Exit poll data published on the CNN Web site indicate that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama dominated Saturday's South Carolina Democratic presidential primary across gender and age lines -- although those outcomes are greatly influenced by his overwhelming landslide among black voters, who made up just more than half of the Democratic electorate.
* Obama took 80 percent of the black vote in the South Carolina Democratic primary, to 18 percent for runner-up Hillary Clinton. John Edwards, who won the South Carolina primary in 2004 but finished a distant third Saturday, received minuscule support among black voters.
* Clinton and Edwards roughly tied among white voters at 38 percent, with Obama receiving 24 percent of the white vote.
* Obama has been making a strong effort to appeal to young voters across racial lines, and his strongest support among white voters came from the youngest. Among non-black voters ages 18-29 (5 percent of all exit poll respondents), Obama received the support of 52 percent. He was backed by about two-thirds of all respondents age 18-29, who made up about 14 percent of the electorate.
* There had been a "gender gap" in earlier Democratic presidential nominating events, with women voters more favorable to Clinton and men voters more favorable to Obama. That was not the case in South Carolina, where Obama received support of 54 percent of both the male and female respondents to the exit poll.
* A definite gender gap between the two major parties appeared to be fully in evidence though. The CNN exit poll numbers show 61 percent of the Democratic respondents were women to 39 percent men. This compares to a near-even gender split in the Republican presidential primary held last Saturday, in which 51 percent of exit poll respondents were men and 49 percent were women.
![[RSS]](http://67.192.49.194/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
Comments
I'm undecided about who & which party I’m voting for, but found this great article called "Black Voters and a Twist of Bias" on the BlogZine SAVAGE POLITICS.
http://savagepolitics.com/?p=59
WOW- all I have to say!
Here is an excerpt: “Last Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic Primary produced the widely expected result of a Barack Obama victory. From the beginning of the week, it was the ethnic composition of the State in question which was amply discussed by both the Media and it’s multiple pundits. It was here and through other sources that we discovered that 55% percent of Democratic voters in South Carolina were African American. An interesting number when you consider the “coincidence” that Obama actually won the election by exactly the same margin: 55%. Of course, many in Clinton’s campaign have used this demographic reality to spin their defeat, vociferating that they had always expected to loose from the start. It should be noted that it has been this exact attitude which they have ridiculed Obama’s camp for, insinuating that they had proved to be “sore losers” by not admitting their own failures in stating their case to the American People. As we all know, in modern politics, no campaign is free of idiotic childishness, sadly resurfacing the reality that our current political existence is dominated by whining imbeciles of the lowest ilk. Nevertheless, the Clinton Campaign’s affirmation (victory based on a unified ethnic constituency) is valid, especially when we consider the data.
The Primary’s exit polling, presented by all major networks, were utilized by analysts to determine how was Obama’s, Edwards’, and Clinton’s support spread throughout different social markers. Their results indicated that 80% of the Black vote, and only 20% of the White vote, went towards Barack Obama. Regarding most White voters in the State, you could easily identify their split between John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. The significance of this racial division is crucial in understanding the fate of Barack Obama’s campaign, and the Democratic Party, if they chose to face the General Election with him at the helm.…” Find the rest of the article at http://savagepolitics.com/?p=59
Posted by: elsylee
| January 29, 2008 12:59 PM
Post A Comment