奥巴马成为美国第一位黑人总统(组图)

美国总统候选人奥巴马

美国总统候选人麦凯恩

　　Barack Obama built a formidable lead in his bid to become the first black US president Tuesday night, pushing ahead of John McCain in a nation clamoring for change. Fellow Democrats took four Senate seats from Republicans, and reached for more.

　　Obama gained precious ground in Pennsylvania, winning the state's 21 electoral votes and depriving McCain of the Democratic-leaning state where he had tried hardest to break through. Obama also swept through territory typically friendly to Democrats in the East and Midwest. His triumph in Pennsylvania left the Republican with scant room for error.

　　"May God bless whoever wins tonight," US President Bush told dinner guests at the White House, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino.

　　A jubilant crowd of thousands gathered in Grant Park in downtown Chicago on an unseasonably mild night, confident it would be Obama. They reacted each time Obama was announced the winner in another state -- and the cheers were particularly loud when Pennsylvania fell.

　　Interviews with voters suggested that almost six in 10 women were backing Obama nationwide, 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 Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004

　　McCain countered in the safest of Republican states.

　　States where McCain is projected to have won:

　　Kentucky 8

　　Georgia 15

　　South Carolina 8

　　Oklahoma 7

　　Tennessee 11

　　Wyoming 3

　　Alabama 9

    North Dakota 3

    West Virginia 5

　　Louisiana 9

　　States where Obama is projected to have won:

   Connecticut 7

　　Delaware 3

　　District of Columbia 3

　　Illinois 21

　　Maryland 10

　　Massachusetts 12

　　Vermont 3

　　New Jersey 15

　　New Hampshire 4

　　Pennsylvania 21

　　Wisconsin 10

    Michigan 17

　　New York 31 Rhode Island 4 Minnesota 10

　　Ohio 20 New Mexico 5 Maine * 4

　　Obama is the projected winner in Maine, which may divide its four electoral votes among the two candidates.

　　Under US election system, a candidate must get 270 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency.

　　More results are expected to pour in as the day-long marathon balloting are closing across the nation.

　　Americans elect their president and vice president under the process of the Electoral College. There are 538 electors in the Electoral College, 270 votes are needed to win the presidential election.

　　So when Americans cast their votes for president and vice president, they actually voting for the set of electors allotted to the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

　　The number of electors is equal to a state's number of representatives (based on population) and senators (two per state) in the US Congress. In addition, the District of Columbia has three Electoral College Votes.