by Mark Silva

Lately, whenever President Bush has stepped out into the Rose Garden to address the nation, the economic meltdown has been foremost on his mind and at the front of his lips.

But today, on the first day of that phenomenon that is President-elect Barack Obama, Bush stepped out to the garden to address the transition already underway - and also acknowledge the historical significance of Obama's election.

"All Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday,'' Bush said. "They showed a watching world the vitality of Americas democracy and the strides we have made toward a more perfect union.'' Obama's life story, and his election, are a testament to the fulfillment of the American story, he said.

"Many of our citizens thought they would never live to see that day,'' said Bush, not specifically citing the election of the first African-American president but alluding to it with his words - "especially uplifting for a generation that witnessed the struggle for civil rights with their own eyes.''

The early-retiring and early-rising president didn't get much sleep last night at the White House - he telephoned the Democratic winner at 11 pm EST, and as the election contest was called for Obama a massive crowd assembled in the park and street out front of the White House with people chanting: "Yes, we did.''

by Christi Parsons

Barack Obama has asked Illinois congressman Rahm Emanuel to serve as his White House chief of staff, ABC News is reporting this morning.

The president-elect has brought up the idea in recent days with Emanuel, a veteran of the Bill Clinton administration and an important ally in the U.S. House.

The election of the first president from Chicago immediately elevated the power factor for the city and state. The critical chief-of-staff position would be a telling sign of the influence to come.

by Frank James

The Democrats made big gains in Congress last night though they didn't get to the 60 votes they needed to be able to get legislation or judicial nominations through the Senate without Republican cooperation.

At last count, they hold 56 seats, with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman getting 762 more votes in a tight-as-a-tick race in Minnesota. But there will be an automatic recount and the race may not be certified until December.

Here's an excerpt of an Associated Press report:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ Republican Norm Coleman outlasted Democrat Al Franken in one of Minnesota's tightest Senate elections ever, squeaking past the former comedian early Wednesday by a margin that appeared certain to trigger a recount.

The margin was well within a threshold set by state law for an automatic recount. If it holds up, Coleman would be among the fortunate Republicans who survived big gains by Democrats nationwide.

President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago's Grant Park on Election Night. (Chicago Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzio.)

by Frank James

It's the morning after one of the most memorable days in American history and we're still too close to it to have as much perspective as we would like.

President-elect Obama. It still seems unreal to many of us that the nation will have a president who is African-American come January 20.

But the realities of what Obama faces are daunting: an economy in recession, two wars, an existential terrorist threat, an energy crisis, global warming, belligerent nation states with leaders who will indeed test him, a deeply divided nation.

Obama knows many of the details of what he faces. But so much is unknowable.

We can only hope that he's the right leader for the moment because many Americans have the sense that we have to get the next four years mostly right or face the real prospect of becoming a superpower in the declining phase of its trajectory.

Your thoughts?

Good morning.

It's the day after the national election.

Look for endless analyses of President-elect Barack Obama's victory over John McCain.

Advocacy groups of all stripes will be opining on how their favorites for the White House and Congress fared and what it might mean for legislative action in the planned lame-duck session of Congress later this month and in the new Congress starting in January.

by Jason George

PHOENIX - Sen. John McCain ended his campaign tonight, conceding to Sen. Barack Obama by telephone and delivering 12 minutes of reflective, conciliatory and humble remarks to his supporters gathered here.

"Senator Obama and I have and have argued our differences and he has prevailed," McCain said. "I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him but offering our next president not just good will."

"Whatever our differences we are fellow American and please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that," he added.

"It is natural tonight to feel some disappointment but tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again."

To many in the crowd that "disappointment" was too much, and several could be heard breaking out into "Boos!" twice, belting shouts of "No way!" and several phrases unmentionable in a family blog.

McCain even once had to calm them.

by Jason George

PHOENIX - Sen. John McCain is in the building.

McCain arrived about 15 minutes ago at Arizona Biltmore, where he plans to hold his rally, win or lose. While he was expected to speak much later tonight - assuming the election was tighter - word is that he could speak within an hour.

McCain, and possible Gov. Sarah Palin, will address supporters and the media outside at the resorts well-manicured courtyard lawn, circled in palm trees. The overall - obviously generalized - mood of the gathered McCain crowd. which is streaming onto the lawn, appears subdued.

by Mark Silva

After months of self-imposed silence, the "washed up terrorist'' of the 2008 presidential campaign - John McCain's name for Chicago's Bill Ayers - has spoken out. He did so with our friend, Peter Slevin, Chicago-based correspondent for the Washington Post.

Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and onetime radical anti-war protester in the 1960s, said that the Republicans had turned him into "a cartoon character'' this year.

Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, had accused Democrat Barack Obama of "palin' around with terrorists'' for working on civic boards in Chicago with Ayers and attending a campaign reception at Ayers' home during Obama's first bid for the state legislature.

"Pal around together? What does that mean? Share a milkshake with two straws? "Ayers told the Post. "I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago. And, like millions and millions of others, I wish I knew him better."

by Frank James

When should a dead voter's vote count and when shouldn't it? The question arises because of the news today that the absentee vote cast by Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, will be counted in Hawaii.

The reflexive answer is that it should never count. How can someone who's no longer among the living have a vote that counts like a living voter's? That would seem to be a violation of the constitutional requirement of one person, one vote.

But Slate's Trailhead blog explains why a vote by Obama's deceased grandmother will be counted:

So why was Dunham's vote allowed to count? Hawaii Chief Elections Officer Kevin Cronin tells Trailhead that, when an absentee voter dies, the ballot is not removed until Hawaii's Department of Health issues an official list of the names of deceased persons to the city clerk's office, which will not happen until later this month. Unlike Steen, who passed away several weeks prior to the election, the two-day turnaround in Dunham's case creates "a practical administrative problem," Cronin says, in fishing out her ballot out from among the tens of thousands of absentee ballots in Honolulu--even if her death had been officially reported by the Department of Health.

by Jill Zuckman

PHOENIX - There was a bittersweet feel to Election Day aboard Sen. John McCain's campaign plane. The candidate seemed subdued, the staff had stopped insisting they would win and the candidate's wife had tears in her eyes.

"This is our last flight on this airplane together," McCain told the traveling press, as Cindy McCain stood at his side, her eyes moist.

"We've had a great ride," said McCain, calling his 24-hour, 7-state, 3,700-mile campaign swing Monday "really a fun day."

"I'm feeling good, feeling confident about the way things have turned out," he said, as Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham watched from behind. "It was a great ride, a great experience, it's full of memories that we will always treasure."

In particular, McCain said he was touched by his last rally in Grand Junction, Colorado today, where the crowd was huge and exuberant.

by Mark Silva

CHICAGO - "When the polls close, the journey ends,'' Sen. Barack Obama said today of the long presidential campaign's close, as he boarded a campaign plane home to Chicago to watch historic election returns.

But for one of these candidates, Obama or Sen. John McCain, the journey is just beginning. An intensive transition will get underway, and the 44th president will be inaugurated on Jan. 20 at a time of likely recession at home and protracted wars abroad.

The expectations surrounding the next president could be difficult for any one leader to meet.

Yet, after 21 months, in Obama's case, something indeed was ending today - and reporters could see it on Obama's face as he boarded his campaign plane in Springfield, Mo. (pictured here in photos by Emanuel Dumand of AFP Photo.)

For McCain, who formally launched his second campaign for the presidency last year - he fell short of the Republican Party's nomination in 2000 and finally claimed it in 2008 - another journey also was ending.

McCain, who had suffered the attacks of George W. Bush's successful campaign in 2000, waged his own high-flying assault against Obama in a campaign that pitted the relative experience of the two combatants against their visions for the nation. Yet in the end, McCain was able to joke about his own fortunes in a good-humored appearance on Saturday Night Live that also was evocative of a journey ending.

McCain staged his last campaign rally in Grand Junction, Colo., today (seen here shaking supporters hands, in a photo by Stephan Savoia of AP.)

He and wife Cindy shared a public, private moment there (captured in the picture by Robyn Beck of AFP / Getty Images.)

by Laura Olson

ARLINGTON, VA. -- A light rain that began in early afternoon coincided with a drop in lines at Virginia polling places.

An estimated 50 percent of voters had cast a ballot by 10 a.m., according to state election officials. That figures combines the 10 percent who participated in the in-person absentee balloting and another 30 to 40 percent at the polls this morning.

Wait times had disappeared by about 1:30 p.m. at a polling spot on the George Mason University campus as well.

Poll workers had to hustle until about 9 a.m., said Kaye Ann Helmich, precinct chief for Arlington County's precinct 40. Voters were already in line when volunteers arrived at 4:45 a.m.

Some waiting outside complained that the line was not moving as officials hurried to set up booths and move those in the beginning of the line through, but crowds dissipated after the initial rush.

by James Oliphant

Twelve Senate races are considered to be close this Election Day. The outcome could have a significant impact on the balance of power on the Hill. Democrats are chasing a 60-vote majority, which would allow them to break a Republican filibuster on any key piece of legislation.

Will they get to 60? Probably not. But the Democrats could grab enough seats to make filibusters difficult on anything that isn't a straight party-line vote.

Right now, the Senate is divided 49-49. Two senators, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, are independents who largely vote with the Democrats.

by Frank James

Fox News Channel breathlessly reported this afternoon on an incident in Philadelphia involving two African-American men dressed as Black Panthers (wasn't Halloween last week?) who were seen standing in front of a polling place in a manner ostensibly intimidating to some voters. One of the men had a nightstick which he apparently slapped menacingly against his hand.

The police were called and they chased one of the men off. The other lived in the building where the polling station was, according to the report, so he had a right to be there.

This is the kind of thing that certainly feed into the fears some whites have that a Barack Obama victory tonight would lead to riots and blacks seeking revenge against whites for centuries of grievances.

But there's another way to look at this which, I submit, is more accurate. Two guys with some issues were playing dress-up trying to rekindle a past that not even real Sixties Black Panthers want to relive. In short, it's an anomaly that shouldn't be blown out of proportion.

by Jill Zuckman

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - After a rally in Colorado, McCain arrived here at his campaign call center where he found supporters cheering him both outside and in.

"Thank you for getting out the vote," McCain told volunteers working from rows of tables with telephones in a warehouse-like room. "I want to thank you for your great work. We've got a few more hours to go vote."

McCain was accompanied by his wife, Cindy, mother, Roberta McCain, Senator Joe Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Pete Domenici, and Rep. Heather Wilson.

"There's very big turnout in states we need big turnouts in - Virginia, Florida, North Carolina," he said. "A couple are coming along well - Ohio and Pennsylvania."

McCain said he has to win New Mexico and joked that "I could talk to you for a long time, but that might cost us votes."

"I can't ever thank you enough," he said. "It's going to be that close."

by Jill Zuckman

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Sen. John McCain had a little more drama than he might like before the polls closed today.

His "Straight Talk Air," a 737 plane, was on the verge of landing when it pulled up abruptly, circled around, teetered back and forth uncomfortably and finally landed safely at 2:07 p.m. Mountain time.

A flight attendant apologized for the "go around," but said there was traffic on the runway.

McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot, voted in Phoenix this morning, flew to Grand Junction, Colo., for a final rally, and then flew to Albuquerque to thank volunteers working for his campaign.

By Andrew Zajac

The Swamp offers this thought to cheer, or perhaps depress, students of the American political process now on the verge of a lull in the action after one of the longest presidential campaigns in U.S. history:

If John McCain wins, you're likely looking at a campaign to succeed him begin soon after he's sworn in, like maybe right after the dancing stops at the inaugural balls.

by James Oliphant

CHICAGO--Your correspondent is here, awaiting the results of today's presidential election.

Having lunch at a downtown Asian restaurant, I decided to see if the message inside the fortune cookie I received at the close of the meal offered any clue about the outcome tonight.

It read:

YOU WILL PASS A DIFFICULT TEST.

Make of that what you will.