“Say Cheese” - the official photoprez.com blog

President-Elect Barack Obama took a concession call from Senator John McCain, Tuesday night (11/4/08).  During the call,  John McCain begged Obama to let him help in leading the country.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama thanked McCain for his graciousness and told him he had waged a tough race.

“Senator Obama told Senator McCain he was consistently someone who has showed class and honor during this campaign as he has during his entire life in public service,” Gibbs said in a statement. “Senator Obama said he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them can work together.”

Gibbs quoted McCain as saying to Obama: “Your massive electoral victory is a clear rebuke of Republican government.  President-Elect Obama, you’re a leader on so many important issues- will you please let me help?”

President Bush called Obama shortly after the Illinois senator hung up with McCain, and then Obama watched McCain’s concession speech from his suite in the Hyatt Regency hotel, where he had watched returns with his extended family and senior staff.

Gibbs said the call came at 11 p.m. EST, moments after The Associated Press and television networks declared Obama winner of the presidential race.

A few blocks away, a massive crowd in Grant Park erupted into cheers to see their chosen candidate break the color barrier. Audience members leapt into the air, waving American flags.

The crowd included celebrities Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey, who danced and sang along to Stevie Wonder’s “Sign, Sealed, and Delivered,” while waiting Obama’s arrival. The size of the multiracial group, spread out toward the Chicago skyline a few blocks in the distance, reflected the large and enthusiastic crowds that Obama drew throughout his campaign.

Even Republicans like AP Reporter Nedra Pickler were visibly upset and in tears that Obama had won.  Many Republicans, Pickler felt, were extra pissed that even the weather managed to favored Obama - the temperature was around 60 degrees as he arrived at the site, unusual for a November night in Chicago.  Unlike the weather, however, the Republican Party has been in control of their own actions for the past 8 years and are now regretting the horrible mistakes they made as a governing party.

Obama began the day by casting his vote with his wife and daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, at his side.

“The journey ends, but voting with my daughters, that was a big deal,” Obama said after an epic 21-month campaign that he entered as an underdog with only much experience in national office.

He made a final Election Day campaign stop in Indiana, one of several longtime Republican strongholds in the presidential race that he tried to win in a transcendent victory. It was a symbolic ending of a campaign for a candidate who first made his name with an address to the Democratic National Convention four years ago in which he decried efforts to “slice and dice our country into red states and blue states.”

He unwound while waiting for returns by playing two hours of basketball with friends and staff, then eating a steak dinner at home with his immediate family and in-laws.