Landslide margins
among black voters powered Barack Obama to his win
Saturday in South Carolina's Democratic presidential
primary, allowing him to overcome the telling edge
Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards had among
whites.
Blacks made up
55% of the voters in Saturday's contest, slightly more
than turned out in the state's primary four years ago and by
far their biggest share in any presidential contest so
far this year. Obama won 78% of their votes, with
black men and women supporting the Illinois senator by
about that same margin, according to exit polls of
Democratic voters conducted Saturday for the
Associated Press and the networks.
Clinton and
Edwards split the white vote about equally, with each
getting support from nearly four in 10 and Obama
getting about a quarter. Obama's high-water mark among
white voters so far this year has been the 36% he got
in New Hampshire, where he finished second overall to
Clinton; he also got a third of the white vote in the
year's first contest in Iowa, enough for him to win
overall in that state.
Highlighting the
decisive role race played in Saturday's voting, eight in
10 of Obama's votes came from blacks. About six in 10 of
Clinton's and nearly all of Edwards's came from
whites.
One segment of
whites with whom Obama did well was young people. He won
backing from half of white voters under age 30, with Clinton
and Edwards splitting the rest. Young white voters,
however, made up only about 5% of those who voted
Saturday.
Racial attitudes
were also in play in voters' perceptions of how
effective the candidates would be if elected. Whites were
far likelier to name Clinton than Obama as being most
qualified to be commander in chief, likeliest to unite
the country, and most apt to capture the White House
in November. Blacks named Obama over Clinton by even
stronger margins -- two and three to one -- in all
three areas.
Following a week
of criticism between the Obama and Clinton campaigns in
which race became a factor, Obama's relatively small share
of white supporters in South Carolina could raise
questions about his ability to attract those voters in
the crucial Super Tuesday contests on February 5, when
nearly half the country will vote.
Because of his
heavy support from blacks, Obama negated the advantage
Clinton has enjoyed among women in most of this year's
contests. He got more than half the female vote,
compared with three in 10 supporting Clinton, the New
York senator.
But the gender
breakdown was heavily affected by race. Though Obama won
eight in 10 votes of black females, Clinton and Edwards led
among white women, getting about four in 10 of their
votes, about double Obama's share.
Edwards, the
former North Carolina senator, led among white men,
garnering about four in 10 of their votes, with Clinton and
Obama about equally sharing the rest.
In a race
featuring candidates who would be the country's first female
or first black president, about three-quarters of
Democrats said they thought the country was ready for
either historic event to occur. And in a show of
general Democratic satisfaction with their choices, more
than eight in 10 overall said they would be satisfied
if Obama were the nominee, while about three-quarters
said the same about Clinton.
Bill Clinton's
campaigning in the state -- in which he engaged in some of
the campaign's sharpest attacks on Obama -- was cited as an
important factor by nearly six in 10 voters, including
about equal amounts of blacks and whites.
Overall, those
who said it was important voted in favor of Obama, though
by smaller margins than those who said it was unimportant,
suggesting his effort may have helped Hillary Clinton
slightly.
As has been the
pattern in most of the Democratic contests this year, the
economy was cited as the most important issue facing the
nation by far, with about half naming it. About half
of those voters backed Obama and about three in 10
supported Clinton. Obama had an even bigger edge among
voters naming health care or the war in Iraq as the top
problem.
In another replay
of Democratic sentiment from other states' voting,
about half said they wanted a candidate who can bring
change, making it the most sought-after quality. And
once again this was dominated by Obama, who has made
it the leading theme of his campaign, as he won three
in four voters who named it.
Obama and Edwards
about evenly split the lead among voters who said they
wanted a candidate who feels empathy for people like them.
Clinton, as she has done in the past, won easily among
those favoring experience, but they were a small share
of voters, fewer than one in five.
The poll was
conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Media
Research and Mitofsky International as Democratic voters
exited 35 sites in South Carolina. The poll
interviewed 1,905 Democratic primary voters and had a
margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage
points. (Alan Fram, AP)
