McCain - 45%
Obama - 39%
Barr - 5%
More evidence that solidly red states aren’t nearly as solid this time around. Because while South Carolina went for Bush by 16 points in 2004, now we’re down to single digits.
Public Policy Polling shares why Obama is keeping it close…
The demographics fueling Obama’s ability to stay within striking range [...]

The South Carolina Governor has been mentioned as a possible dark horse candidate for McCain’s right hand position, but he won’t be coming back from this one…

Now, he contends he wasn’t even on McCain’s list…
Sanford was later asked if he was being vetted for the VP job. He said he has not been asked for [...]

I talked about one of Edwards’ switchers earlier, and now 6 out of the 8 from South Carolina and 1 from Iowa have announced they’re backing Obama.
They are…

Daniel Boan, South Carolina
Christine Brennan-Bond, South Carolina
Robert Groce, South Carolina
Susan Smith, South Carolina
Mike Evatt, South Carolina
Lauren Bilton, South Carolina
Machelle Crum, Iowa

This has the net effect of him winning [...]

That’s +7 for the day. Are the floodgates about to open?
From RCP:
[...] the Obama campaign has won the endorsements of Hawaii Rep. Mazie Hirono and Laurie Weahkee, a New Mexico superdelegate and lead organizer for the Native American Voters Alliance.
Also, Wilber Lee Jeffcoat…
Jeffcoat, a retired trucking supervisor and member of the S.C. Democratic Party executive [...]

If you care to watch it and haven’t yet.

What’s interesting is Hillary didn’t give a speech. But Bill was speaking in Independence, Missouri and some think he basically gave her concession. Weird, eh?
Conservative Rich Lowry says this on Obama’s speech
Overall, a stunningly deft performance, and a moving one. It’s the best liberal case you’ll ever [...]

Yes, that’s how big Obama’s win was tonight.
Here are Obama’s numbers compared to the top two Republicans in South Carolina:

Obama: 295,091
McCain: 147,283
Huckabee: 132,440

That’s 295,051 to 279,723. Stunning.
Could Obama actually be competitive in South Carolina come election time? Some seem to think it’s at least plausible…
Obama can now say that he’s got the best ability to [...]

Yep, it’s going to happen. He has 55% to Clinton’s 27%.
Again, this is a massive win.
Vote totals (95% reporting):

Obama: 280,836
Clinton: 134,536
Edwards: 90,486

She got 29%. He got 27%.
Does Hill have a male problem?

Watch the following video and ask yourself why he’s comparing Obama’s win to Jesse Jackson’s wins in 1984 and 1988.

Obviously it was just because both Obama and Jesse share similar political views. It’s not about both of them being black. Not at all. Because Bill Clinton doesn’t ever play racial politics. No way, no how.
Sully [...]

Here are the number, courtesy of ABC:
African-Americans: Obama 81%, Clinton 17%, Edwards 1%
African-American women: Obama 82%, Clinton 17%, Edwards 0%
Whites: Edwards 39%, Clinton 36%, Obama 24%
Edwards winning white men, Clinton white women.
Economy clear top issue.
ABC News: Preliminary exit poll results indicate a very large turnout among women and African-American voters.
ABC polling director Gary [...]

Bad news for the son of South Carolina, but will he stay in it for the long haul so he can possibly become kingmaker at the convention?
So what happened tonight? Well, I think when the numbers get broken down even further they’ll reveal that a lot of people who were considering voting for Edwards switched [...]

As it stands right now, Obama sits at 53% to Hillary’s 27%. If this holds up, the fact that he nearly doubled her vote count in this state is stunning. Because spin as they might, the Clinton campaign will be laughed at if they try to explain this away as a “race” thing.

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 [...]

How can she be so transparently shameless?
From Hillary’s campaign…
Regardless of today’s outcome, the race quickly shifts to Florida, where hundreds of thousands of Democrats will turn out to vote on Tuesday.
Despite efforts by the Obama campaign to ignore Floridians, their voices will be heard loud and clear across the country, as the last state to [...]

Good news for Barack? Hillary? Edwards? The answer is all of them, because Democrats are coming out in force this primary season and that will bode well for the eventual nominee.
From The State:
Good weather and an attractive slate of candidates have South Carolina Democrats expecting record turnout for today’s presidential primary, continuing a trend [...]

Zogby shows him getting closer and closer to Hillary over the past few days, with Obama leading by a pretty solid 13%.
From Zogby…
Clinton won 25% support, up one point from the day before but now just four points ahead of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who continued to increase support and now sits at [...]

Apparently the smear wasn’t worth the heat. Or it wasn’t polling well. Either way, you know they didn’t pull it because Hillary felt bad about smearing Barack. This is all out war now, and regardless of this one pull back it doesn’t look like it’ll be letting up any time soon.
From Wash Post:
GREENVILLE, S.C. — [...]

They will say anything to win.
From Wash Post:
DILLON, S.C., Jan. 23 — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign aired a new radio ad here Wednesday that repeated a discredited charge against Sen. Barack Obama, in what some Democrats said is part of an increasing pattern of hardball politics by her and former president Bill Clinton.
The [...]

With Obama so far ahead in the polls in the Palmetto State, this unspoken move makes sense. The question now is: should Barack leave South Carolina now and start criss-crossing the country before Super Tuesday?
From Wash Post:
Clinton has been focused on California, New York, New Jersey and Arkansas since her defeat in the Iowa caucuses [...]

Looks like all the candidates played fast and loose with the facts, and FactCheck.org is on top of it…
Clinton falsely accused Obama of saying he “really liked the ideas of the Republicans” including private Social Security accounts and deficit spending. Not true. The entire 49-minute interview to which she refers contains no endorsement of private [...]