Polls: Race helps Clinton with whites

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080407/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_racial_voting

WASHINGTON - Add this to the divisive debate over race in the presidential campaign: Whites who said race was important in picking their candidate have been about twice as likely to back Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as Sen. Barack Obama.

Exit polls of voters in Democratic primaries also show that whites who considered the contender's race — Clinton is white, Obama is black — were three times likelier to say they would only be satisfied with Clinton as the nominee than if Obama were chosen.

The figures shed some light on race's effect on a competition that moves to the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, which has a slightly greater proportion of whites than average. The numbers also underscore the challenge Obama could face in the general election, when whites will comprise a larger share of voters and tend to be more conservative than those participating in the Democratic primaries.

Throughout the campaign, Obama has tried to avoid being cast narrowly as a black candidate. Last Friday, he was the only one of the three major presidential contenders to not travel to Memphis, Tenn., to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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