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Well, Barack Hussein Obama is in - the 44th President of the Unite States - with a solid Democratic majority in the Congress and the Senate, and the right to appoint 2 or 3 new Supreme Court justices for life. When Ohio voted Democratic for the first time since Lincoln the race was all but over.

Bush, characteristically, told him to go out and party…

‘What an awesome night for you, your family and your supporters. You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life. Congratulations and go enjoy yourself.’ - George W Bush

Luckily, Obama appears to have more of a grip on reality…

For 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. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage or pay their doctors’ bills or save enough for their child’s college education. There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. - Barack Obama victory speech

Other world leaders were also mindful of the serious challenges facing the new President - banking crises, falling housing prices, looming food and energy shortages, global warming, misguided military adventures, domestic healthcare reform and a recession likely to be deeper than any since WWII…

In defeat McCain was unexpectedly gracious, recalling something of his pre-2000 character, but it looks as though post-election the Republican party will split between the Palin “god, guns and gays” wing and the “fiscal conservative” wing; perhaps never to meet up again.

The final results this time were remarkably close to those forecast by reputable pollsters, despite the usual mis-information campaign. Princeton Election Consortium had the following electoral map going into the night, even picking the ‘too close to call’ states of IN, MO, NC, GA and FL and forecasting Obama with 353 electoral votes.

The final map with two as yet uncalled races - McCain up by 6,000 in MO and Obama up 12,000 in SC - shows Obama with 349, likely to be 364 if SC goes his way. Princeton got only Indiana wrong, where the Obama ‘ground game’ was worth a few unexpected points.

Obama will also end up with a popular majority (ignoring the anachronistic allocation of electoral votes) of 52.4%. These are historic majorities due to, as Krugman says, a national shift to the Democrats of about 8% across all the states. There were the usual problems with faulty electronic vote machines, underserved (poor) areas, and illegal voter barring; but these were not enough to flip either Ohio or Florida this time.

Obama and the Democrats’ victory arguably gives him enough political “capital” to act effectively with respect to the many problems facing the USA - inequality, health care, infrastructure, education, savings - as well as recover something of the historically favorable US reputation overseas. And we know from his campaign policies that he takes good advice. On the other hand, the inertia and corruption revolving around Washington DC has brought many a well-intentioned politician and political crusade to a stand-still.