Obama wins South Carolina
South Carolina Democratic primary news and analysis
Article added on January 27, 2008 at 11:20 Lisbon time
  
Obama wins the South Carolina Democratic primary. After 99% of all precincts had been reporting, Obama had won 55% of the votes, Hillary Clinton 27% and John Edwards 18%.

If John Edwards cannot bounce back on Super Tuesday, even with a lot of cash left in his pocket, he is likely to be out of the Democratic presidential race. He won 39% of the white vote. His main power base were white male voters. His race looks doomed considering that he was born in South Carolina and that he had won in South Carolina in the 2004 Democratic presidential race.

According to exit polls, Obama won the support of some 80% of black voters and some 25% of white voters in South Carolina.  African American voters made up some 53% of the Democratic vote in South Carolina. According to CNN, some 80% of Democratic voters trust Obama when it comes to the keyword of “change”.

Hillary Clinton only won some 17% support among black voters and 36% among white voters. As Obama won the support of black voters, she managed to win the support of the women. One got the impression that Bill Clinton desperately tried to taint Obama as the “black candidate”. Gender and race divided the electorate. The Clinton strategy may backfire, because Obama has not only the youth and the African Americans behind him, in the rest of the country, he is also popular among women and could end up taking at least as many female votes as Hillary.



Unlike Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama seems to be able to win the South for the Democrats. John Edwards decided to continue his race, even if he should finish third on Super Tuesday. He may end up as the kingmaker in the Democratic presidential race. Anything but an endorsement of Obama would be a surprise, inconsistent with his attacks on Clinton as the candidate of the Washington establishment.

Today's deals at Amazon.com. -   Special offers on new releases from Amazon.co.uk.