About USA Election Day
The United States presidential election of 2008 was held on November 4, 2008.
This election was the 56th consecutive quadrennial election in the U.S. and has determined the President and Vice President of the country.
The Republican Party has selected John McCain (Senior U.S. Senator from Arizona). John McCain has selected Sarah Palin (Governor of Alaska) to run as his Vice President.
The Democrats have selected Barrack Obama (U.S. Senator from Illinois). It is the first time in history that an African American is a presidential nominee for a major party. Barrack Obama selected Roman Catholic Joe Biden (senior U.S. Senator from Delaware) to run as his Vice President.
This 2008 election is the first time in U.S. history that two senators have run against each other for president. It is also the first time that both major candidates were born outside the continental United States. Obama was born in Hawaii and McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone..
The 2008 election have coincided with Senate elections in 33 states, House of Representatives elections in all states and gubernatorial elections in 11 states.
The president-elect and vice president-elect are scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20, 2009.
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama spoke at a rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the race for the White House Tuesday night. The following is an exact transcript of his speech. http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/speeches/obama-victory-speech.html
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 stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that 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 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 arc 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 date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.
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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 true 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.
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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; 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.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes 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.
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is 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 Ann 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 doubts 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.
Translation into Italian
Ciao, Chicago!
Se là fuori c'è ancora qualcuno che dubita che l'America sia un luogo dove tutto è possibile, che ancora si chiede se il sogno dei nostri Fondatori sia vivo nella nostra epoca, che ancora mette in dubbio la forza della nostra democrazia, questa notte è la vostra risposta. È la risposta data dalle file di elettori che si estendevano intorno alle scuole e alle chiese, file mai viste prima da questa nazione, è la risposta che hanno dato le persone che hanno aspettato tre, quattro ore, molti per la prima volta in vita loro, perché erano convinti che questa volta doveva essere diverso, che la loro voce poteva fare la differenza.
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Sì, possiamo farcela.
Americani, abbiamo fatto tanta strada. Abbiamo visto tante cose. Ma c'è ancora moltissimo da fare. Perciò questa notte domandiamoci: se i nostri figli dovessero vivere tanto da vedere il prossimo secolo, se le mie figlie dovessero essere tanto fortunate da vivere tanto a lungo quanto Ann Nixon Cooper, quale cambiamento vedranno? Quali progressi avremo realizzato?Questa è la nostra occasione per rispondere a questo appello. Questo è il nostro momento. Questa è la nostra epoca: per rimettere la nostra gente al lavoro e aprire porte di opportunità per i nostri bambini; per riportare la prosperità e promuovere la causa della pace; per rivendicare il sogno americano e riaffermare quella verità fondamentale, che da molti siamo uno; che finché avremo vita avremo speranza: e quando ci troveremo di fronte al cinismo e al dubbio, e a quelli che ci dicono che non ce la possiamo fare, noi risponderemo con quella professione di fede immortale che riassume lo spirito di un popolo: sì, possiamo farcela.Grazie. Dio vi benedica. E che Dio benedica gli Stati Uniti d'America.
