Why Hillary Won…

The Democrats aren’t quite sure they are ready to crown their nominee yet. Who can blame them? In their eyes they have two great candidates in Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. Either will become part of history if they are elected. This excitement is driving up the turnout numbers on the Democratic side. Republicans have to be worried about this. For example in Texas, the Democrats turned out 2.8 million voters, while the Republicans turned out about 1.3 million. That might be meaningless come November, but this has been consistent in every state in the primaries so far.

As we know today, Clinton won big in Ohio and Rhode Island and surprised Obama in Texas with a popular vote there. The exit polls show a similar story after Iowa. Women voters made up a majority of the Democratic voters in Ohio and Texas and Clinton won that vote in both states. Clinton also won the White vote and the Latino vote. Obama continued to win the young vote and the Black vote. Democratic voters in both Texas and Ohio think Obama has the better chance to win in November, but Clinton has more experience and a clearer plan for America. The economy was the number one issue yesterday.

But, one of the most important facts for Hillary Clinton yesterday was the late voters. She won voters who decided within the last three days. Why? The 3AM experience ad obviously worked, Saturday Night Live poked fun at the media’s love affair with Obama, Clinton later appeared on both SNL and the Daily Show and was seen drinking a beer with the press corp. Obama has the charisma. But, Clinton stole some of it last week. As she said this morning on the Today Show, “voters are starting to ask tough questions” about Obama. Advantage and momentum: Hillary.