Overwhelmingly supported by black voters, African-American
presidential candidate Barack Obama won the South Carolina
Democratic primary Saturday with a strong lead, and restored his
momentum before the full-scale race expected on "Super Tuesday" on
February 5.
After all ballots were counted, Obama won 55 percent of the
votes, more than double New York Senator Hillary Clinton's 27
percent, followed by former North Carolina Senator John Edwards
with 18 percent.
The Illinois senator's lead in the exit polls was so strong that
the US media all projected his victory in the primary even before
any results were reported from the precincts.
After Obama consecutively lost New Hampshire and Nevada to
Clinton, the first race for Democrats in the South became a "must
win" for him. Only by way of his prevalence among blacks, who
account for nearly half of the Democratic voters in the state,
could he, at least, retain a tie with Clinton and go further toward
the White House.
Obama's appeal to fellow African Americans was not in vain.
According to the exit polls released by CNN, he won more than 80
percent of the black vote in South Carolina, in stark contrast to
Clinton's 17 percent.
Out of the total votes given to Obama, 78 percent were from
black voters and about 20 percent were from whites, the polls
showed.
However, the candidate, who has been wielding the banner of the
nation's unity, stopped short of playing the race card.
"The choice in this election is not about regions or religions
or genders," Obama said at a victory rally. "It's not about rich
versus poor, young versus old and it's not about black versus
white. It's about the past versus the future."
In addition, Obama showed his popularity among young and
educated voters, key factors in his win in Iowa.
According to the exit polls, he enjoyed the highest supporting
rates of voters from 18 to 65 years old, and took a third of the
votes from college graduates.
Economy first
Echoing voters in the states that previously held primaries and
caucuses, South Carolina Democrats view the economy as a priority,
with 53 percent of whites and an equal percentage of blacks telling
CNN exit polls that the issue came to their mind when they decided
on candidates.
As public concern over a potential economic recession increases,
with high oil prices, the subprime crisis and the budget deficit,
both Democratic and Republican presidential contenders are expected
to raise their voice on economic stimulus package initiatives and
economic management experience.
Given the fact that Democratic voters, who are mostly on low
incomes and suffer from the greatest unemployment risks, are in
need of better healthcare policy, debates on the issue among the
three candidates will become louder as the race continues.
Twenty-one percent of white and 28 percent of black voters in
South Carolina ranked healthcare as their second priority,
according to the polls.
The Iraq war, whose prominence in the race has faded somewhat,
remains the third biggest issue among 20 percent of white voters
and 15 percent of blacks. The debate over Iraq is less fierce than
it is on the Republican side, partly due to the narrower distance
on the issue between the Democratic candidates.
Three-way continues
Temporarily basking in the South Carolina victory, Obama is
expected to face serious challenges on "Super Tuesday," when a
total of 22 states will elect their Democratic presidential
nominee. Some delegate-rich states may well break the tie between
Obama and Clinton.
Seen from South Carolina exit polls, despite an uncontested lead
among black voters, Obama was the least popular among whites,
winning support from only 27 percent of white male voters and 22
percent of white females, compared with Edwards' 44 percent of
white men and Clinton's 42 percent of white women.
When asked which candidate was more experienced, 83 percent of
voters chose Clinton and 9 percent preferred Edwards while only 7
percent supported Obama.
In a recent national poll by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg
National Poll, Clinton led her rivals with 42 percent, Obama was
second with 33 percent and Edwards lagged at 11 percent.
In the less than two weeks before "Super Tuesday," Clinton's
predominance has been seen in populous states such as California,
Arizona, New Jersey and New York, thanks to her popularity among
white and Latino voters, among other factors.
Despite the lame performance in his hometown, Edwards insisted
on his strategy of staying in the game "for the long haul." His big
share of white male voters Saturday is considered to have
diminished Obama's support among men and Clinton's among
whites.
Political analysts said the former vice presidential candidate
in 2004 is playing the "king-maker" role who accumulates delegates
during the primaries and caucuses and chooses to ally himself with
a front-runner, helping him or her win a majority in the nomination
convention.
States or delegates?
Unlike the Republican party that includes a "winner-takes-all"
rule in some of its states' primaries, Democrats have the same
rules for all states that delegates are allocated in proportion to
a candidate's primary vote, and the one who secures a total of
2,025 delegates can be nominated as the party's presidential
candidate at the convention.
Although Obama and Clinton have each won two states so far, the
former led the latter by 63 to 48 in the numbers of delegates.
Edwards, who has never triumphed in any state, has pocketed 26
delegates.
The February 5 race is in the spotlight as it will offer more
than 1,600 convention delegates out of a total of 2,075 at
stake.
Apart from delegates resulted from state-by-state primaries and
caucuses, the Democratic nomination convention also includes 796
"superdelegates" -- officeholders and party officials who
automatically have votes.
According to a recent survey of superdelegates by CNN, 182
votes, 79 percent of the total, go to Clinton, compared with 59
percent to Obama and 57 percent to Edwards.
(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2008)
