It's Official!

It's official: Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States.

In a just completed joint session of Congress, the electoral votes from the November 4th election have been tallied, and Obama has been formally declared the winner. As expected, Obama received 365 votes, while John McCain received 173 votes. Now that's a mandate.

Emerging from his undisclosed location for the last time to preside as president of the Senate, Dick Cheney managed to make the official announcement with barely a snarl.