Obama campaign blazes to victory

Chicago offered us its own spectacular countdown to the end of the longest presidential campaign in history.
The setting sun sliding down the glass faces of the great downtown skyscrapers marked the ebbing of the final hours.
Electoral College votesWinning post 270
Obama - Democrat 349
McCain - Republican 162



As darkness came, the makeshift open-air stage in the middle of Grant Park became a bowl of light - the campaign which began with the poetry of hope and triumphed through the power of the internet ended at last with the blazing magic of theatre.
Laser beams fanned out into the sky across the park from the stage, forming an arch of blindingly intense light - probably the first political celebration in history that would have been visible from the Moon.
Mr Obama, who all through the campaign has enjoyed the luck to match his undoubted brilliance, was even lucky with the Chicago weather.