
Updated on 05 November 2008
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States.
The Democratic candidate, who becomes the first African-American to reach the highest office, defeated his Republican opponent John McCain in both the popular vote and the electoral college.
With three-quarters of the votes counted Obama had 51 per cent to McCain's 48 per cent.
And in terms of electoral college votes already projected, Obama has 338, McCain 159.
The speech in full
Watch and read the whole of Barack Obama's acceptance speech here.
Obama told a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Chicago: "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.
"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."
McCain: 'I respect his ability'
McCain conceded victory to his Democrat rival at 11.20pm Eastern Time tonight.
In his concession speech he told his supporters:
"The people have spoken and they have spoken clearly."
To boos he added: "A little while ago I had the honour to call Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him on becoming the next president of the country we both love.
"In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success commands my respect for his ability and peserverance."
TV networks call it for Obama
At 11pm ET, the NBC TV network called the election for Barack Obama. Current projections put John McCain on 156 electoral colleage votes and Barack Obama on 338.
The threshold for victory was 270 votes.
