By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Barack Obama opened a lead in his bid to become the first black president Tuesday night, moving ahead of Republican John McCain in a nation clamoring for change. Fellow Democrats picked up Senate seats in Virginia and North Carolina and elected a Missouri governor.
Obama swept to victories in traditionally Democratic states in the East and Midwest and jumped ahead in fragmentary returns from Pennsylvania, a state where his rival invested heavily in hopes of winning in traditionally inhospitable territory.
McCain countered in the safest of Republican states.
That left the battlegrounds to settle the race: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, as well as Pennsylvania and more. Most were customarily Republican, but Obama spent millions hoping to peel away enough to make him the 44th president.
"May God bless whoever wins tonight," President Bush told dinner guests at the White House, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino.
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