Barack Obama Wins Big In South Carolina
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Billary, Hillary, South Carolina
Three big stories tonight.
First, Barack is poised to grab more than 50% of the vote. That’s huge, and especially since the exit polls suggest that the black/white turnout was roughly 52/48, not as big of a gap as expected.
Second, the exit polls also reveal that 60% of the turnout was female, making this the largest turnout for women so far. And of that number, Barack won about 80% of the black female vote and still placed respectably with white females at around 25%.
Third, and probably the most satisfying thing for me, Bill’s campaigning hurt Hillary…
Roughly 6 in 10 South Carolina Democratic primary voters said Bill Clinton’s campaigning was important in how they ultimately decided to vote, and of those voters, 48 percent went for Barack Obama while only 37 percent went for Hillary Clinton. Fourteen percent of those voters voted for John EdwardsMeanwhile, the exit polls also indicate Obama easily beat Clinton among those voters who decided in the last three days — when news reports heavily covered the former president’s heightened criticisms of Obama. Twenty percent of South Carolina Democrats made their decision in the last three days and 51 percent of them chose Obama, while only 21 percent picked Clinton.
In the exit polls, we asked voters in this primary if the candidates were attacking each other unfairly. Fifty-six percent of those voting so far think Obama attacked Clinton unfairly, and while that is a high number, more people thought Clinton unfairly attacked Obama — 70%.
So, will the Clintons change their slash and burn strategy now or can they at this point?
In any event, told you so Hillary!
(PS - Edwards and Clinton might finish neck and neck, but at this point it looks like 2nd will go to Clinton by more than 5%, so it won’t be that close. More as it develops…)
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Billary, Hillary, South Carolina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Obama’s percentage of the white vote won’t matter if these margins hold up. This will and should be reported as a huge win.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
CNN just reported some demographic exit poll data. Among white voters under 30, Obama took 50% of the vote.
January 26th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I just finished watching Obama’s victory speech. For all the talk about Obama as a new Democrat, with a vision for a rejuvenated 21st-century politics, his speech offered a tremendously class-driven, populist appeal, likely to divide the country more than unite it. He called for the immediate end to the war in Iraq - coded antiwar language for an immediate troop withdrawal, precisely when military and political developments are at their best since March 2003.
His supporters, I must say, seemed to rock the decibel-meter more so than any victory speech I’ve seen this year. Maybe I just have the volume set a bit high. It sure seemed that the energy was just pumping out of the auditorium.
Obama gained what he needed most going forward: momentum. He’ll see a surge in contributions next week, and a priceless rush of earned media, as his visage’s further splashed acrossed newspapers, magazines, and TV news shows around the country following this Palmetto State breakthrough.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Obama won South Carolina, but he is trying to make race an issue in his quest for the White House.
He will do anything to win.
He plays dirty, and will not win.
New York will laugh at him, and people will get sick of him.
Super Tuesday will break him, but he will try to lie his way to some wins.
See through him, and vote for another candidate.
I am,
George Vreeland Hill