Florida Results Show Late Momentum For Obama

[WillyT]

<snip>

Sen. Hillary Clinton parachuted into Florida on Tuesday to celebrate a double-digit victory in the state's uncontested presidential primary.

The election was mostly meaningless -- Florida's delegates have been stripped and none of the Democratic candidates campaigned there -- but Clinton's "beauty contest" victory rally was covered by all the cable news networks, and she's sure to receive more positive press heading into the all-important February 5 super-primary.

Yet a closer look at the exit surveys shows some notably positive trends for Clinton's chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

Despite losing the state overall by 17 points, Obama actually won more support than Clinton from voters who made up their minds in the last three days (46 percent to 38 percent), in the last week (39-31) and in the last month (47-40).

Clinton did defeat Obama among Floridians who decided on a candidate on the day of the primary. But overwhelmingly, Clinton's support came from those who made up their minds over a month ago (63 percent to 27 percent), and from early voters who used absentee ballots (50-31). Floridians began receiving absentee ballots in late December.

According to the exit polls, those early deciders and early voters made up fully 59 percent of Florida's Democratic electorate.

<snip>

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/29/florida-results-show-late_n_83957.html

Everyday gets a little more interesting, eh?

:shrug:

[WillyT]

1. Kick !!!

:kick:

[ShortnFiery]

2. Democratic kick!

:dem: :hi:

[Renew Deal]

3. And a number of her early voters probably regret it now.

A vote for Hillary is a vote for nothing. More and more people see it every day.

[Strelnikov_]

4. Hmm . . n/t

[hayu_lol]

7. Would have to take offense at the remark that this primary did not count...

to the voters in Florida, it did count. They cannot help what their party and their state machines do. For them it was real.

After all, if it was not an important election, why so many negative comments/attacks?

Nice to see the real numerical count from a large state. Just as it was in Michigan.

[Enrique]

5. this is UNETHICAL

don't Obama supporters care about ETHICS!!!!

(just kidding) :-)

[adabfree]

6. You don't say.............hmmmmmmm

Sounds like trending toward Obama to me.

I think it carries forward to super tuesday!

[goodhue]

8. good to know

[Maribelle]

9. However, the effort Obama put into attempting to sway the Florida vote in Dollars and Time ....

failed royally.

So spin all you want, the only thing that you will prove is that Obama is attempting to spin the vote to his favor. Nothing more.

Do you seriously believe its OK for obama to insult the intelligence of Floridian voters in this massive campaign to spin the vote?

[WillyT]

10. Psst...

Obama did not write the article.

[joshcryer]

11. Looks like Obama's campaigning in FL worked.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. There is a misleading confusion of "early voting" and "early deciding" going on here

There is a BIG difference between those two terms. But there is NOT a big difference between the voting choices of those Floridians who voted before election day and those who waited for election day to vote.

Hillary won the Florida primary by 17 point. Her margin of victory from the early and absentee votes was 19 points. That means if half of Floridas voters voted early (and I think it was much much less than that) and half of Florida's voters waited for election day to vote (and I think it was much much more than that) Hillary's margin of victory over Obama with election day voters only would still be 15 points.

ALL THIS PROVES IS THAT MOST FLORIDA VOTERS MADE UP THEIR MINDS EARLY AND DIDN'T CHANGE THEM.

All the late breaking momentum developments for Obama influenced some indecisive voters toward him, but there were not very many of those it turns out. Hillary's support in Florida was very solid. And those voters who made up their minds the literal last day of the election decided for Hillary.

[KittyWampus]

13. The Unfortunate Truth of Hillary's support, it's weak and Obama gains support whenever he

campaigns in person.

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. The facts from Florida refute your assertion.

Plese read my post above yours.

[KittyWampus]

15. the facts from Florida include Obama never got a chance to campaign in person and

Hillary had name recognition in her favor.

My assertion is proven in the states that've voted so far and in the national polls showing Clinton's lead evaporating.

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. Obama got to hold the same fund raisers inside Florida as Hillary did

And because of those pesky national TV ad contracts that only he could not find a way out of, Obama was the only candidate who got to broadcast his campaign ads into 6.5 million Florida households for weeks. That was really a shame, wasn't it? If it wasn't for that undoubtedly no one in Florida would ever have heard of Barack Obama before. The Clinton loving main stream media had been successfully conspiring to keep him a secret from Floridians before that.

[suston96]

16. Cherry picking exit polls.....

Hey, there is something there for every obsession.....

But I see she did lousy with Hispanics in Florida and and according to polls will do lousy with Hispanics in California so, not to worry.....

[RockaFowler]

18. I'm gonna cry foul on this

The amount of people that voted before election day were the following:

More than 1 million of the state's 10.2 million registered voters had already cast an early ballot through Sunday, state officials said. That includes just more than 500,000 Republicans and about 435,000 Democrats.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/gen/ap/FL_Florida_Primary_Turnout.html

H. Clinton
857,208
50%

B. Obama
569,041
33%

So, were all of the 435,000 votes for Hillary??