Obama sweeps to victories, leads McCain as early vote tallies arrive
Vote 2008 Presidential Election: Obama leads McCain as early vote tallies arrive. News from WASHINGTON – Barack Obama opened a lead in his bid to become the first black president Tuesday night, moving ahead of Republican John McCain in a nation clamoring for change. Fellow Democrats picked up Senate seats in Virginia and North Carolina and elected a Missouri governor.
Obama swept to victories in traditionally Democratic states in the East and Midwest and jumped ahead in fragmentary returns from Pennsylvania, a state where his rival invested heavily in hopes of winning in traditionally inhospitable territory.
McCain countered in the safest of Republican states.
That left the battlegrounds to settle the race: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, as well as Pennsylvania and more. Most were customarily Republican, but Obama spent millions hoping to peel away enough to make him the 44th president.
“May God bless whoever wins tonight,” President Bush told dinner guests at the White House, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Interviews with voters suggested that almost six in 10 women were backing Obama, and men leaned his way by a narrow margin. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that President Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.
The results of The Associated Press survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.
The same survey showed the economy was by far the top Election Day issue. Six in 10 voters said so, and none of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was picked by more than one in 10.
The AP made its calls of individual states based on surveys of voters as they left the polls.
Obama had New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey, as well as the District of Columbia, for 82 electoral votes. McCain had challenged in none of them.
McCain had Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and South Carolina, for 34 electoral votes. Obama conceded them from the outset.
The nationwide popular vote was remarkably close. Totals from 6 percent of the nation’s precincts showed McCain was ahead, 49.8 percent to 49.3 percent for Obama.
In Senate races, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner won his race to replace retiring Republican John Warner, and in North Carolina Democrat Kay Hagan defeated Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
Missouri’s attorney general, Jay Nixon was elected his state’s governor, replacing a Republican, Matt Blunt, who retired rather than run again.
Obama leads McCain as early vote tallies arrive. News from WASHINGTON – Barack Obama opened a lead in his bid to become the first black president Tuesday night, moving ahead of Republican John McCain in a nation clamoring for change. Fellow Democrats picked up Senate seats in Virginia and North Carolina and elected a Missouri governor. Editing by Jane Christ
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