Obama wins in nearly all demographics

COLUMBIA — Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama posted such an impressive win in Saturday's primary that his victory party began even before his supporters were allowed into the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

A crowd the length of a football field broke into chants of "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!" right at 7 p.m., when the polls closed and news organizations began to call the election for the Illinois senator.

The large margin of his win, with twice as many votes as runner-up Hillary Clinton, proved his appeal to this diverse state, the first in the South to vote this year.

Obama's rout was across the board. Not only did he win 44 of the state's 46 counties, but he captured virtually every demographic, including women, men and young, middle-aged and elderly voters, all this according to CNN exit poll data.

It also proved that pollsters can be right and that he would head toward Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 with a big boost at his back.

The state's Democratic voters turned out in record numbers to give Obama a decisive win, with 55 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent of the vote for the New York senator, with 99 percent of the votes tallied.

The result was a blow for Clinton, who had a commanding lead in the polls a year ago and whose husband, President Bill Clinton, pulled out the stops in recent days, crisscrossing the state to promote his wife and often drawing flak for a war of words that simmered between the Clinton and Obama camps.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who won the South Carolina primary in 2004, fell out of favor in his native state this time around, but his

showing, with 18 percent of the vote, was better than many expected earlier this week.

This was a campaign of pivotal moments, including Obama's appearance in December with media megastar Oprah Winfrey. The pair drew almost 30,000 people to Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, a record crowd for recent political events in the state and a sure sign of how his campaign's grassroots work was paying off.

Another pivotal moment came Monday, when Obama and Clinton testily faced off in a final televised debate before the state went to the polls. Edwards, who asked aloud how their spat would help solve the country's health care and education problems, was seen by many as the winner and saw his poll numbers rise all week.

Obama's success came partly because his historic stature as the first black frontrunner for the U.S. presidency resonated with the state's black residents, who were expected to make up half of Saturday's Democratic electorate.

But it also came because he eschewed the state's traditional black political establishment — an establishment that leaned heavily toward Clinton — and built his own grassroots machine.

"Whatever the result turns out to be, it's good for the Democratic party. It means a lot of people are taking a look at our candidates," Carol Fowler, state Democratic Party chairwoman, said.

Ultimately, the horse race for second place involved more drama than the question of who would win.

"I think irrespective of how this campaign comes out, I don't think this country will ever be the same," U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., predicted during a recent visit to Charleston.

The skies remained clear and cool as more than 300,000 Democratic voters went to the polls, breaking the party's turnout mark set four years ago.

The weather wasn't the only improvement from last week's Republican primary: There were fewer reported voting machine problems.

The NAACP said it planned to increase scrutiny of the primary voting to try to avoid problems faced last week, particularly when several Horry County precincts had to use paper ballots when poll workers couldn't switch on their machines in the morning.

Obama was expected to connect well with black voters. Even President Clinton acknowledged as much during a Charleston campaign stop last week.

"People are proud when someone they identify with emerges for the first time," he said, saying some Democrats like him have waited their lives for such a diverse field.

"Anybody can play in our party, and I think it's great, great, great."

Obama is not the first black to win a presidential contest here.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson won the state's presidential caucuses in 1984 and 1988, but his presidential bid was seen as largely symbolic. Obama's South Carolina victory — on top of his success in Iowa — shows he has a real shot at winning this year.

Blease Graham, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina, said an Obama win "is also a wake-up call for the established Democratic party that they can't take things for granted — that their favorite candidate, Senator Clinton, is vulnerable to some meaningful challenge, not just a fringe challenge."

Late Saturday, backers of Clinton, Edwards and Obama commandeered different corners around the Statehouse here and waved their blue signs at passing motorists.

A few hours before the polls closed, State Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said everything seemed to be going smoothly.

"I've heard of no problems whatsoever," she said. "Turnout is up well over 2004," when about 290,000 Democrats voted. "Some precincts in some counties are up very significantly."

Fowler said she heard of one precinct in Lancaster County where 80 people voted in the 2004 Democratic primary but more than 200 had voted by Saturday afternoon.

"It's a precinct where a mill closed, so they've got reason to want change," she said.

Unlike the Republicans, whose South Carolina winner has gone on to capture the nomination every year since 1980, a Democratic win here doesn't provide any historical cachet, just some momentum and bragging rights.

The candidates all covet that as the race heads into Super-Duper Tuesday on Feb. 5, when 22 states are expected to vote, many with winner-take-all contests.