Obama, 47, the son of a black man from Kenya and white woman from Kansas, served just two years in U.S. Senate before declaring his candidacy and ultimately taking on one of the most experienced politicians in the United States.
A moderate conservative who tried to emphasize his credentials as a maverick and distance himself from an unpopular president, McCain, 72, was unable to motivate his base and overcome his associations with Republican incumbent President Bush.
Obama built a coalition grounded on a base of near unanimous support from black voters, who made up 13 percent of the national vote. Obama also won nearly 70 percent of the vote of Hispanics. While John McCain was able to win white voters by 54-44 percent, Obama made inroads with them as well.
Voters shifted to the Democratic Party in this election, with Republican turnout falling to its lowest point since 1980.
By almost every quantifiable measure -- from the $640 million Obama raised in the month of October to the nearly $1 billion the campaigns have spent combined to 9 million newly registered voters -- records have been shattered.
Yet another record may fall once the number of voters is tallied. Turnout was heavy throughout the day and could surpass previous voting turnout records. The existing records were set in 2004 when more than 122 million Americans went to the polls, and in 1960 when 64 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Each of the candidates was a dark horse who pundits predicted would never make it past the first weeks of their parties' respective primaries. Obama ultimately beat out Clinton for the nomination, the first glimmer of future success.
In perhaps the greatest and most calculated flip-flop of his campaign, Obama forwent public financing allowing him to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from donors contributing small amounts of money, proving that he was not just a neophyte who could make good speeches but a scrappy politician from Chicago.
McCain, too, changed course. In the final weeks of the campaign, the Arizona senator struck a more negative tone and, along with vice presidential running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, began attacking Obama's relationships and judgment.
In the third and final presidential debate, McCain assailed Obama for his relationship with 1960s radical William Ayers and his campaign began aggressively using auto-dialed calls -- known as robocalls -- to voters to relay negative messages, frequently focusing on the Democrat's experience and readiness for the White House.
That strategy didn't seem to achieve the desired effect, with voters responding in polls in the race's final weeks that they were turned off by the negative ads and attack tactics.
The economy is nationally the overwhelming issue for voters who cast their ballots in today's historic presidential election, according to early exit polls.
Despite the possibility of Obama becoming the nation's first black president, the turnout of black voters as a percentage of the national vote was 13 percent, just slightly higher than in 2004, according to early exit polls.
The economy has long dominated the campaign, and voters' concerns became heightened when the major banks and credit markets needed a massive federal bailout to avoid a fiscal catastrophe.
Four in 10 voters said their family's financial situation was worse than it was four years ago, and eight in 10 are worried the current economic crisis will hurt their family finances over the next year.
McCain Votes and Keeps on CampaigningIn an indication of how intensely fought this campaign had been, both candidates kept holding large rallies and television interviews even as voters swarmed to their polling sites. In the past, presidential candidates have halted their campaigns on Election Day.
McCain voted early in Phoenix before heading off for some last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts in New Mexico and Colorado, two states where the GOP presidential pick had trailed but hoped to pull out narrow victories.
"I promise you if I'm elected president, I will never let you down," an energized McCain told a crowd in Colorado.
"I think we ought to hear one more time 'drill, baby drill,'" he cheerfully suggested and the crowd obliged with the campaign's chant.
Palin on Troopergate: 'We Did Nothing Wrong'After voting at a Chicago school, Obama spent the morning campaigning in Indiana before returning to Chicago to conduct television interviews broadcast via satellite to the swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada and Missouri.
Obama voted with his two young daughters in Chicago before he plunged into a final round of campaigning in Indiana.
"I voted," the Democratic presidential candidate said, holding up the validation slip he was given after turning in a ballot at the Shoesmith School in his Chicago neighborhood.
Obama voted at the same polling station as William Ayers, the former 1960s radical who became a flashpoint in the campaign when Palin accused Obama of "palling around" with a domestic terrorist.
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