As we reach 10 p.m. ET, Barack Obama appears to be on the path to 270 electoral votes and the presidency.
The major dominoes to fall over the last hour — Pennsylvania and Ohio for Obama — as well as a series of too-close-to-call states — Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina — all point to the fact that Obama is the odds-on favorite to be the 44th president of the United States.
Obama currently sits at 195 electoral votes to McCain’s 85. Even if McCain sweeps all of the toss up states we mentioned above, he still stands at only 136 electoral votes. And, with almost certain wins for Obama in Iowa and New Mexico — both of which were carried by Bush in 2004 — Obama would stand fewer than 90 votes away from the presidency.
What we have seen so far on this election night is that Obama has made good on his promise to expand the map — running surprisingly strong in places like Indiana and North Carolina, states which haven’t voted for a Democrat for president in modern political history.
Obama’s ability to expand the map will be traced to two major factors: the widespread unpopularity of President Bush and the Illinois senator’s massive fundraising edge over John McCain.
National exit polling showed that roughly three-quarters of the electorate disapproved of the job that Bush was doing — more than 50 percent doing so strongly.
Couple that dissatisfaction with Bush and Republicans with Obama’s massive fundraising operation, which has funded huge television campaigns and get out the vote organizations in key battleground states, and you begin to get a sense of how the Illinois senator has broken the red state-blue state deadlock of the 2000 and 2004 elections.
– Chris Cillizza | Washington Post