EXIT POLLS: Negative Campaign Tarnishes Clinton, Obama
Late Deciders Favor Clinton by a Wide Margin
Of the rest, 27 percent said they'd back McCain, and 15 percent said they wouldn't vote. Whites who discounted race as an issue were 17 points more apt to favor Obama against the Republican.
Fifty-eight percent saw Clinton as honest and trustworthy; in a hold-their-nose result, 23 percent of those who didn't see her as honest voted for her anyway.
More overall -- 67 percent -- saw Obama as honest. And despite the sniping that flew during the campaign, Obama and Clinton were rated equally on being "in touch with people like you" -- two-thirds for both.
It's the Economy & Change...Again
Fifty-five percent in Pennsylvania rated the economy as the top issue in the election, similar to what it's been in all Democratic primaries to date. Nearly nine in 10 said the nation's economy is in a recession; 41 percent said it's a "serious" recession.
On attributes, as elsewhere, the top quality cited by far was the candidate who "can bring about needed change"; that again worked for Obama, with "change" voters favoring him by a vast 69-31 percent.
Clinton came back among voters focused on experience -- winning 94 percent of their votes -- as well as the relatively few who cared most about electability.
Clinton won small town and rural voters, 63-37 percent; weekly churchgoers, 59-41 percent; and gun owners, 63-37 percent -- all groups of interest given the controversy over Obama's comment about small-town voters clinging to guns and religion.
In Ohio, whose primary preceded those comments, Obama did better among weekly churchgoers (losing them by 4 points) -- but worse among small-town and rural voters, who favored Clinton by 70-26 percent. Gun ownership wasn't asked there.
Among other differences with Ohio, Obama did better in Pennsylvania with seniors -- he lost them by 63-37 percent, better than the 72-26 percent tally in Ohio. But there were more of them in Pennsylvania, mitigating the change.
Results reported in this analysis have been updated with a final weighting of exit poll data.
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