12:45 a.m. ET Barack Obama has long coat-tails. His victory in the presidential race is just part of the revival of Democratic fortunes across the United States that has redrawn the electoral map.
The votes are still being counted but it looks as if Mr. Obama picked up at least seven states for the Democrats — Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Iowa, Virginia and Florida. Some of these states had voted Republican for a generation or two. It's possible that before the night is over, he will be able to add Montana, Indiana and North Carolina to that list.
The Democratic surge in the Congress mocks the prediction by Karl Rove, George W. Bush's strategist, that he had achieved a "permanent Republican majority."
The Democrats collected several high-profile Senate seats in Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire. At this point, they are holding 56 seats in the 100-seat chamber, compared with 40 for the Republicans. Four seats have yet to be decided but most analysts are saying it's unlikely that the Democrats will sweep them. The 60-seat level is magic because it allows a party to break an opposition fillibuster.
The Democrats also strengthened their hold on the House of Representatives. Right now, they're holding 237 seats, compared to 151 for the Republicans. Another 47 contests have yet to be decided.
12:10 a.m. ET Barack Obama has just taken the stage with his wife and two daughters. The chants of "Yes, we can" are in his ears as he greets the tens of thousands standing before him like a rock star: "Hello, Chicago."
The 47-year-old president president-elect strikes the same themes as he did in the 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention that propelled him to the national stage. "If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where all things are possible ... tonight is the answer," he says behind panels of bulletproof glass.
"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 is coming to America," he promises about 65,000 people in lakefront Grant Park.
11:50 p.m. ET Barack Obama has not yet given his victory speech but hundreds of young people in Washington, D.C., have left their television sets to celebrate. CBC Newsworld is showing pictures of hundreds of young people crowding into Lafayette Park, across from the White House. They are waving Obama signs and dancing deliriously. Many of them are holding aloft cell phones, indicating that word of the event is being spread by text messages -- exactly the technique that Mr. Obama exploited so successfully in his campaign.
11:30 p.m. ET The palm trees are swaying gracefully in the warm evening breeze in the courtyard of the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix. John McCain, dropping that angry pose he adopted in the last weeks of the campaign, has conceded the election gracefully. "The American people have spoken and they have spoken clearly," he said as he shared a stage with his wife, Cindy, and his vice-presidential candidate , Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd. There was no sign of Joe the Plumber.
Mr. McCain called Barack Obama "a good man" and pledged to work with him when he returns to the U.S. Senate. And he acknowledged the historic nature of an evening on which the United States elected its first black president. "Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and his country," Mr. McCain said.
Not everyone in his audience was as graceful. Twice, the Republican candidate objected when some people booed at the mention of Mr. Obama's name.
Mr. McCain wasn't the only person to offer the victor congratulations. Outgoing president George W. Bush offered his congratulations for "an awesome night," according to a White House spokesman.
11:15 p.m. ET Forty years ago, when protesters clashed with Chicago police in Grant Park, the chant was "the whole world is watching." Well, it's watching those lovely lakefront acres once again and this time with much more of a sense of hope than during the 1968 Democratic national convention.
The immediate comment posted on web sites and news wires was that the United States has turned a page in electing its first black president.
