Why Bush won

[ZaZu]

(CNN) -- President Bush convincingly won the popular vote Tuesday thanks to strong backing from his party's conservative base, as well as increased support from Latino, urban, Jewish, Catholic and female voters, according to exit polls.

The president benefited from geographic shifts of voters that boosted the electoral vote numbers in several states that voted Republican.

Many of Bush's popular vote advances this year were a matter of degree. In several cases, he did not necessarily conclusively win a particular subset of voters, but performed better among that group compared to 2000.

The president, for example, garnered 48 percent of the female vote, up 5 percent from 2000. While Bush lost the Latino vote -- winning 44 percent to Kerry's 53 percent (other candidates split the remainder) -- he gained 9 points from four years ago, which proved significant in states like Florida and New Mexico with large Latino or Hispanic populations.

The president captured 45 percent of the urban vote, up 10 points from 2000. Reports of high turnout in several traditionally Democratic cities may have had less impact on the final result than some pundits anticipated.

The GOP ticket did 5 points better among Catholics, which narrowly sided in 2000 with Gore. In 2004, Bush won this vote over Kerry, himself a Catholic.

The president improved 6 points among Jewish voters, though he still lost this group decisively to the Massachusetts senator 74 percent 25 percent.

Bush did particularly well among regular churchgoers, outpacing Kerry by 22 points among exit poll respondents who attended services at least once a week.

More exit poll respondents -- about 22 percent -- called "moral values" the election's most important issue than cited the economy, terrorism or Iraq. Those expressing this sentiment backed the president overwhelmingly, 80 percent to Kerry's 18 percent. Bush did similarly well among the 19 percent who identified terrorism as their top issue.

Kerry won overwhelmingly among the 20 percent who pointed to the economy and jobs as the most important issue -- taking this group 80 percent to the president's 18 percent. The 15 percent who named the Iraq war as the race's top issue backed the senator by a 3-1 margin.

The president's supporters were overwhelmingly positive about the current situation in the economy and Iraq. Those with more pessimistic views on these topics resoundingly said they voted for Kerry.

A hefty majority, 54 percent to 41 percent, said the president pays more attention to large corporations than to "ordinary Americans." About 56 percent of respondents said Kerry mostly says what "people want to hear," rather than what he believes.

Following his win, Bush faces several obstacles, according to the exit poll data.

While a slim majority, 53 percent, approved the president's job performance, a similar figure -- 49 percent -- said that they were "angry" or "dissatisfied" with the Bush administration.

Source

[j2k4]

First lesson:

Majority rules, and anything above 50% constitutes a majority-no fuzzy math allowed.

Second lesson:

Exit polls are uniformly inaccurate, except in the case of the "extremely lucky wild stab" method, which has long been out of favor among the major media, owing to it's occasional accuracy.

Third lesson:

CNN is only two letters removed from being CBS, which, in and of itself, makes CNN a risky proposition.

Watch at your own risk.

[ruthie]

All the major networks are bullshit...they certainly aren't liberal like some people claim.

[j2k4]

All the major networks are bullshit...they certainly aren't liberal like some people claim.

Right about the "bullshit"; wrong about the other.

[spinningfreemanny]

after first forecasting Kerry by 20+ in Pennsylvania; who would refer to exit polls?

and networks are liberal; or at least most people think so. This was discussed in a thread lost in the big deletion.

[scroff]

Right about the "bullshit"; wrong about the other.

Oh yea, the US media is so liberal they grilled Bush about the WMD prior to the invasion, reported extensively on the Florida 2000 fiasco with intense investigative reporting, have doggedly pursued the Valerie Plame leak, intensified their investigation into the Halliburton scandels, and have been constantly attacking the Bush administration policies concerning the environment...

People who say the US media is liberal are just parroting Rush Limbaugh and his buddies or are so far to the right they wouldn't know left from middle...

[Busyman]

MCVIV

[Rat Faced]

First lesson:

Majority rules, and anything above 50% constitutes a majority-no fuzzy math allowed.

Im sure this isnt what you were saying just a few short month ago

[Storm]

Oh yea, the US media is so liberal they grilled Bush about the WMD prior to the invasion, reported extensively on the Florida 2000 fiasco with intense investigative reporting, have doggedly pursued the Valerie Plame leak, intensified their investigation into the Halliburton scandels, and have been constantly attacking the Bush administration policies concerning the environment...

People who say the US media is liberal are just parroting Rush Limbaugh and his buddies or are so far to the right they wouldn't know left from middle...

what do you expect when the networks has ties with weapon industry?

[j2k4]

Im sure this isnt what you were saying just a few short month ago

Really?

I hope such evidence as you might offer to backstop your claim was not lost in the great back-up scandal a while back, Rat.

That would be regrettable.