Exit Polls Suggest Strong Obama Showing

By CHRISTOPHER COOPER
Wall Street Journal

Early exit polling data suggests that Democrat Barack Obama could be a big winner in his historic run for the presidency, taking states that often go to Republicans and swamping ones that are traditionally held by Democrats.

National exit polls suggest that Sen. Obama was able to conquer his early lack of appeal with male voters, taking a taking a bare majority of them, 50%-48%, according to the exit poll of 10,747 voters conducted Tuesday for a consortium of news agencies.

The poll also shows that Obama did well with former backers of Sen. Hillary Clinton, many of whom declared they wouldn't support him in the general election. The exit poll found that 89% of voters who turned out for Sen. Clinton in the primaries cast ballots for Obama on Tuesday.

Sen. Obama also did well among key demographic groups in certain states he failed to win during the primary season, the exit poll showed. For example, he did poorly in Pennsylvania during the primary, and about one in five voters said race guided their balloting in that contest. On Tuesday, however, the exit poll showed that white voters favored Obama by 54%-48%.

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