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
Oath of office of the Vice President of the United States office of President of the Senate. Up until the middle of the 20th Century, the Vice President-Elect nearly always would be sworn in by the highest-ranking officer of the US Senate which was the outgoing vice president or the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. Sometimes, although not always, a short address would be given by the new vice president to the Senate. The oath of office has been administered most by the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate (last in 1925) for a total of 20 times. Others to give the oath of office include