Joyful supporters cheered as President Barack Obama stepped out to speak at his victory party in Chicago in the early hours of Wednesday, thanking them and millions of voters for allowing him another four years to lead the nation forward.

"Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come," he told them.

When Obama finished, the first family and Vice President Joe Biden and his family joined him onstage in a celebration of waves and hugs amid a blizzard of confetti.

But despite the happiness and relief, the mood was perhaps more subdued than that experienced by those who were present for the wild celebrations four years earlier in Grant Park.

Nearly everyone in the room had worked to get the president re-elected, either making phone calls or knocking on doors, and as they eagerly awaited his remarks early Wednesday morning there seemed to be less of the dreamy optimism that surrounded the 2008 campaign.

Those seated in the bleachers energetically waved tiny American flags, and those on the floor calmly mingled, cheering sporadically whenever networks called a state for the president.

But gone were the chants of "yes we can," replaced instead with chants of "four more years," and the president's re-election message was echoed in conversations throughout the convention hall -- there's still more work to do.

Gov. Mitt Romney's concession speech was played on the monitors flanking the stage, and the crowd cheered as the defeated challenger admitted that "the nation chose another leader."

But it also cheered, albeit somewhat begrudgingly, when the president thanked campaign volunteers from both parties, saying, "Whether you held an Obama sign or a Romney sign, you made your voice heard and you made a difference."

And when Obama talked of sitting down with his former rival "to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward," there was scattered yet enthusiastic applause at the prospect of bipartisanship.

After getting their pictures taken or recording some cellphone video, a few members of the audience floated toward the exits to beat the crowds, but the vast majority stayed through to the end.

In conversations they expressed a conviction that the country is indeed moving in the right direction, but most admitted readily that the change they'd voted for would require more hard work.

The president's final exit from the campaign stage had come more than 24 hours earlier.

With the imposing Iowa State Capitol looming over a soggy crowd that bore near-freezing temperatures in windswept Des Moines, Obama made his last major appearance of the 2012 campaign to urge the more than 20,000 supporters to maintain the enthusiasm that first catapulted him from a fresh-faced senator to presidential front-runner nearly five years ago.

Flanked by first lady Michelle Obama and rock star Bruce Springsteen, Obama's final bow just before midnight marked at long last the arrival of Election Day and the end of the president's last campaign -- 105 rallies after kicking off his re-election effort in Ohio and Virginia seven months prior.

And when Air Force One touched down in Obama's hometown of Chicago 60 minutes later, the president's role as a candidate was all but done.

On Election Day itself, Obama largely lay low, as has long been his practice when it comes time for voters to head to the polls. That's not to say the president closed the book on entirely on his re-election effort. Obama sat for a string of satellite interviews with television stations in battleground states in a final effort to get his message out, including two each in Iowa, Ohio and Florida -- states the president's campaign particularly focused on.

Markets in Nevada and Colorado also got interviews. And in the afternoon, the president sat for an additional six interviews in yet more battleground markets.

The president also turned up at a campaign field office in Chicago on Tuesday to shake hands with volunteers.

"I just want to say how grateful Michelle and I am for all the families, all the communities who have welcomed us, into their homes in some cases, into the neighborhoods, and have in some cases worked so hard on our behalf," the president said at the stop.