WASHINGTON, 27 January 2008 — South Carolina Democrats cast votes yesterday in a bitter presidential nominating race, with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama leading rival New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in polls and counting on heavy black support to carry him to a needed victory.
Record turnout of more than 300,000 is expected in the first Democratic primary in the South, where black voters are likely to make up about half of the electorate.
Polls close at 7 p.m. EST, with results available soon afterward.
Democrats say the acrimonious tit-for-tat between Clinton and Obama is preventing meaningful discussion about issues that blacks in South Carolina want to hear.
Political observers say the bickering among front-runners could benefit former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
A victory in South Carolina is critical for Obama, who won in Iowa but lost to Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada.
Edwards is counting on the Clinton-Obama feud to give him a boost ahead of the Feb. 5. “Super Tuesday” when 22 states vote in nominating contests.
“Obama has been doing well with young voters, independents and educated upper-middle-class liberals. Winning the black vote by a solid margin means Obama has standing with the Democratic Party’s base,” ,” said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider.
“The closer Hillary Clinton comes to splitting the black vote with Obama, the easier it will be for her to say that she and Obama share the support of that base,” Schneider added.
The high stakes fueled a week of angry accusations, harsh advertisements and increasingly personal jabs between the two candidates, capped by a volley of attacks on Obama from Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Obama accused the Clintons of distorting his record and angrily fired back with a radio ad charging “Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected.”
“Campaigns are contentious,” Hillary Clinton told reporters on Friday in Rock Hill, South Carolina. “There is a perfectly legitimate role for drawing contrasts, for pointing to people’s records, for correcting.”
Edwards chastised his two rivals for their squabbling and ran ads promoting himself as the grown-up in the contentious nominating battle.
A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released yesterday showed Obama with a 41 percent to 26 percent edge over Clinton in South Carolina, with Edwards in third place with 19 percent.
The lead for Obama, who would be the first black US president, is fueled by his 62 percent support among black voters, the poll found.
Clinton, who would be America’s first female president, and Edwards are tied among white voters at 35 percent, with Obama at 19 percent.
