[Applause] this is a CBS News special report I'm Katie kurick at CBS News election headquarters in New York and we have breaking news momentous news really CBS now estimates because of victories in California Washington Oregon and Hawaii CBS projects that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois will be the next president of the United States He defeats John McCain the senator from Arizona and Vietnam war hero and no matter who whom you voted for you'd have to agree this is an incredible milestone in the history of this country a century and a half after the Constitution abolish
slavery and guaranteed blacks the right to vote four decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Act voters have chosen our first africanamerican president Bob Sheaffer and Jeff Greenfield as we watch these dramatic pictures and with all due respect I think we probably want to stay on those pictures instead of shots of any of us I mean it is so incredible to see these crowds the culmination of a 2-year campaign and a lot of hopes and dreams of so many Americans Katie this is more than an election night in America this is a momentous night
in the history of our country this is the fastest rise to the presidency in more than a 100 years and the fact that the man propelling that rise was four years ago a state senator in his own words a skinny black kid with a funny name who came from a big city a place Americans don't pick their presidents from to ride the Manel of change and one of the more brilliant campaigns anyone has ever seen into the White House is one for the history books in fact Bob sheer you have covered so many C campaigns
in your career did you ever imagine that you would see an African-American elected to the highest office in the land you know I'm not sure that I ever did uh you know I went to segregated schools in the segregated South when I graduated from from high school no black student had ever attended any school that I attended now that was in my lifetime look where we have come in just less than my lifetime it's a remarkable evening and look at this crowd at Grant Park in Chicago Cynthia Bowers is somewhere in that sea of very
young people it seems Cynthia how's it going there it is very very loud here Katie the crowd just erupted you can still hear them yelling when Barack Obama was announced as the president they're very excited they've been working for this for 2 years and you in New York have been talking about the youth vote this place is full of young people some of them too young to vote but this crowd is just going crazy they started out nervously then they grow confident and then there was a sense of Adit ability and then sheer exultation here
in Grand Park Katie all right Cynthia Bowers thank you so much be careful out there Cynthia meanwhile let's go to Russ Mitchell he is at Eon eaner Baptist Church in Atlanta Georgia a very historical black church and I can only imagine the scene there tell us about it Russ Katie of course this is one of the long considered houses of the American Civil Rights Movement when the announcement was made oh about 30 seconds a minute ago that Barack Obama had been elected president the place went wild all night there have been speeches sermons and songs
Martin Luther King III the son of the late civil rights leader got up and said that somewhere right now his father and his mother are smiling and can't believe what they're seeing it has been quite a night here you don't me need me to tell you listen to [Applause] it a thousand people began pouring in here tonight around 7:30 I can tell you that not many folks have left Katie a very joyful celebration at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta Georgia and there he is president-elect Barack Obama his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia
let's take it in hello Chicago if there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time who still questions the power of our democracy tonight is your answer it's the answer told by lines that's stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen by people who waited 3 hours and 4 hours many for the first time in their lives because they believed that this time must be different that there their voices
could be that difference it's the answer spoken by young and old rich and poor Democrat and Republican black white hispanic Asian Native American gay straight disabled and not disabled Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red States and blue States we are and always will be the United States of America it's the answer that that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands
on the Ark of History and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day 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 a little bit earlier this evening I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator McCain Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign and he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves he has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine we are better off
for the service rendered by this Brave and selfless leader I congratulate him I congratulate Governor Palin for all that they've achieved and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months [Music] ahead I want to thank my partner in this journey a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware the vice president-elect of the United States Joe Biden and I would not be standing here tonight without the
unyielding support of my best friend from the the last 16 years the rock of our family the love of my life the nation's next First Lady Michelle Obama Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine and you have earned the new puppy the is coming with us to the White House and while she's no longer with us I know my grandmother's watching along with the family that made me who I am I miss them tonight I know that my debt to them is beyond measure to my sister Maya my sister Alma
all my other brothers and sisters thank you so much for all the support that you've given me I am grateful to them to my campaign manager David Pluff the unsung hero of this campaign who built the best the best political campaign I think in the history of the United States of America to my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way to the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done
but above all I will never forget who this Victory truly belongs to it belongs to you it belongs to you I was never the likeliest candidate for this office we didn't start with much money or many endorsement our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington it began in the backyards of De Mo in the living rooms of conquer and the front porches of Charleston it was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 $10 and $20 to the cost it grew strength from the young
people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep it drew strength Str from the not so young people who Brave the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the People by the people and for the people has not perished from the earth this is your Victory now I know you didn't do this just to win
an election and I know you didn't do it for me you did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead for even as we celebrate tonight we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime two Wars a planet in Peril the worst financial crisis in a century even as we stand here tonight we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us their mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall
asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctor's bills or save enough for their child's college education there's new energy to harness new jobs to be created new schools to build and threats to meet alliances to repair the road ahead will be long our climb will be steep we may not get there in one year or even in one term but America I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there I promise you we as a people will get [Applause] there there will be setbacks and false
starts there are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president and we know the government can't solve every problem but I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face I will listen to you especially when we disagree and above all I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for 221 years block by block Brick by Brick callous Hand by callous hand what began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this Autumn
night this Victory alone is not the change we seek it is only the chance for us to make that change and that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were it can't happen without you without a new spirit of service a new spirit of sacrifice so let us summon a new spirit of patriotism a responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall
Street while Main Street suffers in this country We rise or fall as one nation as one people let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican party to the White House a Party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and National Unity those are values that we all share and while the Democratic party has won a great victory tonight we do so with
a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress as Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours we are not enemies but friends though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection and to those Americans who whose support I have yet to earn I may not have won your vote tonight but I hear your voices I need your help and I will be your president too and all those watching tonight from beyond our Shores from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled
around radios in the Forgotten corners of the world our stories are singular but our destiny is shared and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand to those to those who would tear the world down we will defeat you to those who seek peace and security we support you and to all those who have wondered if America's Beacon still Burns as bright tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth but from the enduring power of our ideals
democracy Liberty opportunity and unyielding hope that's the truth Genius of America that America can change our Union can be perfected what we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow this election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for Generations but one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta she is a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing an Nixon Cooper is 106 years old she was
born just a generation past slavery a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin and tonight I think about all that she's seen throughout her Century in America the heartache and the hope hope the struggle and the progress the times we were told that we can't and the people who pressed on with that American creed yes we can at a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes
dismissed she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot yes we can when there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a new deal new jobs a new sense of common purpose yes we can when the bombs fell on our Harbor and tyranny threatened the world she was there to witness a generation rise to Greatness and a democracy was saved yes we can yes we can she was there for the buses in Montgomery the hoses in Birmingham a
bridge in Selma and a preacher from Atlanta who told the people that we shall over come yes we can we can a man touched down on the moon a wall came down in Berlin a world was connected by our own science and Imagination and this year in this election she touched her finger to a screen and cast her vote because after 106 years in America through the best of times and the darkest of hours she knows how America can change yes we can we can America we have come so far we have seen so much
but there's so much more to do 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 an 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 this is our time to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that
out of many we are one that while we breathe we hope and where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can't we will respond with that Timeless Creed that sums up the spirit of a people yes we can thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America
