USA Today has short wind-ups of the top four candidates on where their support is coming from. Kind of interesting.
Clinton, in contrast, is a classic Democrat. She does best among women, Democratic partisans, older voters, and less-educated and lower-income workers. She trumps Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, her top rival and an African-American, among blacks.
That mix of support could help her win Democratic primaries, but she faces hurdles in the general election. She draws only 1 in 4 independents who "lean" Democratic, for example, and 1 in 4 white men in the Democratic sample.
•Obama gets one-fourth of his support from African-Americans, who provide Clinton one-fifth of her support. However, looking at black voters as a group, Clinton leads: 35% of blacks support Obama, while 41% support Clinton — one of her strongest showings among any demographic group.
The Illinois senator has strong appeal to independents and higher-income voters. He ties Clinton among those who have a college degree or more. But he trails her by a yawning 21 percentage points among those with a high school education or less. Ed Sarpolus, an independent pollster based in Michigan, says Obama will have to do better among blue-collar workers, black and white, to prevail in Democratic primaries.
•Edwards draws support from groups that Democrats often struggle to reach: men, whites, moderates and the well-to-do. One-third of his supporters make more than $75,000 a year, the highest percentage of any Democrat. Despite efforts to cultivate labor-union members and increasingly pointed opposition to the Iraq war, Edwards shows limited appeal to lower-income workers and liberals. He does no better among anti-war voters than the other Democrats.
•Former vice president Al Gore — who continues to score in surveys even though he hasn't entered the race (or ruled out running) — gets one-quarter of his support from those under 30, the highest of any candidate in either field. Gore, 59 and a former Tennessee senator, draws disproportionately strong support from Pacific Coast states.
Republicans also
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-06-10-voters_N.htm