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
East Asian foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration never been more encouraged by and proud of the fact that the United States is our ally." Not long after Obama took office as President of the United States on 20 January 2009, North Korea elbowed its way back onto the international stage after a period of relative quiet during the waning months of the Bush administration. But in spite of a pledge, made during George W. Bush's last few weeks as president, to denuclearize, North Korea drew accusations of planning a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile test weeks after Obama was sworn in. The accusations, which came mostly from