With nearly all polls closed across the country, CBS News projects that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama will become the 44th president of the United States.
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Obama's victory, an historic moment in American history, comes on the strength of projected victories in battleground states that went to President George W. Bush four years ago - among them Ohio, Virginia, New Mexico and Iowa - as well as a win in Pennsylvania, a state that John McCain had hoped to turn blue to buoy his bid for an upset victory.
As the results came in Tuesday evening, a senior aide told CBS News the McCain camp was hoping for a "miracle," but the Arizona senator was not able to defy expectations in one of the worst election years for Republicans in decades.
In addition to the above states, CBS News estimates that Obama will win California, New York, Washington, Michigan, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, Illinois, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, Hawaii, Connecticut, Maine, Delaware, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.
McCain will take Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Utah, West Virginia, South Dakota, Arkansas, Alabama, Idaho, Tennessee, Kansas, North Dakota, Wyoming and Oklahoma, the network projects. (For a primer on how CBS News projects elections, click here.)
Obama is now estimated to take at least 296 electoral votes, while McCain has 145. 270 electoral votes are needed to take the White House.
Women came out strong for Obama, according to exit polls, backing the Democratic nominee 56 percent to 42 percent. Obama also had a slight edge among men.
The Democratic nominee did not win white voters, the exit polls suggest. The voting block - which made up three in four total voters - broke for McCain 54 percent to 44 percent. But black voters, who made up 13 percent of voters, voted overwhelmingly for Obama, 96 percent to 3 percent. (Click here for full exit poll results.)
Hispanics backed Obama over McCain by a margin of 67 percent to 30 percent, while young people (age 18 to 29), who made up 18 percent of voters, favored Obama 68 percent to 30 percent.
Independents also backed Obama by a small margin. The Illinois senator won 20 percent of conservatives.
There is some evidence that GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin may have hurt the Republican ticket. Less than half of voters in exit polls said the Alaska governor is qualified to be president, if necessary. Two-thirds said Palin's Democratic counterpart Joe Biden is qualified to step into the role.
And six in 10 said McCain’s choice of Palin was a factor in their vote, including four in 10 who described it as an important factor.
Exit polls also show widespread pessimism among the electorate concerning the economy and the country's leadership. Three in four voters say the U.S. is on the wrong track, while voters gave high disapproval ratings to both President Bush (72 percent) and Congress (74 percent).
Fifty-one percent strongly disapprove of Mr. Bush, and 83 percent of this group backed Obama.
More than six in 10 voters cite the economy as the most important issue in their vote - far outdistancing any other topic. Pre-election polls showed Obama with a consistent advantage over McCain when it comes to voter perception of how he would handle the economy.
Lines stretched around buildings and crossed city blocks as people waited to cast ballots across the country Tuesday. There were reports of waits of up to six-and-a-half hours in Missouri and four hours in Manhattan.
But many voters persevered, and elections officials predicted a record turnout nationwide Tuesday. Even in reliably Republican states where Obama had little chance of winning the presidential vote, unprecedented numbers of registrations and early votes were tallied. There were reports of likely record turnout in places where neither candidate bothered to campaign.
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