PRESIDENT Clinton swept back to the White House early this morning as he reached the crucial figure of 270 electoral college votes and left his Republican challenger, Mr Bob Dole, trailing well behind. Mr Clinton became the first Democratic President to win re-election for a second term since Franklin D. Roosevelt 60 years ago.
But as Mr Clinton piled up the necessary votes to give him a second Presidential term, the Republicans fought back strongly in the Congressional races. While the Presidential race was virtually over by 3 a.m. Irish time, the House of Representatives and Senate contests were becoming more long-drawn out affairs.
Mr Dole's press officer, Mr Nelson Warfield, said in a statement that Mr Dote had "completed his last political mission with courage and honour".
It was also doubtful at this stage if Mr Clinton would win over 50 per cent of the popular vote as he had hoped, so that he could start his second term with a majority mandate.
The Reform Party candidate, Mr Ross Perot, was polling only just over one third of the 19 per cent of votes he won in 1992.
There were indications that the President will not be able to travel to Ireland for the EU-US Summit next month because he will be too busy putting together his new Administration. The summit is now expected to take place in Washington after Mr Clinton returns from an extended tour of Australia and the Far East.
President Clinton's satisfaction at winning a second term, just two years after the Democrats were routed in the mid-term elections, would be diminished if the Republicans retained control of the Senate. This would mean that Republican chairmen would be able to continue leading Senate investigations into Whitewater and related scandals.
From the time that the polls started closing on the east coast a clear pattern of Clinton victories was quickly established. An early blow to Mr Dote was Mr Clinton's capture of the normally Republican stronghold of Florida with its 25 electoral college votes.
The Clinton landslide continued as Mr Dote had to be content to hold traditional Republican states like Texas, Indiana, Oaklahoma, Alabama and of course his home state of Kansas.
Well before the polls closed, there were private predictions by the TV networks who commission exit polls that Mr Clinton was leading Mr Dote by 49 per cent to 42.
There was doubt, however, over whether the Democrats would win back control of Congress. But Republican leaders were warning that regardless of results, they would be pursuing Mr Clinton on allegations of abuse of fund-raising rules as well as on the series of investigations into Whitewater and other scandals. Reports of large sums of foreign money flowing into the Democrat campaign are believed to have affected support for President Clinton and Democrats running for Congress.
The first changes in President Clinton's White House staff for the second term leaked out during election day when it was confirmed that his chief of staff, Mr Leon Panetta, was to quit in the coming days. His replacement could be a golfing friend of Mr Clinton and a North Carolina banker, Mr Erskine Bowles, who had already served as a deputy chief of staff.
The celebrations for the Clinton victory began during the night in front of the Old State House in Little Rock, Arkansas, the same spot where the President hailed his first victory four years ago.
The Republican challenger, Mr Bob Dole, finished a gruelling 96-hour non-stop final campaign with a pre-dawn rally in Independence, Missouri, in front of the statue of President Truman, who snatched victory in face of overwhelming odds in 1948.
There was shock in the Dole camp when this week's issue of the New Yorker magazine had an interview with the candidate's campaign manager, Mr Scott Reed, in which he revealed that Mr Dote recognised in the later stages of the campaign that it was virtually over.
Other Presidential candidates who attracted little notice during the campaign were Mr Ralph Nader of the Green Party; Mr Harry Browne of the Libertarian Party; and Mr John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party.