Projections

Senate - Republican John Sununu loses in New Hampshire, Dole loses in North Carolina, but Dems won't have 60 as McConnell hangs on in Kentucky, as does Chambliss in Georgia.

Former Democratic governor Jeanne Shaheen won a rematch for the United States Senate, defeating incumbent Republican John E. Sununu in a bitterly fought campaign that attracted attention and money from across the nation.

NBC called the race for Shaheen, who will become the first female US senator in the history of New Hampshire.

Barack is taking New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. This indicates that the McCain isn't going to play out. Florida is in Barack's column, by 8% with a third of the vote in, but McCain is up 10% in Virginia with 38% reporting.

As the polls close on the east coast, Barack Obama is sweeping through Northeast states and is projected to win Pennsylvania, a battleground state that John McCain saw as a potential key to winning the election.

The economy was the number one issue to voters, according to early exit polls.

(AP Photo)

Besides Pennsylvania, Obama is also projected to win New Hampshire, another state where McCain campaigned in closing days in the hopes of capturing its electoral votes.

Other states projected to be in Obama's column according to exit polls are Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware, Illinois, and three of Maine's four electoral votes.

McCain is projected to win Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina and Oklahoma.

Obama's projected victory in Pennsylvania which has 21 electoral votes was a blow to McCain's White House hopes. While it was carried by Democrat John Kerry in 2004, McCain had hoped to turn it into a red state.

"We're going to win Pennsylvania tomorrow and I'm going to be the President of the United States," McCain said at a rally Monday. "Pennsylvania will do it, and Pittsburgh will be the important area."

The PA Way

Pennsylvania polls show a 9 or 10% lead for Barack, but still, there is a sense of mystery about what will happen.

Swinging Pennsylvania

This should have happened in July. But it could provide the difference in the bitter neighborhoods.

John McCain has not wielded the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. club over Democratic rival Barack Obama, who repudiated his former pastor and eventually left his Chicago church.

But that hasn't stopped some of those supporting the Republican presidential candidate. The GOP in Pennsylvania, a must-win state for McCain, is airing a tough, last-minute TV ad on Wright and Obama.

"If you think you could ever vote for Barack Obama, consider this: Obama chose as his spiritual leader, this man," the announcer says in the ad, first reported yesterday by Time magazine's political website.

Wright is then shown, in the now-famous video, thunderously saying from the pulpit of a Chicago church while Obama was a member, "Not God bless America, God damn America!"

"He also picked Wright to baptize his children," the announcer says, before Wright is shown saying, "The US of KKKA!"

"Barack Obama, he chose as his pastor a man who blamed the US for the 9/11 attacks," the announcer continues. "Does that sound like someone who should be president?"

Penn Close

McCain is fighting hard to keep Pennsylvania alive with polls showing him losing ground. But a memo from the Obama campaign says their internal numbers show a tight race.

WILK radio host Steve Corbett said Tuesday he obtained an Obama campaign e-mail about the internal poll showing a tight race. Pollster.com's trend line of public Pennsylvania polls has Obama leading McCain 54 percent to 38 percent.

Was this just a motivational email to the troops, as the campaign claims, or signs that the race is getting closer? You can hear the interview here.

Obama's Pennsylvania communications director Sean Smith said on Corbett's show that the field organizer who sent the e-mail may have been trying to energize Obama volunteers. Smith wouldn't confirm the internal poll numbers, but he said that the e-mail was sent without permission and that the campaign worker has since been reprimanded.