Ohio Goes To Obama - Coupled With Pennsylvania, Massive Blow To McCain Upset Hopes
This time it’s Fox News, so I don’t know about no misinformation intimidation…
McCain Camp: “We See No Path”
Barack Obama has won Ohio and Pennsylvania, FOX News projects, delivering a crushing defeat to John McCain in states that were key to his presidential electoral strategy.
The Democratic nominee took a commanding lead over McCain overall as states reported their election returns Tuesday evening, scoring a slew of victories as well in reliable East Coast territory.
Obama has won New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Vermont and the District of Columbia. He also won all four electoral votes in Maine and scored a victory in his home state of Illinois, as well as in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and the southwestern state of New Mexico.
McCain has won Georgia, as well as South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The Democratic nominee has amassed 200 electoral votes to McCain’s 90, with 270 needed to clinch the presidency of the United States.
Pennsylvania, with its 21 electoral votes, was one of the few states that voted Democratic in the 2004 presidential election that McCain was actively pursuing. Another was New Hampshire, which Obama also won Tuesday. McCain aides objected to the Pennsylvania call, complaining that it was too early to project.
McCain’s ever-narrowing path to victory now rests heavily on Florida, which is too close to call, and a number of states President Bush won four years ago that Obama is contesting.
But with Ohio and its 20 electoral votes now in Obama’s column, McCain would likely have to score an upset win in a major Democratic state to recover.
“John McCain is going to need to spring a very big surprise to overcome where he (is) now,” FOX News analyst Michael Barone said.
Obama strategist David Axelrod, watching the returns, told FOX News the Pennsylvania win was “good news” for his candidate.
“We certainly like what we see. Everything we’re seeing is very, very encouraging,” Axelrod said.
Both campaigns are closely watching returns in valuable battlegrounds like Missouri, Virginia and Indiana, which are still too close too call.
Early voters trended toward Obama in North Carolina, but as of Tuesday evening it was unclear whether he earned enough votes on Election Day to carry the state.
Voters continued to cast their ballots in a number of others states after a frenzied day of campaigning that brought the historic and sprawling presidential race to a close.
As results streamed in, Obama headed home to have dinner with his family in Chicago.
Both candidates took their campaigns well into Election Day, as each battled for votes at the 11th hour.
McCain, facing an uphill road to attaining the 270 electoral votes needed to win, first flew into Colorado for his final rally. Then he visited dozens of volunteers at a New Mexico phone bank, before finally heading home to Phoenix, Ariz., to watch returns.
On his campaign plane earlier to Phoenix, Ariz., McCain told reporters he was “feeling confident.”
The Republican nominee continued to argue that he could close Obama’s lead in the critical battleground states.
But with the race playing out almost entirely on GOP turf, the election seemed to be Obama’s to lose.
Obama, in an election day tradition that perhaps demonstrated his confidence, played basketball Tuesday afternoon in Chicago with friends and staff.
Both candidates and their running mates joined enthusiastic voters Tuesday morning in casting their ballots. An estimated 153 million voters were eligible, and in an indication of interest in the battle for the White House, 40 million of them had already voted as Election Day dawned.
Obama is holding what his campaign hopes will be an election celebration Tuesday night in Chicago’s Grant Park. In the afternoon, people were already lining up to gain access to the Obama rally hours later.
Joe Biden cast his ballot shortly before 9 a.m. EST Tuesday at a private school about half a mile from his home in Wilmington, Del.
Sarah Palin voted in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, spending about two minutes in a voting booth located in the town hall where she once presided as mayor.
The Alaska governor said she hopes, prays and believes that she will be able to take her experience as a reformer to Washington as vice president.
Palin is expected to join McCain in Phoenix for the Republicans’ watch party Tuesday night.
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