Obama, Clinton await their fates
Senator Barack Obama appeared headed for a badly needed victory
in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary today after a
bruising fight with Hillary Clinton marked by increasingly nasty
personal attacks.
A Zogby poll taken before voting began gave Obama solid support
among African-American voters in his quest to be the first black
president, with a 15-point lead over Clinton.
A win would give both Obama and Clinton two victories in major
contested states as they head into a crucial clutch of contests in
nearly two dozen states on February 5.
A loss for Obama would be tantamount to a death knell for his
candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination.
Even before the vote, Clinton appeared to write off South
Carolina and was looking ahead to February 5, with trips this week
to populous states like New York, New Jersey and California,
leaving her husband behind to wage a daily back-and-forth with
Obama.
The “first in the south” nominating contest is the culmination
of a fiercely divisive state campaign, which has at times taken the
party into dangerous racial ground, and included fiery
interventions by ex-president Bill Clinton.
It is also the final contested Democratic nominating clash
before February 5, Super Tuesday, when nearly two dozen states hold
contests on a night that could be decisive for this year’s
presidential candidates.
Polls opened at 7.00am (11pm AEDT) and were set to close 12
hours later.
Expectations are highest for Obama, who desperately needs a
victory after Clinton scooped the Nevada caucuses and New Hampshire
primary, despite his win in the lead-off Iowa caucuses on January
3.
Obama has built a powerbase among African American voters, who
form about half of the Democratic electorate here, and should be
enough to take him to victory.
“For Obama, a win in South Carolina is the equivalent of holding
serve,” said University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante
Scala, predicting the Illinois senator would not get appreciable
momentum from an expected victory.
The Zogby poll, conducted on Thursday and today, showed Obama
had reversed a recent decline and led with 41 per cent compared to
26 per cent for Clinton. Former senator John Edwards trailed in
third place with 19 per cent.
Clinton and Edwards were splitting the support of white voters,
said the poll, which had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage
points.
Both top candidates, and third-ranked Edwards, who won the
primary in 2004 but has failed to catch fire this time, sprinted to
the finish line Friday with a string of statewide rallies and
events.
“We are in a very close race here … I have no idea what is
going to happen tomorrow,” Clinton said.
Trying to stem sliding support among African Americans, Clinton
appeared with several prominent community leaders, who pleaded with
voters not to pick Obama just because he is black.
“It may take a very, very bold step to walk into that voting
booth focusing on our community’s interests, rather than simply
acting on emotion,” said Stacey Jones, dean of largely black
Benedict College here.
Obama drew 3,000 people, many of them students, to hear his
spellbinding rhetoric at Clemson University, in Greenville.
“Change in America had always started with young people,” Obama
told the crowd. “This is your moment, this is your time.”
Earlier, Clinton tried to ease tempers after a week of
accusations of truth twisting, and claims by both camps that the
other was playing the race card.
“That all needs to just calm down, and everybody needs to take a
deep breath” she said on CBS.
Obama’s camp, however, accuses Bill Clinton of fanning the
flames, and all but accused the former president of lying about the
record of his wife’s rival.
A nationwide Wall Street Journal/ NBC poll had troubling signs
for Obama, showing Clinton now leads the Democratic race nationally
among white Americans 53 per cent to 24 per cent, compared to a
40-23 per cent margin last month.
Obama led Clinton, 63 per cent to 23 per cent among the minority
African American community nationwide.
Meanwhile, Ohio lawmaker Dennis Kucinich, a staunch opponent of
the war in Iraq, officially ended his long-shot White House bid
yesterday, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, his hometown newspaper,
reported.
AFP
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Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 12:15 am under