 On November 4, 2008, McCain lost to Barack Obama in the general election, receiving 173 votes of the electoral college to Obama's 365 and gaining 46 percent of the popular vote to Obama's 53 percent.Had McCain been elected, he would have been the oldest President to take office at age 72, succeeding Ronald Reagan, who did so at age 69, and the first not born in the 50 states, as he was born in the Panama Canal Zone (a U.S.Territory at the time of McCain's birth).