Opinion: Getting at the meaning behind those numbers
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All praise the fine folks who put out MSNBC’s ‘First Read’ political note.
Sifting through the mass of numbers floating about in the wake of Super Tuesday, they cut to the chase and put together the statistics that best explain the big picture of what happened (and provide likely previews of the contests to come):
‘Looking inside the Democratic exit polls (per the last wave we saw), it is striking to us just how predictable Clinton and Obama voters are. Nationally, Clinton won among women (52%-45%), and Obama won among men (53%-42%). Obama won big among voters ages 17-29 (59%-38%), and Clinton won big among those 60 and older (55%-38%). ‘Obama won the African-American vote (82%-16%), while Clinton won Latinos (61%-37%). Obama did seem to do better among whites (with 43% of that vote); in fact, Obama won white men (49%-44%). And Obama won among those making $200,000 or more (52%-46%), while Clinton won among those making less than $50,000. ‘On the GOP side, McCain narrowly beat Romney among self-identified Republicans (38%-37%), among moderates (52%-24%), and those who said they were ‘somewhat conservative’ (40%-36%). Yet among those identifying themselves as ‘very conservative,’ it was Romney 48%, Huckabee 26%, and McCain 19%.’
-- Don Frederick