Another way to look at Obama’s election demographics

by David Safier

The story is, Obama lost the white vote and cleaned up on the African American, Latino and Asian vote. True enough. But E.J. Dionne gives a different perspective on the demographic numbers.

[T]he exit poll also shows that 32 percent of Obama’s voters were white women and 24 percent of them were white men, while 23 percent were African-American men and women, and 14 percent were Latinos. This is a genuinely diverse alliance.

In other words, 56% of Obama voters were white. This wasn't simply a white-vs-everyone-else election. While Romney had far more white voters than Obama — that's pretty much all Romney had — Obama's victory was dependent on an ethnic coalition that included a majority of white voters.