Obama Skunks Clinton in SC

I haven't had much time to watch the election returns from South Carolina, but when I saw CNN call Obama the winner with 0% of the vote counted I figured it must have been pretty decisive. It was:

Sen. Barack Obama, vying to become the nation's first black president, has won the South Carolina primary today, boosted by a record turnout of African-American voters in a state whose electorate appears polarized along racial lines.

Obama overwhelmingly beat Sen. Hillary Clinton with 55 percent support to her 27 percent, and former Sen. John Edwards, trailing with 18 percent support, with almost all preccints reporting.

"Tonight, the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina," Obama said to supporters tonight.

"We have the most votes, the most delegates, and the most diverse coalition of Americans we've seen in a long, long time," Obama told supporters, who cheered "Yes we can!"

In a direct swipe at Clinton's campaign, Obama said, "There are real differences between the candidates. We are looking for more than just a change of party in the White House," he said.

What was kind of curious in the CNN reporting was that at one point they had a "breaking news" item in which they projected that Hillary Clinton would finish second. In all the election coverage I've seen I've never seen a network issue a projection for second place.

So, after the voters of South Carolina rebuffed all of Bill Clinton's efforts in the state, what did he have to say:

Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."

This was in response to a question about Obama saying it "took two people to beat him." Jackson had not been mentioned.

That was a planned response looking for any question that he could use it. There is a strategy in play to portray Obama as the "black" candidate in an effort to create a racial divide between the voters. Since there are more white than black Democrats, Clinton feels he can win that way. And the sad thing is, he just might.

Obama also got an interesting endorsement today:

OVER the years, I've been deeply moved by the people who've told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

The writer of that piece is Carolyn Kennedy, the daughter of the late president. Will it have much impact? Hard to tell.

Something else hit me as I've been perusing the conservative websites. A lot of us are actively rooting for Obama, not because we want him to be president, but because we dislike the Clintons so much and want to see them lose (and be humiliated in the process, if possible). We may come to regret that rooting if he goes on to win in November.