Va Exit Polls

Some interesting Republican numbers out of Virginia.

Abortion
Legal 34%
Illegal 63%

It surprises me that 1/3 of Republicans consider themselves pro-choice. We've seen the same pattern throughout the primary season where Republicans are more and more liberal on abortion than what Rush Limbaugh or Fox News portrays. I mean in Republican circles, 34% is dang near a mandate.

Ideology
Liberal 8%
Moderate 27%
Conservative 65%

Again, 1/3 of the Republicans consider themselves moderate to liberal, coinciding almost perfectly with their stance on abortion. I've been arguing that it's the neoconservatives that are ruining the Republican Party and so far the exit polls from all the primaries do indeed show a shifting away from right wing politics.

This next one is a very familiar pattern that McCain has been hampered with ever since he almost switched parties back in 2001. Of the 65% of Republicans who consider themselves "Conservative," 51% voted for Huckabee. Meaning, again, McCain loses the conservative vote. I have no doubt that once Huck drops out and McCain is on his own, he'll regain that conservative vote. But what might happen is conservative Republicans just won't turn out to vote in November making it very hard to combat that tidal wave of Dem turnout the nation has been experiencing.

I can't help but think that if Republicans were experiencing the kind of turnout Democrats have been since 2006, Fox News and the drug addicted Limbaugh would have already wrote the Democratic obituary and been talking about how strong, united and patriotic the Republican Party is. Not even in their heyday of '94 and '02 did Republicans experience anything like what the Democrats have done electorally in the last two years.

Tags: Republicans, McCain, Huckabee, Abortion