Obama has early electoral lead

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By Barbara Slavin

UPDATED:

Democrat Barack Obama amassed an early lead Tuesday, including a projected win in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, as his epic election battle with Republican John McCain drew to a close.

U.S. media projected wins for the Democrat in Vermont, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut, Maine, Delaware, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia. McCain was projected to win in Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama and Arkansas.

Obama was also projected to win in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that McCain had declared a must-win.

Obama had 102 electoral votes to McCain's 49; 270 is needed to win.

Americans packed schoolhouses and streamed in long lines around city blocks to participate in an election dominated by a battered economy at home and war abroad and which offered a certain history-making result.

Obama and McCain campaigned to the very last minute, offering voters a choice between the first black president or a war hero whose runningmate would shatter the political glass ceiling for women.

McCain visited campaign volunteers after a rally in Colorado where he urged supporters not to give up despite polls and pundits predicting a Democratic victory.

"America is worth fighting for," the Arizona senator told a crowd of several thousand at an airport hanger in Grand Junction. "Nothing is inevitable here."

When Mr. McCain came to the press area of the Straight Talk Express this evening on his way back to Arizona, his wife Cindy and close friends Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman joined him. The trio had tears in their eyes.