According to exit polling, 55 percent of whites nationally voted for John McCain, while 43 percent supported Obama. pretty much straight party-line split… not too different than Al Gore or John Kerry’s result.

It’s not just Southern whites who went for McCain: the Pew Research Center‘s data – which divvies the nation into East, West, Midwest and South – shows that Obama only got a plurality of white votes in the East.

The large increase in the number of African-American and Hispanic voters that came out, and in the proportion of those voters who went Democratic, was key to Obama’s victory.

It would seem that key here for the Democratic party is that they need to keep voters of color on their side – and coming out on Election Day in order to maintain a working majority. This raises interesting questions as to how they might go about doing that: by enacting policies that minority voters support, by recruiting and supporting candidates from within minority communities… or, alternatively, practicing cynical politics and assuming minority support as a given.

Voters of color may not vote Republican in large numbers… but if they choose to stay home next time, it will be the same to Obama and the Democrats as if they had.