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WASHINGTON – His name etched in history as America’s first black president, Barack Obama turned from the jubilation of victory to the sober challenge of leading a nation worried about economic crisis, two unfinished wars and global uncertainty.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep," Obama cautioned.

Young and charismatic but with little experience on the national level, Obama smashed through racial barriers and easily defeated Republican John McCain to become the first African-American destined to sit in the Oval Office, America’s 44th president. He was the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

"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," Obama told a victory rally of 125,000 people jammed into Chicago’s Grant Park.

Obama scored an Electoral College landslide that redrew America’s political map. He won states that reliably voted Republican in presidential elections, like Indiana and Virginia, which hadn’t supported the Democratic candidate in 44 years. Ohio and Florida, key to Bush’s twin victories, also went for Obama, as did Pennsylvania, which McCain had deemed crucial for his election hopes.

With just 76 days until the inauguration, Obama is expected to move quickly to begin assembling a White House staff and selecting Cabinet nominees.

Campaign officials said Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel was the front-runner to be Obama’s chief of staff. The advisers spoke on a condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

Obama’s victory was sweetened by Democratic gains in both houses of Congress. In the Senate, Democrats ousted Republicans Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and captured seats held by retiring GOP senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado. Democrats scored big gains in the House, as well.

When Obama and running mate Joe Biden take their oath of office on Jan. 20, Democrats will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.

"It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said: "Tonight the American people have called for a new direction. They have called for change in America."

After the longest and costliest campaign in U.S. history, Obama was propelled to victory by voters dismayed by eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency and deeply anxious about rising unemployment and home foreclosures and a battered stock market that has erased trillions of dollars of savings for Americans.

Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation in an Associated Press exit poll. None of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was selected by more than one in 10. Obama has promised to cut taxes for most Americans, get the United States out of Iraq and expand health care, including mandatory coverage for children.

Obama acknowledged that repairing the economy and dealing with problems at home and overseas will not happen quickly. "We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said. "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 there."

McCain conceded defeat shortly after 11 p.m. EST, telling supporters outside the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."

"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain said. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."

Obama faces a staggering list of problems, and he mentioned some of them in his victory speech. "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." He spoke of parents who worry about paying their mortgages and medical bills.

"There will be setbacks and false starts," Obama said. "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."

The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, the 47-year-old Obama has had a startlingly rapid rise, from lawyer and community organizer to state legislator and U.S. senator, now just four years into his first term. He is the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Bush called Obama with congratulations at 11:12 p.m. EST. "I promise to make this a smooth transition," the president said. "You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life. Congratulations and go enjoy yourself." He invited Obama and his family to visit the White House soon.

Bush planned to make a statement about the election at mid-morning Wednesday in the Rose Garden.

With most U.S. precincts tallied, the popular vote was 51.9 percent for Obama and 46.8 percent for McCain. But the count in the Electoral College was lopsided in Obama’s favor over McCain — 349 to 147 as of early Wednesday, with four states still to be decided. Those were North Carolina, Georgia and Missouri.

Obama won California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

McCain had Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. He also won at least 3 of Nebraska’s five electoral votes, with the other two in doubt.

Almost six in 10 women supported Obama nationwide, while men leaned his way by a narrow margin, according to interviews with voters. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.

The results of the AP survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.

In terms of turnout, America voted in record numbers. Preliminary projections, based on 83 percent of the country’s precincts tallied, indicate that more than 131 million Americans will have voted this year, easily outdistancing 2004’s 122.3 million, which had been the highest grand total of voters before. That puts the 2008 turnout rate of eligible voters around 64 percent, experts said.

source: news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – John McCain carried Kentucky, and Barack Obama countered with a Vermont victory as he bid to become the first black president Tuesday night, first spoils in the race for the White House. Democrats gained a Senate seat, the first of several they had in their sights in a country at war and anything but prosperous.

Interviews with voters suggested that almost six in 10 women were backing Obama, and men leaned his way by a narrow margin. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that President Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.

The results of The Associated Press survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.

The same survey showed the economy was by far the top Election Day issue. Six in 10 voters said so, and none of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was picked by more than one in 10.

The AP made its calls of individual states based on surveys of voters as they left the polls.

The early nationwide popular vote was close. Obama had 51 percent, McCain 48 with 1 percent counted.

In the Electoral College, where it mattered, Kentucky gave McCain eight votes. Vermont was good for three for the Democrat.

Obama’s hopes rested on securing the states that John Kerry won in 2004, and picking off other battlegrounds where he waged a costly effort.

Indiana, which last voted Democratic 40 years ago, was one of those, and with votes counted in 20 percent of the precincts, McCain was up 52 to 46 percent.

The Senate seat that switched from Republican to Democrat was in Virginia, where former Gov. Mark Warner won his race to replace retiring Republican John Warner. The two men are not related.

The White House was the main prize of the night on which 35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats were at stake. In both houses, Democrats hoped to pad their existing majorities, and Republicans braced for losses.

A dozen states elected governors, and ballots across the country were dotted with issues ranging from taxes to gay rights.

By tradition, the first handful of ballots were cast just after midnight in tiny Dixville Notch, N.H. Obama got 15 votes and McCain six.

They were the first of tens of millions in the race to gain 270 electoral votes and succeed George W. Bush on Jan. 20 as the 44th president.

An estimated 187 million voters were registered, and in an indication of interest in the battle for the White House, 40 million or so had already voted as Election Day dawned. Turnout was heavy. In Virginia, for example, officials estimated nearly 75 percent of eligible voters would cast ballots.

Obama awaited the results at home in Chicago after a marathon campaign across 21 months and 49 states. At 47, with only four years in the Senate, he sought election as one of the youngest presidents, and one of the least experienced in national political affairs.

That wasn’t what set the Illinois senator apart, though — neither from his rivals nor from the 43 men who had served as president since the nation’s founding more than two centuries ago. A black man, he confronted a previously unbreakable barrier as he campaigned on twin themes of change and hope in uncertain times.

McCain, a prisoner of war during Vietnam, a generation older than his rival at 72, waited in Arizona to learn the outcome of the election. It was his second try for the White House, following his defeat in the battle for the GOP nomination in 2000.

A conservative, he stressed his maverick’s streak. And a Republican, he did what he could to separate himself from an unpopular president.

For the most part, the two presidential candidates and their running mates, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, spent weeks campaigning in states that went for Bush four years ago. Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada drew most of their time. Pennsylvania also drew attention as McCain sought to invade traditionally Democratic turf.

McCain and Obama each won contested nominations — the Democrat outdistancing former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton — and promptly set out to claim the mantle of change.

"I am not George W. Bush," McCain said in one debate.

Obama retorted that he might as well be, telling audiences in state after state that the Republican had voted with the president 90 percent of the time across eight years of the Bush administration.

After voting with her husband, the former president, Clinton called Bush "the lamest of lame ducks" and predicted that Obama would win and begin making presidential appointments and announcing economic policies within weeks.

The war in Iraq dominated the campaign early on, but by Election Day it had faded as an issue.

The economy mattered above all else, with millions facing home foreclosures, joblessness rising and Americans tallying the losses in their retirement accounts after a stock market plunge.

The race was easily the costliest in history, in excess of $1 billion, more after the congressional campaigns were counted.

McCain accepted federal matching funds, and was limited to $84 million for the fall campaign.

After first saying he would go along, Obama reversed course, then raised and spent multiples of what his rival was allowed.

McCain sought to make an issue of that, saying Obama had broken his word to the public. For weeks on end, he could not match his rival’s television advertising onslaught.

Figures through mid-October showed Obama had spent roughly $240 million on television and radio advertisements.

McCain had shelled out about $115 million, and the Republican National Committee an additional $80 million on his behalf.

In the battle for Congress, Democrats began the night with a 51-49 majority in the Senate, including two independents. Their majority in the House was 235-199, with one vacancy.

In both cases, Republicans fought to overcome a financial disadvantage as well as numerous retirements.

The governor’s races included open seats in North Carolina, Delaware and Missouri.

The ballot issues ran from a measure to ban abortion in South Dakota to proposals outlawing affirmative action in Colorado and Nebraska. Three states voted on gay marriage.

source: news.yahoo.com

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NEW YORK - A New York judge has bid "auf Wiedersehen" to fashion industry veterans who claimed Heidi Klum and others ripped off their idea for television’s "Project Runway."

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska has agreed to toss out the lawsuit, which claimed the reality series was based on an idea submitted by a fashion designer and a fashion merchandiser.

Preska said in a written opinion that it was clear the show was developed independently of the two women who challenged its originality.

In a deposition, Klum said the show resulted from several brainstorming sessions by its creators. She said she had never heard of the plaintiffs’ idea for the show.

Klum is known for telling contestants who don’t make the cut, "You’re aufed!" — short for the German farewell.

Paris - One fashion house that seems poised to ride out the current financial crisis is surely Stella McCartney, the London-based designer who staged a wittily tailored spring 2009 collection in Paris Thursday, Oct. 2, that was all about women raiding their boyfriends’ wardrobe for clothes and inspiration.

Silk jackets came long and loosely cut with mannish lapels, boyish shantung shirts appeared in combo with just knickers, as if each model had grabbed what they wanted out of their main squeeze’s closet as they headed out to a gallery opening.

And though the cut was large and roomy, Stella is also no slouch when it comes to tailoring, as one splendidly designed boiler suit meets men’s tuxedo amply underlined. But in a show brimming with Stella’s own brand of pop insouciance, the best looks were McCartney’s dresses - either a series of mesh cocktails where summer scenes were applied with huge stencils or a flurry of nattily draped mini dresses with front petal folds.

"I love what my little girl does, especially the dresses. They were so cool," opined Sir Paul McCartney, who sat front row, one block down from L’Wren Scott, stylist and gal pal of Mick Jagger, who was wearing her own clobber.

Ironically, though the show was staged before a mammoth, 12,000 square-foot children’s comic cloth backdrop by artist twins Jake and Dino Chapman, the collection was almost completely mono-color. But its flesh, sand and dusty blush hues were just right.

The slick show came two weeks after Stella’s latest savvy and commercially excellent exercise collection for adidas was unveiled to acclaim in London. And retailers, scores of whom packed into the Carreau du Temple exhibition space for McCartney’s show, raved about her sell-through, her Russian agent bragging that he did $6 million wholesale volume last year.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters Life!) - Tired of running out of batteries and having to find a socket to charge your cell phone or iPod? An Argentine fashion designer may have the answer: a timeless jacket with a built-in solar panel.
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Julieta Gayoso’s line of "intelligent" clothing acknowledges technology’s constant presence in the modern world and the annoyance caused by dead batteries.

"Today, technology is more and more mobile. It has the freedom of wireless connection, but when batteries run out you have to plug into the grid. So this is a way to have mobile energy and, of course, it’s clean," Gayoso, 36, told Reuters Television earlier this week.

Enter Gayoso’s innovative solar-panel jacket. A cable runs from the panel to a battery in the inside pocket where up to eight electronic devices can be recharged at the same time whenever there is sunshine.

That’s not all Gayoso has come up with. Her Indarra.dtx (http://www.indarradtx.com) clothing line includes pants and jackets with wireless control devices that let users skip songs or pump up the volume with their MP3 players stowed safely at the bottom of a backpack.

It may sound gimmicky, but her clothes are not futuristic catwalk creations. They are deliberately classic in style — utilitarian garments built to be worn over time.

"We’re focusing on products that are not seasonal, that can be used during the winter, during the summer," she said. "It’s a classic style. The pants aren’t too tight or baggy, but made so you want to wear them for years."

Gayoso started the project in late 2006 and launched the first line of clothing earlier this year.

She is now working on a second collection and hopes to export next year.

NEW YORK - As you sample the half-dozen new series arriving in the next week, you might find that no matter how widely they vary otherwise, they share a common link: All of them are playing with time.

• Consider "The Ex List," CBS’ romantic comedy premiering Friday at 9 p.m. EDT. A storefront psychic tells 33-year-old Bella Bloom that she can stop looking for Mr. Right — because she’s already found him. Among all the men Bella has dated and broken up with, one of them is her soul-mate. But she’s got just 12 months to figure out which one is her designated husband-to-be and close the deal.

The humorously fickle, hot-and-cold Bella (Elizabeth Reaser) has been put on notice. She must rewrite her history so she can live happily ever after. But can she avoid the same romantic pitfalls that sank her relationships the first time around?

Does anybody learn from past mistakes in love? That’s the question "The Ex List" poses. Then, with amusing insight, it seems to conclude: hmmmmm … unlikely.

A pair of refreshingly quirky shows debuting Sunday on CW make time part of their equation.

• "Valentine," a romantic fantasy, plucks Aphrodite, goddess of love, from ancient mythology and establishes her in the modern Hollywood Hills to help make love bloom between predestined partners. Assisting her (here known as Grace Valentine) are her son Danny (aka Eros), Leo (aka Hercules) and Phoebe, who deals with the Oracle not in Delphi but swirling in a pool at their mansion.

But all is not well with their mission.

"The world has been changing around us year after year," Grace worries, "yet we stay the same."

They need to add the human touch, so Grace enlists a mortal L.A. woman — a romance novelist.

Premiering at 8 p.m. EDT, "Valentine" is "Love Boat" by way of "Pushing Daisies," silly but engaging, with Grace played by British enchantress Jaime Murray (a sensation last season on "Dexter"). All this is reason enough to check it out, though — truth be told — the rest of the cast is pretty second-rate. Too bad. On a TV series, love isn’t all you need.

• Acting chops aren’t a problem for the odd but oddly endearing CW drama at 9 p.m. EDT. "Easy Money" has a solid ensemble headed up by Laurie Metcalf ("Desperate Housewives," "Roseanne") as Bobette Buffkin, the tough matriarch of the family owned Prestige Payday Loans.

Loan sharks?!

"We HELP people," Bobette argues with sugary persuasiveness. "People that the banks don’t think are good enough, they come to us in their hours of need and we help them."

This is a show where time is at a premium, with the interest rate something like 25 percent a week.

Extortionate? "What are charge cards up to now?" counters Bobette.

Of course, MasterCard wouldn’t rely on physical abuse as a collection technique, which is one reason that Morgan, Bobette’s favored son, is thinking he doesn’t belong in this profession. Still, the pull of family, even a family where he somehow senses he’s a misfit, can be hard to escape. No wonder Morgan feels time weighing on him.

• Time is an even more explicit element in ABC’s mystical cop show, "Life on Mars," premiering Oct. 9 at 10 p.m. EDT. An NYPD detective is hurled back to circa-1973 Manhattan, where — along with trying to figure how he got there and how to return to 2008 — he must try to save his girlfriend’s life 35 years in advance.

Based on the BBC hit, "Life on Mars" has a fascinating two-pronged premise: old-school cop procedural and cosmic mystery. Its strong cast includes Jason O’Mara as the man from the "future," and Michael Imperioli, Gretchen Mol and Harvey Keitel as squad members of the 125th Precinct back when Richard Nixon was president and a cell was just something scientists study under microscopes.

• Also premiering Oct. 9 at 10 p.m. EDT, CBS’ "Eleventh Hour" actually puts time in the title. Except it’s figurative (and cliche): Biophysicist brainiac Dr. Jacob Hood gets called in at the eleventh hour as the last line of defense against scientifically based crimes that threaten society. (In the premiere, young boys in a Southern town are dropping dead from heart attacks.)

With his piercing eyes and breathy delivery, Rufus Sewell plays Dr. Hood as TV’s sexiest nerd. He seems to know everything and never falters at each problem-solving step.

"Rachel? I’m gonna need some buff-tail bumblebees," he says matter-of-factly.

Rachel is FBI Special Agent Rachel Young, who’s assigned to keep Hood safe. As she puts it, he’s "a high-priority asset." Rachel (co-star Marley Shelton) is a knockout, of course. That’s one of the job requirements for a TV crime procedural.

In short, "Eleventh Hour" is a formulaic mix of murder, mayhem and "Bill Nye the Science Guy." You’ve seen it a thousand times. If you’re ready for 1,001, this is your show.

• Somewhere at the other end of the IQ scale from Dr. Hood, look for the mother-and-daughter team on "Kath & Kim." They, as Kim would put it, "aren’t exactly rocket surgeons."

In this NBC comedy, which premieres Oct. 9 at 8:30 p.m. EDT, Molly Shannon plays tacky suburbanite Kath, whose life-begins-at-40 plans are dashed when Kim moves back home after six weeks of marriage.

"I’m a trophy wife," Kim pouts. "I didn’t sign up for cooking dinner, or being interested in how anyone’s day was."

Kim (masterfully embodied by Selma Blair) is spoiled, petulant and manipulative. Kath is desperately cheery and overeager. They’re diametric opposites who, nonetheless, share a riotous fashion sense and a fascination with celebs like Britney Spears. They’re best friends stuck together in a time warp of arrested adolescence. They’re happy there. And very funny.

LOS ANGELES - It was movie stars celebrating movies, as Sean Connery, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Jodie Foster, Dustin Hoffman and a host of others gathered in Hollywood for the American Film Institute’s annual night at the movies.

It was also movie stars voicing concerns for an ailing nation following the Senate’s approval Wednesday of the $700 billion economic bailout plan.

"Well, it’s great," said Annette Bening, who arrived at ArcLight Hollywood with husband Warren Beatty. "I think we all need to be educated more about why it’s important to pass the bailout. And from everything that I understand, it’s a way of us moving forward. I’m glad that the Senate did that, and I hope that the House follows."

Bening was at "Target Presents AFI Night at the Movies," which screened 12 classic American films in a single night, to introduce "American Beauty," the Academy Award winner in which she starred with Kevin Spacey.

Jim Carrey, there to introduce "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," walked the media gauntlet with girlfriend Jenny McCarthy, who commented, "People are going to be relieved a little bit that there is going to be some help. But then there is the other side that thinks the rich are only going to get richer."

Added Carrey, "They will figure out a way to consume it. … I think it’s a good thing, temporarily. I don’t know in the long run. Who knows? It’s kind of a strange thing to take taxpayers’ money and be doing that kind of thing with. I don’t trust anybody."

Carrey’s fellow Canadian, "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" actor Mike Myers, was somewhat reluctant when asked to do some bailout banter. "I have made some comedies and that’s how you know me, so . . . I don’t know what the etiquette is about one’s political beliefs. I am very concerned for people that the economy turn around. … The strength of democracy is not how well we agree but how well we disagree. The strength of a society is how well we take care of our most disenfranchised."

The high-profile gathering reunited actors with some of their famous films: Cameron Diaz introduced "There’s Something About Mary"; Shirley MacLaine, "The Apartment"; Steve Martin, "The Jerk"; Denzel Washington, "Glory"; Rita Moreno, "West Side Story."

Connery introduced "The Man Who Would be King"; Reeves, "The Matrix"; Hoffman, "Tootsie"; and Foster, "The Silence of the Lambs" — a rare thriller that went on to both commercial and artistic triumphs.

"It was an absolutely beautiful novel and was beautiful in the details, the tapestry of the details, as it was in this just really primal, unconscious thing," Foster said. "It caught us intellectually, but it also caught us in this really primal place that none of us really understand, and hit both things."

Bening said "American Beauty" was "made for the right reasons."

"People just were following their heart," she said. "When I first saw it, I have to say, I was just blown away, because I thought, ‘This really came together as we hoped it would.’ … I’ve made some movies that I really loved that nobody saw. … So, the fact that this was a success, on top of being something that I was really proud of, it’s like a dream come truly."

Bening was also asked about Thursday night’s impending debate between vice-presidential candidates Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin.

"I just want to be educated. I am a student of politics and these are our experts and we deserve to hear everything — especially from Governor Palin because we don’t know that much about her," Bening said.

"I am feeling really good about this Sarah Palin," Carrey said, "because I used to live in Canada and you could to see Alaska from there. So I know everything there is to know about her."