Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign nominated on a major party ticket. On November 4, 2008, Obama defeated the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, making him the President-elect and the first African American elected President. He was the third sitting U.S. Senator, after Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy, to be elected president. Upon the vote of the Electoral College on December 15, 2008, and the subsequent certification thereof by a Joint Session of the United States Congress on January 8, 2009, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and Joe Biden Vice President of the United States, with 365 of
Mark Myers Mark Myers Mark D. Myers is an American geologist who served as the fourteenth Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). He was nominated by President George W. Bush on May 3, 2006, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn in September 26, 2006. Dr. Myers replaced prior director Charles G. Groat, who had resigned effective June 17, 2005. Anticipating the inauguration of Barack Obama as U.S. president, Myers resigned as USGS director on January 8, 2009, "as is customary during a change in Administrations." On January 21, 2009, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appointed Myers as coordinator for the Alaska