Clinton's W.Va. win fueled by white voters

CHARLESTON, W.Va., May 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's landslide win in the West Virginia Democratic Party primary was fueled by support from lower income white voters, an analysis shows.

Clinton, D-N.Y., triumphed Tuesday over Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the contest partly by her strong appeal to white voters without a college degree, a demographic in which she defeated Obama by 50 percentage points, CNN reported. The same analysis showed her trouncing Obama by 60 percentage points among white voters making less than $30,000 per year.

Clinton did well among women and older voters in West Virginia. Those over 65 came out for her by a 38-percentage-point margin and she held a 51-percentage-point advantage among white women, CNN said.

The network also reported that Clinton's support for a national "gas tax holiday" played well for her, with voters favoring the idea supporting her by a 55 percentage-point margin. Obama had come against the idea.

But the CNN analysis also found an ominous result for the Democrats in their general election hopes against presumptive Republican candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Only 38 percent of Clinton's supporters said they would vote for Obama in a general election matchup against McCain, raising the specter of conservative Democrats crossing over to vote for McCain.