How the presidential vote split along religious lines

IN THE aftermath of Barack Obama's victory, much analysis has focused on how the president's appeal to minorities, women and college students trumped Mitt Romney's edge among white Americans. Split the vote by religious affiliation and the story is similar. Exit polling data analysed by the Pew Research Centre shows that Mr Obama, the one Protestant on the ballot (Mr Romney is a Mormon, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan are both Catholics), lost the battle for Protestants, America's largest religious group. But he picked up enough votes among America's Catholics, Jews, atheists and the rest to come out on top. Mr Romney won white evangelical voters by a whopping 60-point margin. One lesson the next Republican candidate might take from this is that, since such voters are unlikely to switch to the Democrats, the party should spend less time trying to placate them.