And the winner is …

Probably Barack Obama, if you believe exit polls (which seem to match the polling that had the President up in the states that matter). But nobody was calling this race as we hit deadline.

The incumbent has a lead in electoral college votes — the complicated state-by-state math (as the Yanks would say) that ultimately decides who sleeps at the White House for the next four years. But results from the really important swing states are to come. The world is watching Florida and Ohio in particular; there’s conflicting commentary over who’s leading the count in the former, which is lineball as Crikey hits inboxes today. Romney is ahead in the key state of Virginia.

We’re live blogging the results and the whole circus on the Crikey website. And this afternoon, check your inbox before taking off for the day — we’ll deliver fresh results and analysis from Guy Rundle, William Bowe, Charles Richardson and the best political pundits stateside around 4.30pm.

By then we’ll know if a president that promised change but was clobbered with economic reality gets a second chance at the job. God help them all.