Pat Dollard | Young Americans

She also begins to take away some of Hussein’s usual support in other groups…however, bad weather in eastern Ohio has cost Hillary important votes, cliffhanger…Hussein has got to court to keep polls open late in a couple areas favoring him where there were alleged issues, and where vote for him was turning out even better than expected…and oh yeah, black people picked Hussein by a higher margin - 90% - than white people picked Hillary…

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton was winning robust support Tuesday in Ohio’s Democratic presidential contest from groups that have been the foundation of her candidacy, taking strong margins among white, blue collar and older voters.

Early results from exit polls of the state’s Democratic voters showed that Barack Obama was not doing as well as he had in recent contests in eroding her support from those groups.

The senator from Illinois was doing best among voters who have been with him from early on in this year’s voting. He was getting backing from nine in 10 blacks, two thirds of voters who are under age 30, and just over half of college graduates.

But Clinton, the New York senator who saw her rival win 11 straight contests in the run-up to Tuesday, was showing renewed strength among groups she has relied on heavily. She was even eating into some groups that usually are behind Obama, evenly splitting independents and young white voters with him.

Preliminary data from interviews with Ohio Democratic voters showed she was getting the votes of two in three white women, a group that has generally supported her heavily but with whom she had slipped to thin margins recently in Virginia and Wisconsin.

She also had the backing of almost six in 10 white men, a group in which Obama had forged solid advantages in recent voting.

Blue collar voters earning less than $50,000 annually were a heavy portion of Ohio’s voters on Tuesday, making up about half, compared to about a third in prior Democratic primaries this year. Clinton had a slight though decisive edge among those earning less than $50,000 annually, the early data showed, and was winning two in three votes from people with no more than high school diplomas.

Obama was winning solidly among those with college degrees and people earning more than $100,000 annually.

Two in three voters under age 30 were backing Obama. But they were outnumbered two-to one by those over age 65. And those older voters were behind Clinton by an equally solid margin.

In a state whose economy is reeling from job losses, Clinton was outdoing Obama among those worried about their families’ finances and those complaining the economy is in poor shape.

In addition, a third of the state’s Democratic voters were from union households, a bit higher than the average so far in states that have held competitive Democratic primaries. While Clinton only had a slight edge among these households until now, she was getting nearly six in 10 of their votes in Ohio.

She was also doing better than Obama with people who chose their candidate in recent days.

Clinton had a slight edge among self-described Democrats.