Looking closely at the NBC exit polls from Virginia, I see numbers that will make delightful reading for the Barack Obama campaign--and a cause for deep concern in John McCain's camp. Obama, the figures show, is expanding the demographic reach of his surging Democratic candidacy, while McCain is hemmed in by his increasingly glaring failure to win over conservatives and evangelical Christians.

With a large turnout among Democrats and independents (anyone can vote in any primary in Virginia), Obama scored smashing victories over Hillary Clinton among groups with whom he needed to show strength. Everybody knows he has the African-American vote locked up tight, as well as young people, single men and affluent, well-educated voters. But the other winning percentages in Virginia are the news Tuesday night, and they are pretty powerful. According to the NBC exit polls, Obama carried:

-- women: 58 percent
-- white men: 55 percent
-- latino: 55 percent
-- 60 years old and older: 52 percent
-- those with incomes under $30,000: 68 percent
-- independents: 67 percent
-- Roman Catholics: 52 percent

As the campaign moves foward, Obama has to be able to argue that he can reach the whole country, and the Virginia numbers are the best evidence yet that he can. His weakest catagory is among white self-described Democrats--the most regular of the party regulars. But he is closing in on them.

The McCain story in Virginia is the story of a campaign in danger of slowing down at a critical moment. In this late-sesason battle with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, McCain needed a respectable showing among evangelicals and conservatives. He didn’t get it. More than a third of voters in the GOP primary described themselves as "very conservative"--and they voted for Huckabee over McCain by a breathtaking 70-21 percent margin. Among born again Christians--who were 47 percent of all voters in the primary--Huckabee won by a 66-26 percent margin. And among the two thirds of GOP primary voters who said they wanted abortions to be illegal in all or most circumstances, Huckabee won by a 57-34-percent margin.

McCain ended up winning Virginia--narrowly--but the exit polls must give him pause. Does McCain need Huckabee at his side to win a race in the fall? Perhaps not, but McCain needs the Huckabee voters, now more than ever.