Barack Obama wins election

JMP is delighted to announce that Mr Barack Obama has just formally been declared the winner of November's presidential election in the United States of America. Congress has declared that the electoral votes from that election have been counted (and remember the result depends on electoral votes, not the popular vote); Obama received 375, McCain 173.

This is something of a relief to the more cautious among us, for there are plenty of examples in US electoral history of 'faithless electors' - that is, state electors who do not cast their vote for the candidate who won their state. 158, in fact. And this isn't all odd old colonial history. As recently as 2004, a Minnesota elector, pledged to cast his vote for John Kerry, did so for John Edwards.

Anyway, it's a happy day - all over again.