War Room

An early look inside the minds of West Virginia voters

We have some early information on what voters in West Virginia were thinking as they headed to the state's Democratic primary Tuesday.

The exit poll results released thus far show some things that were unsurprising; voters were overwhelmingly white -- African-Americans make up less than 5 percent of the state's population -- and considered the economy the most important issue.

The electorate in the state was also particularly favorable to Clinton. As the Associated Press notes, "Nearly one in four of all ballots were cast by voters 60 and older, and a similar number by West Virginians with no education beyond high school. More than half the voters were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less. Clinton has done particularly well in primaries to date among older, less well-educated and lower-income families."

The exit polls also showed one number potentially worrying to Barack Obama's campaign -- according to CBS News, 51 percent of respondents think Obama shares the views of his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (According to Time's Mark Halperin, the breakdown on that is this: "Two in 10 voters say Obama shares the views of his former pastor, Rev. Wright, 'a lot.' Another three in 10 say Obama shares Wright's views "somewhat." Nearly a quarter said Obama shares Wright's views "not much" and another quarter said they don't think the candidate shares his former pastor's views at all.")

I'll have more on some other numbers from the exit polls a little later, and I'll repeat my standard disclaimer here -- these exit poll results shouldn't be taken as gospel, both because they're susceptible to the usual sampling errors and because the numbers out this early in the evening tend to be revised to fit the actual vote totals as they come in.

Posted in: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

McAuliffe's choice for veep not Clinton?
The former chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign seems to say he wants someone else to be Barack Obama's running mate.
Quote of the day
Chuck Hagel wants everyone to step back, take a deep breath and stop talking about the surge.
From a glass house, the straight talker throws stones
McCain's campaign is now criticizing Obama for having the temerity to make speeches outside the country -- of course, McCain did the same thing just a month ago.
Report: More than 200,000 watched Obama
The crowd for Barack Obama's speech in Berlin was reportedly his largest ever.

Current Salon Politics Stories

’08 Update

18:56 EDT, July 24, 2008
McAuliffe's choice for veep not Clinton? The former chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign seems to say he wants someone else to be Barack Obama's running mate.
War Room
20
18:40 EDT, July 24, 2008
Quote of the day Chuck Hagel wants everyone to step back, take a deep breath and stop talking about the surge.
War Room
17:39 EDT, July 24, 2008
From a glass house, the straight talker throws stones McCain's campaign is now criticizing Obama for having the temerity to make speeches outside the country -- of course, McCain did the same thing just a month ago.
War Room
7
16:57 EDT, July 24, 2008
Report: More than 200,000 watched Obama The crowd for Barack Obama's speech in Berlin was reportedly his largest ever.
War Room
40
15:50 EDT, July 24, 2008
Obama had cheering Germans; McCain had German sausage With their choice of counterprogramming for Obama's Berlin speech, Republicans try to portray McCain as more focused on the U.S. than Obama is.
War Room
9

Salon Politics Blogs

Recent Posts

Quote of the day
Chuck Hagel wants everyone to step back, take a deep breath and stop talking about the surge.
From a glass house, the straight talker throws stones
McCain's campaign is now criticizing Obama for having the temerity to make speeches outside the country -- of course, McCain did the same thing just a month ago.
Report: More than 200,000 watched Obama
The crowd for Barack Obama's speech in Berlin was reportedly his largest ever.
Previous Posts…

War Room RSS Feed

Posts by date

July 2008
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031

About War Room

War Room is written and edited by Alex Koppelman, with contributions from Salon reporters around the country.

Daily Newsletter

Get Salon in your mailbox!