Barack Obama wins election, is President-Elect

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) successfully defeated his opponent John McCain to win the Presidency of the United States. Obama, who will be the first African-American President in U.S. history, will be sworn in on January 20, 2009.

Networks began reporting around 9 p.m. that Obama had won the state of Pennsylvania, which had become a sort of "last hoorah" for the McCain campaign. The McCain campaign spent the entire final weekend before the election and much of the week before in Pennsylvania, fighting for its 21 electoral votes. Soon after the results from Pennsylvania came in, a CNN anchor sent an email to a top McCain aide asking if there was still a path to the 270 electoal votes needed to win for McCain, and received a "No."

Still, the McCain campaign fought hard for longshots such as Ohio and Iowa, however both ended up going to the Democratic nominee.

McCain, after the losses in Ohio and Pennsylvania, conceded.

"In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving," McCain said of Sen. Obama.

Obama was officially projected by most networks to be the President-Elect at the top of the 11 p.m. hour after the results of California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii came in, which put him over the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win.

The states of Missouri and North Carolina have not yet reported their results, although it is expected Sen. McCain will win Missouri and Sen. Obama will win North Carolina.

As of early Wednesday morning, most networks estimate Obama has 349 electoral votes to McCain's 174.

Sen. Obama: WA, OR, CA, HI, NM, NV, CO, MN, IA, WI, IL, MI, OH, PA, VA, NY, VT, NH, MA, CT, RI, NJ, DE, D.C., MD, FL, IN: 349 EV

Sen. McCain: ID, UT, WY, AK, AZ, MT, ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX, LA, AR, WV, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, SC: 174 EV