Hillary Captures Base Critical to Primaries

While cautioning that it's still early, the LA Times reports that Hillary Clinton’s frontrunner status owes largely to her dominance among groups that are stalwarts in the Democratic nominating process. Barack Obama rules among the young and affluent, but likely primary voters are women, seniors, and blue-collar voters—all Hillary-friendly demographics.

Fully 51% of women aged 18 to 49 support the first female presidential frontrunner; her pollster chalks up seniors' support to an abiding interest in experience. But Clinton still faces a challenge in Iowa, where women don’t break as heavily for her. Her narrower lead there might be because of the relative unimportance of name recognition, or because Bill never placed a premium on the Hawkeye State. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)