A historic win for the first elected African-American president of the United States of America. Obama won a landslide victory thanks to the largest number of voters of any election in American history — as many as 130 million.

In his victory speech to more than 200,000 people in Grant Park, Chicago, he declared, “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

Crowds throughout the nation agreed with him and celebrated from coast to coast.

He also paid a touching tribute to Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year-old female voter from Atlanta, and recalled the progress the nation has made in the last century.

“America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do,” he said. “So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if our children should live to see the next century, if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

“This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. “

Indeed, it is.

WATCH FULL VICTORY SPEECH.

VOTE TODAY.

Remember to vote not just for Barack Obama, but for Congressional, state, and local candidates as well.

Where and when do I vote?
Find your polling place, voting times, and other important information by checking out these sites and the hotline below.

These resources can help.  Obama’s VoteForChange site: http://voteforchange.com League of Women Voters’ site: http://vote411.org/pollfinder.php

Obama’s voter hotline: 877-US4-OBAMA (877-874-6226)

What should I do before I go?
After you’ve entered your address on either Vote For Change or Vote411, read the voting instructions and special rules for your state.

Voting ID laws vary from state to state, but if you have ID, bring it. Check out all the voting myths and misinformation to look out for: http://truth.voteforchange.com/

What if something goes wrong? Not on the voter list?
Make sure you’re at the right polling place, then demand a provisional ballot. If you’re voting on an electronic machine with a paper record, verify that the record is accurate.

Need legal help?
Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. If you encounter a problem, try to videotape the situation and submit it to http://VideoTheVote.org

Want to do more?
Text all of your friends: “Vote Obama today! Pass it on!” Phonebank, make calls from home for Obama. Now, everybody go vote!

Quite a few people are still visiting this blog for Barack Obama info. Still deciding? Make sure you visit BarackObama.com.

Also, Barack Obama’s half-hour commercial/mini-documentary aired on Wednesday evening, October 29th. Following the produced segment, viewers caught the conclusion of a live Obama rally in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

If you missed it, you can watch the full video below.

Last night’s Republican Convention officially unveiled Sarah Palin to the public.  While we learned that the Governor of Alaska is very poised,  intelligent and impressionable, it mostly showed us that she is quite capable of delivering prepackaged speeches with a litany of zingers aimed at the opponents.

Palin compared her mayor of Alaska experience to Obama’s community organizing. Except that during the time Palin was a mayor of Alaska (1996 - 2002),  Obama was in the State Senate (1996 - 2004). Palin was elected Govenor in November of 2006.

For some reason, the speech writer took great delight in “bending” the truth.  But nevermind that.  Perhaps a commenter called “realtalk” summed it up best on how “comfortable Palin seemed at lying about her record” by saying this:

Sarah Palin lied with a straight face, even knowing that most people are well aware of the truth of her actually having supported the building of the “Bridge to Nowhere”, and about her record of hiring lobbyists to lobby Washington for money. Sarah Palin claims she is against earmarks, BUT THE TRUTH IS, as governor she requested earmarks totalling $750 million dollars from the federal government (the largest amount in this country per-capita request in the nation).

Sadly of all is that Sarah Palin claims that families with children with disabilities will have her as a champion in the White House, BUT the fact is in Alaska those same parents had NO champion in Sarah, who actually CUT by 60% funding to programs which helped children with disabilities in her state.
Sarah Palin also CUT funding to programs which help HOMELESS pregnant teens, have a place to sleep while pregnant.

Hypocritically, of all is that Sarah Palin boldly sites an ethics bill in Alaska, it seems she has forgotten that she herself is RIGHT NOW under investigation for ethics violation.
Sarah Palin is ALREADY participating in the same type of behaviour that we have seen in the White House over the past 8 years, the coverups, and lies to try keep that behaviour, of ethics violation, from the public.

Interesting.

ALSO READ:

Sebelius Accuses Palin Of Deceiving Voters

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention

McCain’s judgment has been called into question after choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice-President. Recently, Palin revealed that her 17 year old daughter Bristol is 5 months pregnant, but plans to marry the father.  (Sarah Palin exclusively endorses abstinence-only education.)

McCain claims he knew about the teen pregnancy all along, but selected Palin anyway because of her excellent qualifications and “long record of reform”.

However, whenever pressed for more details on those qualifications, the response usually involves McCain’s aides redirecting the focus to Barack Obama.

Here, CNN’s Campbell Brown talks to McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. By the end of the interview, even she is visibly frustrated as she gets the run around.

Campbell Brown: There is a feeling out there that you are not holding your VP pick to your own standard, the standard you defined. So, explain to us why you think Govenor Palin is ready to be Commander in Chief.

For some reason, the aide can’t quite manage to answer the question.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Thursday night, Barack Obama delivered his 44-minute nominating acceptance speech to a crowd of 84,000 people packed into Invesco Field in Denver Colorado. This marks the final lap of his bid to become the nation’s president.

“Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive.  … We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: “Eight is enough.”

FULL 45 MINUTE VIDEO BELOW

FULL SPEECH TEXT HERE

By the end of yesterday, Obama moved well beyond the goal line of attaining 2,118 delegates for the Democratic nomination. Obama has now amassed 2,154 delegates. Clinton has 1,919.5 at this time.

A slew of new delegate endorsements came out in support of Obama after the polls closed last night where he lost in South Dakota (but still gained more delegates) and won in Montana. Obama also gained an endorsement from former President Jimmy Carter.

Obama makes history as the first African-American to clinch the democratic nomination. He now looks to the future contest against John McCain in the fall.

Hillary Clinton delivered a speech with a bit of praise for how Obama has run the race, but devoid of any congratulations to him for winning the contest. She vowed that she would not concede the race, even though Obama was already way past the finish line.

One Huffington Post writer said in an article titled “Clinton in Denial of Obama Nomination. Why?”:

Clinton astonishingly refused to acknowledge that Obama, the first African American nominee, came from behind to win a majority of primaries and caucuses, a majority of delegates, and a majority of votes.

Clinton is in denial indeed, but there is new talk of her aggressively vying for the VP spot under Obama.

In the meantime, Obama will accept his nomination on the 45th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream” Speech. That day will mark a fitting beginning for a Presidential candidate to lead an America that is as diverse and multi-faceted as ever.

ALSO READ: Obama and Hillary’s Full June 3rd Speeches

Days since the first presidential nominating contest in Iowa: 152

Total popular vote for Clinton and Obama in Democratic contests where delegates were awarded, except for caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Washington, Maine and Texas where no popular vote was released: 35.1 million.

Obama has had 33 wins:

Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Democrats Abroad, District of Columbia, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Clinton has had 22* wins:

American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida (*Obama did not campaign), Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan (*Obama not on ballot), Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia.

Primaries Obama has won: 18

Primaries Clinton has won: 19

Caucuses Obama has won: 14

Caucuses Clinton has won: 3

See more figures here.

Hillary Clinton has pledged to continue her fight for the White House, but more and more people are expressing their opinion that the race is over. Now, we can add a national polling firm to that group.

National polling firm Rasmussen Reports announced on Friday that it will stop polling people about the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton because her opponent, Barack Obama, will win the Democratic nomination.

The company’s vice president of finance and operations, Michael Boniello, distributed an e-mail with the following statement:

However, while Senator Clinton has remained close and competitive in every meaningful measure, she is a close second and the race is over. It has become clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.

With this in mind, Rasmussen Reports will soon end our daily tracking of the Democratic race and focus exclusively on the general election competition between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

The e-mail also stated that the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday showed Barack Obama attracting 47 percent of the vote, while John McCain earned 44 percent.

SOURCE: ‘Race Is Over’: Polling Firm to Quit Asking Clinton Questions