"How this happened"
I'm about to go speak to the crowd here in Chicago, but I wanted to thank you first.
I want you to know that this wasn't fate, and it wasn't an accident. You made this happen.
You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn't easy, you pressed forward.
I will spend the rest of my presidency honoring your support, and doing what I can to finish what we started.
But I want you to take real pride, as I do, in how we got the chance in the first place.
Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests.
There's a lot more work to do.
But for right now: Thank you.
Barack
Via Al Jazeera "Barack Obama storms to second term"
Barack Obama has won the US presidential election, defeating his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
The incumbent president has captured at least 303 electoral votes - more than the majority of 270 required for victory in Tuesday's quadrennial election.
During his victory speech in Chicago, Obama said that "the task of perfecting our union moves forward".
"We are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation," he said. "We know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come."
All I can say is thank god. Thank God for Obama, the man who has directed this country on a progressive path, the man who told the Social Security Department to stop harassing my employer because Ohio refuses to amend trans people's birth certificates, thank god that I can keep this job I have fought so hard for.
Thank god for America.
