Saturday, January 26, 2008

Is it all about race?   [David Freddoso]

Some people have pointed out that Obama did better among whites than one poll anticipated. Fine. That's not my point, though. Just look at this and ask yourself what is the clearest determining factor of whether someone voted for Obama or for someone else.

Obama's support among....

White Men: 27 percent

White Women: 22 percent

Black Men: 80 percent

Black Women: 77 percent

Remember: voters of all races had the same three choices in this election — Obama, Edwards and Clinton. They chose differently, and this is where that difference comes through. The determining factor in how people voted was race. Not that this is a good thing — and not that we even know what their intentions were. (And really, I can't see how any liberal or any rational being would prefer Clinton to Obama.) But that's the way it went down today in South Carolina among Democratic voters.

UPDATE — A theory: Hillary turned off black voters, and something fierce, in the last week.

Except that the late deciders appear to have gone for Edwards, not Obama. There's no breakdown by race of when people decided.

When did you decide?

In Last Week (31%)

Clinton: 20 percent

Edwards: 27 percent

Obama: 52 percent

Before That (68%)

Clinton: 30 percent

Edwards: 15 percent

Obama: 55 percent

01/26 08:27 PMShare