Obama wins South Carolina primary

Barack Obama won a sweeping victory over Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday, propelled by overwhelming support from African-American voters.

Mr Obama’s strong win throws the Democratic race wide open again with less than ten days before almost half of the party’s delegates are chosen in the ”Super Tuesday” primary polls on February 5.
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”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,” Mr Obama said at a rousing victory rally.

”In nine short days, nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington. We are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again,” he added, to deafening chants of “Yes we can” by supporters.

It follows an unusually bitter campaign in which critics of Hillary and Bill Clinton accused them of playing the ”race card” in a state where roughly half the Democratic voters are black.

Mr Obama beat Mrs Clinton by a resounding 55 per cent to 27 per cent, with John Edwards, former North Carolina senator, in third place with 18 per cent.

Mr Obama won at least 19 delegates with 15 delegates yet to be awarded. Mrs Clinton won at least nine delegates and Mr Edwards won at least two.

The Illinois senator also gained an endorsement from Caroline Kennedy, who likened Mr Obama to her late father, President John F. Kennedy.

”I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,” she wrote in the New York Times. ”But for the first time, I believe I have found a man who could be that president - and not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

Mrs Clinton called Mr Obama to congratulate him as she headed to Tennessee on Saturday evening. In a written statement, she said: ”We now turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard in Florida and the 22 states as well as American Samoa who will vote on February 5.”

During his victory speech, Mr Obama said: ”The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders. ” He added: ”It’s not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it’s not about black versus white. It’s about the past versus the future.”

In a record turnout, more than half of the 400,000 voters were black. Exit polls showed that 81 per cent of those chose Mr Obama against 17 per cent for Mrs Clinton. Mrs Clinton won 36 per cent of the white vote against 39 per cent for John Edwards with about a quarter going to Mr Obama.

In contrast to the nomination votes in both Nevada and New Hampshire earlier this month, both of which Hillary Clinton won, South Carolina’s female voters did not split decisively her way. Among black women, the small share voting for Mrs Clinton was identical to the breakdown of the overall African-American vote, implying that race trumped gender in South Carolina.

Among white women, Mrs Clinton won 42 per cent against 35 per cent for Mr Edwards and 22 per cent for Mr Obama.