Obama and McCain: A nervous wait for results

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain began a nervous wait for results in their fight for the White House on Tuesday, with Obama in clear command as voting began to end in the first two U.S. states.

Polls in parts of Indiana and Kentucky began to close at 6 p.m. EST, with closing times spread over the next six hours in the other 48 states and the District of Columbia.

Long lines greeted voters in many battleground states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, but no major breakdowns or irregularities were reported as at least 130 million Americans cast votes on a successor to unpopular Republican President George W. Bush.

Obama, 47, a first-term senator from Illinois, would be the first black U.S. president. Opinion polls indicate he is running ahead of McCain in enough states to give him more than the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.

A victory for McCain, 72, would make him the oldest president to begin a first term in the White House and make his running mate Sarah Palin the first female U.S. vice president.

McCain's hopes for an upset rested on a tightening trend seen in some polls last week, or the possibility that all polls have overestimated Obama's support.

Tuesday's winner will face a crush of challenges over the next four years, including the economic crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a health-care overhaul and other issues.

Opinion polls showed Obama ahead or even with McCain in at least eight states won by Bush in 2004, including the big prizes of Ohio and Florida. Obama led comfortably in all of the states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004.

Obama victories in either Ohio or Florida, or in traditionally Republican states where polls show he is competitive like Virginia, Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina, would likely propel him to the White House.

World stocks rose to a two-week high and U.S. stocks gained with major indices up more than 2 percent, as investors looked with relief to the end of the campaign.

Analysts have said market prices probably already reflect expectations of an Obama victory. If Democrats expand their control of Congress, it may be easier for the new administration, which takes over in January, to deal with the financial crisis.

In Ohio, Ian Edwards said he voted for Obama. "Very simple," said Edwards, the chief executive of a small technology company. "Bad war. Bad economy. Bad reputation overseas."

Cattleman Casey Bradshaw of Canyon, Texas, said he voted early for McCain. "He's more experienced, and he's known to the people who make up this country," he said.

The race was closely watched around the world, including in Kenya, where in Obama's late father's village of Kogelo, residents prayed for his presidential bid and for his maternal grandmother, who died in Hawaii this week.

CAMPAIGN THEMES