George's Bottom Line: Same Story, Different States
George Stephanopoulos sees familiar trends in NC, IN exit polls
May 6, 2008— -- On Tuesday, Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., battled for the biggest primaries left on the calendar - Indiana and North Carolina. The preliminary results showed that even despite an intense week of campaigning, the voters made up their minds very early.
"World News" anchor Charlie Gibson and Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos discuss the exit polls.
CHARLES GIBSON: We turn to our Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos in New York tonight. The candidates, George, have campaigned exhaustedly. But in the exit polls, we're finding in Indiana and North Carolina -- as we have in other states -- voters made up their minds - most of them - long ago.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We really have seen that, Charlie. Especially this week, let's look at those numbers. Voters who made up their minds more than a week ago in Indiana, 76 percent made up their minds more than a week ago. Even higher in North Carolina 81 percent. And this is higher than we've seen in earlier primaries and caucuses. The numbers has been in the high 60s in the past. Now we're seeing again 76 percent in Indiana. Eighty-one percent in North Carolina. Now, the voters who made up their minds in the last minute, seemed to break more heavily for Sen. Clinton. But a lot of these votes had been turned in early.
CHARLES GIBSON: We did ask a question, I know, in the exit polls about Rev. (Jeremiah) Wright, Barack Obama's former pastor, and whether that was influential to voters. What did we find?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Right down the middle. About half said it was important. About half said it was unimportant. Of those who said it was important, look at this, in Indiana, of those who said it was important 70 percent went for Sen. Clinton. For those who thought it was unimportant, again, right down the middle 65 percent for Barack Obama. So what you thought about the importance of Rev. Wright basically determined your vote.
CHARLES GIBSON: And consistently we found in these two states, as we have in others that the candidates are getting heavy percentages of different constituencies in the Democratic party.
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