Mississippi

Barack Obama has won the Mississippi primary by a predictably large margin. A couple of things stand out from the exit polls. First, this appears to be one of the most racially divided primaries to date. Barack Obama has been consistently beating Hillary Clinton by wide margins among African Americans. However, he has also been doing fairly well among white voters in most states. In Mississippi, by wide margins, whites voted for Clinton and Blacks voted for Obama. This is a disturbing trend for Obama. Also troublesome for Obama is that in Mississippi's open primary (anyone can vote for either party) Republicans broke for Clinton. Now, the Clinton campaign will probably spin this as Clinton reaching out across the aisle to Republican voters. I don't buy that argument. I think what you are seeing is an attempt by Republican voters to extend the Democratic race as long as possible. Clinton is behind. The more delegates she can win, the longer she can stay in the race, the easier it becomes for John McCain. It is a trend worth looking out for in the future.