Conciliatory McCain concedes defeat
John McCain congratulates president-elect Barack Obama after conceding defeat in race for the White House (Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License)
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Wednesday, 05, Nov 2008 07:54
John McCain has congratulated president-elect Barack Obama after conceding defeat in the race for the White House.
The Republican nominee told supporters he would do "everything in his power" to support the new president; just 25 minutes after his Democratic rival's victory was confirmed.
Mr McCain said his opponent's success, in what had been a long and difficult campaign, "commands my respect."
"The American people have spoken and they have spoken clearly," the 72-year-old said in Arizona, adding that he had already telephoned Mr Obama to congratulate him on winning an historic election of "special significance", particularly for African Americans.
The defeated Republican nominee also asked his supporters to join him by backing the new president-elect, saying he would help Mr Obama tackle the challenges facing the US economy at home and the challenges in the international arena as well.
Mr McCain also hailed the way in which the US had moved on from the bigotry of the previous century stating the election of the country's first black president proved that many of the old barriers had been shown to have been removed.
"Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this the greatest nation on earth," he added.
Mr McCain said Barack Obama had "achieved a great thing for himself and his country" and offered his condolence that Mr Obama's grandmother had not lived to see her grandson elected to the presidency.
The Republican added: "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.
"I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulate him but also our offer him our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to overcome our differences to ensure our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world and leave our children and grandchildren in stronger, better country than we inherited.
"Whatever our differences we are fellow Americans, and please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that."