For all the hand-wringing over Obama's "bitter cling" comments, he did well among voters who attend church more than once a week, and beat Clinton among Protestants. Where Clinton cleaned up was among the 36 percent of the electorate who were Catholic, winning 68 percent of their vote. Among the 7 percent of the electorate who were Jewish, she beat Obama by 10 points. As for guns, thirty-six percent of the Democratic voters owned them, and Clinton won 60 percent of their votes.
In the final days of the fight for Pennsylvania, we saw the candidates level some of their harshest criticisms yet. Obama painted his rival as a compromised Washington insider, while Clinton charged that Obama's new tactics showed he was just another old-style politician. She also unveiled ads calling into question his readiness to deal with threats like Osama bin Laden. So how did all these negative attacks play in Pennsylvania?
The exit polls show that Democratic voters think Clinton went too far. In fact, two-thirds say she attacked unfairly, while only 49% said that about Obama. This is the highest we've seen these negative numbers since South Carolina, when the issue of race first became a flashpoint.When you take a look at the breakdown by race and gender: 77% percent of black voters think Hillary Clinton attacked her opponent, while only about half as many -- 37% -- feel the same way about Barack Obama. White women voters don't give either candidate a pass: 64% think Clinton crossed the line while 53% think Obama went too far.
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