Obama More Than Doubles Hillary's Vote Totals in SC Primary

Quite a victory for Mr. Obama yesterday in South Carolina. That's his spine-tingling celebration speech above. At the county level (see map), Edwards won only his county of birth in the NW corner of South Carolina and Clinton won only the seaside county that encompasses Myrtle Beach and other resort towns. Obama won all the rest.

Exit polling results provide detailed voter profiles. Obama won every age group, a majority of both males and females, those with college degrees and without, in every income level and within every political philosophy category. He won 78% of African-Americans and 24% of white voters in a Southern state that still flies the flag of the confederacy on its statehouse grounds. Voter turnout was about 532,000, compared with 290,000 who voted in the state's 2004 Dem primary. Obama's vote total was larger than that of the top two Repub candidates combined -- McCain and Huckabee -- in this year's Repub SC primary. And Obama received more votes than all Democrats in the 2004 South Carolina Democratic Primary. I guess Howard Dean's 50-state strategy (mocked by the Clinton wing) is working.

Ted & Caroline Kennedy
Today's spine-tingling New York Times op-ed by Caroline Kennedy endorsing Obama is the icing on the cake. Excerpt:

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

And today it was reported that Sen. Ted Kennedy will appear tomorrow morning at American University in Washington with his niece Caroline Kennedy to endorse Obama. According to an aide, Kennedy will campaign actively for Obama and will focus particularly among Hispanics and labor union members in states like California, New York, New Jersey, Arizona and New Mexico. It's powerful that Barack is getting endorsements from both Red and Blue State politicos.

Clinton's Rush to Leave SC
Very telling that Hillary Clinton decided to diss the results and flee to a rally in Tennessee without bothering to offer Obama (or those who labored in the trenches for her campaign) a traditional concession speech. Clinton's clumsy two-for-the-price-of-one campaign has repeatedly demonstrated it's not going to follow the rules or any of the niceties of Democratic politics. When you have someone like slithery Mark Penn calling the shots, that's not unexpected.

Did anyone else see any of Bill Clinton's speech last night in Independence, Missouri -- given at the same time Obama was addressing his supporters? Bill spent significant verbiage carrying on about himself and his achievements as President. It can be hard to decipher for whom he's campaigning. Sometimes I think his mind shifts back to 1996 or so when he gets up on a dais.

The Clinton campaign may have a difficult time in Missouri, one of the February 5th Super Tuesday states. Former Sen. Jean Carnahan (widow of highly popular Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan) and current Sen. Claire McCaskill have both endorsed Obama (and been outspoken about Bill Clinton's shading of the truth about Obama) -- just for starters.

Punditry
Odd how the media pundits are now questioning whether Obama can win over sufficient numbers of white voters. Wasn't it just the other day they were asking whether he was "black enough" to capture African-American voters? Well, so far he's won in the lily-white state of Iowa, as well as in South Carolina, where 50%+ of the Dem primary voter pool is African-American. Quite a range.