WASHINGTON, 28 January 2008 — After a week of being pummeled by Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama won more than twice as many votes as his nearest rival, entering the Super Tuesday contests on a far more equal footing than had been anticipated.
Sen. Obama’s South Carolina thumping of Sens. Hillary and John Edwards on Saturday gave him a strong, southern tail wind toward the Super Tuesday showdowns. He beat Hillary with 55 percent support compared to her 27 percent — Edwards trailed with 18 percent support. Overwhelming support from African-American voters fueled Obama’s big win in Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic primary, but he also continued to demonstrate broad appeal across racial lines, particularly among younger, better educated and wealthier voters.
As he has elsewhere, Obama scored better among younger white voters. Half of white voters younger than 30 voted for Obama as did about one third of those with at least a college degree and a similar percentage of those with family incomes of $100,000 or more.
Obama exulted in his convincing victory over Hillary in the racially tinged South Carolina Democratic primary, calling his rout a victory over a status quo that’s “fighting back with everything it’s got with the same old tactics that divide and distract us.” And he managed to reaffirm his ability to inspire a new generation of voters, which helped produce South Carolina’s record turnout.
He was quick to seize the moment on Saturday night with a speech that returned his campaign to the themes of unity and change. “I did not travel around this state to see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina. I saw South Carolina,” he said in his victory speech.
Obama told a euphoric convention hall full of supporters that his victory shattered old political assumptions that separate people by party, religion and race. “After four great contests in every corner of this country, we have the most votes, the most delegates, and the most diverse coalition of Americans we’ve seen in a long, long time,” he told the multiracial crowd, heavy with young people, as they chanted “we want change.”
Without naming Hillary, he said: “We are up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election. We know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics.” The Hillary campaign had written off South Carolina, saying the demographics favored Obama, where African-American voters make up about 50 percent of the electorate. Hillary left South Carolina earlier to campaign elsewhere, but she left her husband behind to carry her flag throughout South Carolina, where the former president went after Obama aggressively even as he tried to cultivate the state’s black vote.
The Obama campaign complained that it was running against two Clintons. But Obama said he learned a valuable lesson from his South Carolina experience.
“People were making false assertions about our record and we answered them, period,” Obama told reporters on Thursday after a rally in Kingstree. “Remember, early on in the campaign, everybody was concerned about, ‘Well I don’t know about Obama, he may be too nice, I’m not sure if he’s up to the rough and tumble.’” On the surface, both Obama and Hillary go into the Super Tuesday contests with two primary wins apiece. Obama had wins in Iowa and South Carolina; Hillary claimed hers in New Hampshire and Nevada. However, Obama’s wins were much more convincing. The question now is whether Obama or Hillary will benefit as the Democratic campaign for the White House is reduced to a two-person race. Both will take votes that in a three-way race would have gone to Edward. However, Hillary may be the main beneficiary, attracting more of the white, blue-collar electorate than Obama.
