Clues from the New Hampshire exit polling

Here's a few interesting tidbits from exit polling conducted earlier today:

Obama won independents, getting nearly 50% of their votes. Independents comprised about 41% of the Democratic primary vote. But Hillary Clinton won among registered Democrats: 38% to 32%. Clinton wins women narrowly: 40% to 36%.

STUNNER: 47% say Obama is most likely to beat Republicans, compared to 33% for Clinton. But Clinton is still viewed as qualified to be commander in chief: 37% say she's the most qualified, versus Obama at 27%.

The Associated Press has more on turnout:

Preliminary exit polls showed independents were more attracted to the Democratic contest; about 60 percent chose the Democratic primary over the Republican primary, according to partial samples in surveys for The Associated Press and the television networks.

With about thirty five percent of precincts reporting, Hillary Clinton still has a four percent lead over Barack Obama. She has 34,575 ballots cast to his 31,249. The difference is only 3,326 votes.

Not much has changed for the Republicans.

An upbeat Mike Huckabee just spoke to his supporters in Iowa (despite coming in third) and Mitt Romney, who preceded Huckabee, also appears to be in good spirits. Romney can be happy that he has come in second in both Iowa and New Hampshire, whereas his closest rivals have fared more poorly in either state.

John McCain is currently thanking his supporters at campaign headquarters.

Here's the order of candidates finishing on both sides:

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton - 1st
Barack Obama - 2nd
John Edwards - 3rd
Bill Richardson - 4th
Dennis Kucinich - 5th

Republicans:
John McCain - 1st
Mitt Romney - 2nd
Mike Huckabee - 3rd
Rudy Giuliani - 4th
Ron Paul - 5th
Fred Thompson - 6th
Duncan Hunter - 7th