What Exit Polls Showing

Matt Drudge is reporting that exit polls show Mitt winning North Carolina and Florida; O winning New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Nevada; and toss-ups in Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, and Iowa.

Remember to keep your eyes on Hillsborough County, Florida and Hamilton and Montgomery Counties in Ohio.

Another Clue

Talking Points Memo reports that early exit polls show an electorate that looks like 2008 in terms of age, race, etc., rather than 2004 or 2010.  This points strongly to an Obama win.

And Hispanics have gone from 9% to 10% of the vote, also good for O.

I’m not going to bed till I see Mittens concede.

Here’s a Clue

Politico reports that early exit polls show that 10% of voters say Obama’s policies favor the rich, while 52% say Mitt’s policies do.

South Carolina Challenges the Rationale of Mitt’s Campaign

While the vote count showed Mitt losing South Carolina, the exit polls showed something even more disturbing for him — a rejection of the very rationale of his campaign.

Mitt contends that he is the most electable.  But of the 45% of voters who said electability was their top reason for choosing a candidate, 51% went for Newt and only 37% went for Mitt.

Similarly Mitt contends that he has the right experience.  But of the 21% of voters who said the right experience was their top reason, 49% went for Newt, compared to 34% for Mitt.

So his claims of electability and experience aren’t resonating with GOP primary voters.  It’s one thing to tweak your message after a major loss, but it looks as if Mitt has to go back to the drawing board on the very rationale for his run.

The exit polls showed a couple of other interesting things.

18% of voters said the most important reason for their choice was strong moral character.  Newt got only 6% of those voters, but Mitt at 19% lost out to Saint Santorum at 42% and Paul at 31%.  It may be that the moral credit Mitt gets for his personal life is diluted by questions about his work at Bain.

But where Mitt really struck out was among the 14% of voters for whom the  most important quality in a candidate was being a true conservative.   Mitt got only 2% of those voters, compared to 38% for Newt.

Mitt, you really need to shake up your staff.  You’re not the greatest candidate in the world, but politics is all about putting lipstick on pigs, and you need some new makeup artists.