Behind the Numbers: An education gap among white voters

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: An education gap among white voters
Today, Behind the Numbers shows the sizable "education gap" in Democratic voting patterns.

In Post-ABC national polling, Clinton consistently scored better among voters without college degrees than among those with more education, and the pattern has held firm in primaries across the country. In fact, education has been a key divider among white voters in a contest marked by an evident racial divide.

In each of the states where the Post subscribed to exit polls (and voters were asked about their level of education), Clinton did better among non-college than college-educated white voters. She also outpaced Obama among non-college whites in all 14 of these states, but beat him by more than a single percentage point among college graduates in only five.

In Virginia, where 52 percent of white voters opted for Obama, the Illinois senator did 18 percentage points better than Clinton among those with college degrees, but lost by 15 points among those less formal education.

Dividing white voters by income shows a similar pattern in Virginia and elsewhere, pointing to Clinton's much-discussed advantage among "downscale" voters. For more, see the thread on pollster.com.

We'll take a deeper look at the reasons for these differences in a future Behind the Numbers post, but digging further into the Virginia data, one difference jumped out. While about half of whites regardless of education level said the nation is "definitely" ready for a woman president, just a third of whites without college degrees were that sure the country is prepared for a black president and they were almost twice as likely as college educated whites to say the nation is not ready for an African American chief executive....

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2008/02/an_education_gap_among_white_v.html?hpid=topnews

[bluestateguy]

1. Hillary's uneducated voters lack the political education to see that she is less electable than Obam...

They don't see the polls showing her high negatives, or the polls that show her losing to John McCain. They either don't understand or they don't have the time to pay serious attention to politics. They vote with the best of intentions, but they don't appreciate the importance of electability in choosing a candidate in the primaries.