WASHINGTON (AP) — Alarmingly inexperienced. So liberal he's practically a socialist. A sure-fire tax raiser. And an agent of the wrong kind of change.
Barack Obama heads to the White House his image intact after successfully deflecting those charges, made incessantly by the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin over the campaign's final weeks. Instead, most Americans voiced faith in his qualifications for the job, national exit polls of voters show.
Nearly six in 10 said the first-term Democratic senator from Illinois has the right judgment to be president, and half said he has sufficient experience to be an effective chief executive, the poll showed. Only four in 10 consider him too liberal.
Of those saying they were chiefly seeking change, nine in 10 voted for Obama, shrugging off McCain's efforts to wrest that label from him. For good measure, nearly two-thirds said McCain unfairly attacked Obama during the campaign, far more than accused Obama of such tactics.
The Republicans' charges came closest to sticking on the subject of taxes, with seven in 10 saying they expected their taxes to rise in an Obama presidency. But even there the GOP gained little edge — six in 10 said a President McCain would have boosted their taxes.
"Until you're president, nobody has the experience," Ulysses Pearson, 56, an Obama supporter from Cleveland, said after voting. "What I'm looking for is someone who has a more comprehensive, cohesive plan and seems to have judgment."
The exit polls confirmed what was apparent during the fall campaign — the economy was the paramount issue facing voters and that meant advantage Obama. More than six in 10 cited the economy as the nation's top concern, with the next closest issue — Iraq — named by just one in 10 voters. Of those citing the economy, Obama had a 9-percentage-point margin over McCain.
Underlining the economy's impact, four in 10 said their family financial status was worse than four years ago — the highest number to report that in a presidential race since at least 1992. Seven in 10 of this group were voting for Obama.
McCain and Palin, the Alaska governor who was his running mate, won two-thirds of voters saying they most wanted candidates who shared their values. The Republican team also won the votes of nine of 10 voters saying they most prized experience for the White House.
There were other McCain advantages, too. The Arizona senator ran up a 12-percentage-point advantage among white voters — no small thing, considering they made up three-fourths of voters.
The Vietnam prisoner of war also won among veterans, gun owners, white born again and evangelical Christians, and rural and small town residents — groups that usually support Republicans. He also prevailed among white Catholics, a frequent swing group.
"I think you're looking at a post-Christian America," said McCain backer of Arvada, Colo., perhaps influenced by inaccurate rumors that Obama is Muslim. "I think Obama has some very serious socialist values."
But those GOP strengths were overwhelmed by Obama's.
Blacks were practically unanimous in their support for Obama, who will be the first African-American president. About two-thirds of Hispanics backed him too, quieting questions from the Democratic primaries, when they mostly supported Obama's rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Election Day muzzled another long-running source of suspense — whether supporters of the New York senator and former first lady would back the man who vanquished her in those primaries. About eight in 10 of them rallied behind Obama.
The vaunted Obama political machine, fueled by record-setting hundreds of millions of dollars, also pulled a wave of new voters to their cause. Though first-time voters represented one in 10 voters overall — about their usual share — two-thirds of them backed the Democrat. Two-thirds were under age 30, about a fifth each were black and Hispanic, and nearly half were Democrats — groups that all voted heavily for Obama.
Overall, while men divided about evenly between McCain and Obama, women preferred the Democrat by a decisive 13 percentage points.
Meanwhile, McCain had to wrestle with two GOP figures who seemed to be political leg-irons — President Bush and Palin.
Half said they expected McCain to follow Bush policies, and about nine in 10 of them backed Obama.
As for Palin, huge numbers of Republicans and conservatives said her presence on the ticket played a big role in their support for McCain. But among independents and moderates, majorities of those who said Palin influenced them backed Obama.
Another Obama advantage came from partisanship. About nine in 10 members of both parties backed their nominee, but Republicans were simply outnumbered — four in 10 voters were Democrats compared to a third who were Republicans. Obama also won a pivotal 8-point advantage among independents.
The Democrat also enjoyed an enthusiasm advantage — three in 10 said an Obama presidency seemed exciting, double the number who drew such emotion from envisioning McCain in the White House.
The results, which were nearly complete, were from exit polling by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for The Associated Press and television networks conducted in 300 precincts nationally. The preliminary data was based on 17,773 voters, including telephone polling of 2,407 people who voted early, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1 percentage point for the entire sample, smaller for subgroups.
During a press conference this morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said John McCain was “gracious” and “a great patriot,” while Barack Obama was “inspirational” and “will continue to be.” A jubilant Rice added that she was proud of her country – “it continues to surprise…it continues to beat all odds and expectations.” She concluded, “On a personal note, as an African-American, I’m especially proud.”