The United States of America elected Barack Obama its 44th President on Tuesday night. Although all voting tallies haven’t been decided, Obama has garnered more than 270 electoral votes, enough to make him the President-Elect. Obama currently has 338 electoral votes, with battleground states of Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri and Montana still too close to call. The polls in Alaska have not yet closed, but Alaska is presumed to go to Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain and his Vice Presidential running mate Sarah Palin, the current Governor of Alaska.
Barack Obama becomes the first African American ever to be elected to the nation’s highest office. In his acceptance speech, Obama emphasized that change has come, but that everyone, including himself and Republicans, will need to work together during the country’s difficult times to get the country back on track.
Obama’s task at hand will not be easy. The country is in the midst of a recession and trying financial crisis, an unpopular war in Iraq that has cost the nation billions of dollars and alienated allies across the globe, and a troubling energy dilemma. With the largest deficit in the nation’s history staring him in the face (caused primarily by the billions of dollars spent on the war in Iraq and Bush’s substantial tax breaks without regard for his reckless “Democratic” spending habits), Obama will not be able to spend his way out of the mess. Obama will need to prioritize his agenda and postpone projects that aren’t 100% necessary to get the country out of its current mess. Obama is sure to surround himself with experienced representatives who will make his transition from US Senator to US President as smooth as possible.
