From the archives: Barack Obama elected president in 2008

this is a special report from CBS News I'm Katie Kurick at CBS News election headquarters in New York and we have breaking news, breaking news, really CBS now estimates because of the victories in California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii. CBS projects that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois will be the next

president

of the United States defeats John McCain, the Arizona senator and Vietnam War hero, and no matter who you voted for, you would have to agree that this is an incredible milestone in the history of this country, a century and a half later. the Constitution abolished slavery and guaranteed blacks the right to vote four decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, voters

elected

our first African-American

president

, Bob Sheaffer and Jeff Greenfield, as we watch these dramatic images and with the Due respect I think we probably want to stay on those photos rather than photos of any of us.

I mean, it's incredible to see these crowds as the culmination of a two-year campaign and many hopes and dreams of so many Americans. Katie, this is more than just 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 over 100 years and the fact that the man who fueled 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 where Americans don't elect their presidents to ride the Manel of change and one of the most brilliant campaigns anyone has ever seen in the White House is one for the books of history, in fact, Bob Sheer. you've covered so many C campaigns in your career.

Did you ever imagine you would see an African American

elected

to the highest office in the country? You know, I'm not sure I ever did. You know I went to segregated schools in the segregated south when I graduated high school no black student had attended any school I attended now what was in my life look where we've come in a little less of my life it's an extraordinary night and look at this crowd in Grant Park in Chicago Cynthia Bowers is somewhere in that sea of ​​very young people, it looks like Cynthia, how are you doing there?

It's very, very loud here Katie, the crowd erupted, you can still hear them screaming when Barack Obama was announced as president, they are so excited. They've been working on this for 2 years and you guys 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 going crazy. They started out nervous and then they grow. confidence and then there was a sense of skill from Adit and then pure joy here in Grand Park Katie, it's okay Cynthia Bowers, thank you very much, be careful Cynthia, in the meantime let's go to Russ Mitchell, he's at Eon eaner Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, very historic black church and I can only imagine the scene that Russ Katie tells us about there, of course this is one of the houses long considered by the American Civil Rights Movement when the announcement was made a few years ago 30 seconds a minute, that Barack Obama had been elected president the place went crazy all night there were speeches sermons and songs Martin Luther King III the son of the late civil rights leader stood up and said that somewhere right now his father and his mother are smiling and can't believe their eyes.

You're seeing it's been a great night here, you don't need me to tell you, just listen to it. A thousand people started arriving here tonight around 7:30. I can tell you that not many people have left Katie a very joyful celebration at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta Georgia and there is President-elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia, let's go hello Chicago, if there is anyone who still doubts that the United States is a place where anything is possible. who still questions whether the dream of our Founders is alive in our times who still questions the power of our democracy tonight is your answer is the answer told by lines that stretch around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen before people who waited 3 hours and 4 hours many for the first time in their lives because they believed that this time it must be different that there their voices could be that difference is the response spoken by young and old rich and poor Democrats and Republicans black white Hispanic Asian native gay straight Americans Disabled and non-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; is the response that led those of us who have long told me to be cynical, fearful and doubtful about what we can accomplish to put our hands on the Ark of History and bend it once again toward the hope of a better day. It has been a long time coming, but tonight because of what we did on this day in this election at this decisive moment change has come to America a little earlier this afternoon I received an extraordinarily kind call from Senator McCain Senator McCain fought hard and hard in this campaign and he has fought even harder and harder for the country he loves, he has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot imagine that we are better off for the service provided by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him. I congratulate Governor Palin for all she has accomplished. and I look forward to working with them to renew the promise of this nation in the coming months. I want to thank my partner on this trip, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke on behalf of the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and I rode the train back to Delaware with the vice president-elect of the America, Joe Biden, and I would not be here tonight without the unwavering support of my best friend of 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 them both more than they can imagine and they have earned the new puppy that is coming with us to the White House and while she is no longer with us I know my grandmother is watching along with the family that made me who I am I miss them tonight.

I know that my debt to them is incalculable. with my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters. Thank you very much for all the support you have given me. I thank my campaign manager, David Pluff, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best, the best political campaign, I believe, in the history of the United States of America, my chief strategist, David Axelrod, who has You have been my partner every step of the way to the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics, you made this happen and I will be eternally grateful for what you have sacrificed to achieve it, but most of all, I will never forget who you belong to.

This Victory really belongs to you. belongs to you I was never the most likely candidate for this office we did not start with a lot of money or a lot of support our campaign was not forged in the hallways of Washington it began in the backyards of De Mo in the living rooms of Conquista and the front porches of Charleston It was built by hardworking men and women who took advantage of the little savings they had to donate $5 $10 and $20 towards the cost. It was strengthened by young people who rejected the myth of the apathy of their generation who abandoned their homes and families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep, it drew strength from the not-so-young who brave the intense cold and scorching heat to knocking on the doors of perfect strangers and the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and demonstrated that more than two centuries later a government of the People by the people and for the people has not disappeared 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 before us, because even as we celebrate tonight we know that the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of all. our life.

Two wars, a planet in danger, the worst financial crisis in a century, even as we Stand here tonight we know that there are brave Americans who wake up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us, their mothers and Parents who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they will pay the mortgage or pay the doctor's bills or save enough for their children's college education. There is new energy to take advantage of new jobs. New schools will be created. 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 a year or even one term, but America has never been more hopeful than tonight that we will get there.

I promise you that we, as a people, will get there; there will be setbacks and false starts; There are many who will not agree with every decision or policy I make as President and we know that government cannot 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 come together. in the work of remaking this nation the only way it has been done in America for 221 years block by block Brick after callous brick Hand after callous hand what began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this night of autumn this Victory alone is not the change we seek it is just the opportunity for us to make that change and that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were, it cannot happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice, so let's call. a new spirit of patriotism a responsibility in which each of us decides to collaborate and work harder and take care not only of ourselves but also of others, let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything it is that we cannot have a Wall Street prosper while Main Street suffers in this country We rise or fall as a nation, as one people, let us resist the temptation to resort to the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long, let us remember that it was a man of this state who first carried the flag of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values ​​of self-reliance, 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 it with a measure. of humility and determination to heal the divisions that have slowed our progress, as Lincoln said to a nation much more divided than ours: we are not enemies but friends, although passion may have strained us, we must not break our ties of affection and those Americans that I support that I have yet to win I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices.

I need your help and I will also be your president and all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those crowded around the 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 near for those for those who would tear down the world we will defeat them for those who seek peace and security we support them and for all those who have asked if America's beacon still burns as brightly tonight, we have demonstrated once again that the true strength of our nation comes not from the power of our weapons or the scale of our wealth, but from the lasting power of our ideals: democracy, freedom. opportunity and unwavering hope that is the truth American genius that America can change our Union we can perfect what we have 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 throughout generations but what I have in mind tonight is about a woman who cast her vote in Atlanta.

She looks a lot like the millions of people who lined up to make her voice heard in this election, except for one thing: Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. She was born just a generation after slavery, a time when there were no cars on the roads or airplanes 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 In everything he has seen throughout his century in America, the pain and the hope, the struggle and the progress, the times when we were told we can't and the people who carried forward that American creed, yes We can, at a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dashed, she lived to see them stand up, speak out and reach for the ballot, yes we can, when there was despair in the dusty bowl and depression across the country, saw a nation conquer the fear of itself with a new deal, new jobs and new sense of common purpose yes we can when bombs fell in our harbor and tyranny threatenedto the world she was there to witness a generation's 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 we will defeat, yes we can, we can, a man landed on the moon, a wall fell in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination and this year, in this election, he touched a screen with his finger and broadcast his I vote because after 106 years in America, in the best of times and the darkest hours, he knows how America can change.

Yes, we can, we can. America, we have come so far. I have seen a lot, but there is much more to do, so tonight let us ask ourselves if our sons should live to see The Next Century, if my daughters should be lucky enough to live as long as a Nixon Cooper, what change they will see, what progress there will be. we have done this is our chance to answer that call this is our time this is our time to get our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our children to restore prosperity and advance the cause of peace to reclaim the dream American and reaffirm that fundamental truth that among many we are one that while we breathe we have hope and where we encounter cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we cannot we will respond with that Eternal Creed that summarizes the spirit of a people yes we can thank you God bless you And may God bless the United States of America.