When analyzing the Mississippi primary, the pundits and the media is obsessed with skin color and gender. Since Mississippi has an open primary, where republicans can vote for democrats and vice versa, I find it more interesting to look at party affiliation. Using the CNN election and exit poll data, and some simple mathematics, we then learn that Hillary Clinton received 24% of her votes from republicans, 19% from independents and a surprisingly low 57% of her votes from democrats. The same numbers for Barack Obama are 5%, 15% and 80% respectively. Among the republicans, 59% voted for McCain, 23% for Clinton, 8% for Huckabee, 8% for Obama and 2% for Paul. Among independents, 44% voted for Obama, 35% for Clinton, 14% for McCain, 4% for Huckabee and 3% for Paul. Among democrats, 69% voted for Obama, 30% for Clinton, 1% for McCain and less than 1% for Huckabee and Paul.

Maybe the conventional wisdom is wrong, and republicans like Clinton much better than Obama. Maybe republicans followed Rush Limbaugh’s recent advice to cross the isle and vote for Clinton. In either case, it was republican voters that saved Clinton from a complete disaster in the Mississippi primary.