Exit polling favors Romney

Fox News has good news for Mitt Romney. Exit polls from Michigan show him outpolling John McCain among Republicans by a decent margin. Though McCain naturally did better than Romney with Independents, Fox is implying that only 25 percent of the votes cast in the Republican primary were cast by independents, and that this (along with the small number of votes by Democrats) may not be enough to carry McCain to victory.
Exit polling also shows Romney outpolling McCain among self-described conservatives by a larger margin than McCain outpolls him among moderates. Moreover, it looks like more conservatives voted in the Republican primary than moderates.
Finally, exit polling shows that the overriding issue was the economy. Romney made a stronger economic pitch in Michigan than McCain did.
Keep in mind, though, that this is exit polling, not real votes.
UPDATE: Fox News also indicates that, on the Democratic side, exit polling shows that a high percentage of African-Americans voted for “uncommitted” rather than Hillary Clinton (Barack Obama wasn’t on the ballot). Again, this is all preliminary and speculative.

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