Richard Tafoya
Jan 26th, 2008, 05:52 PM
LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-carolina27jan27,0,3866781.story
Barack Obama was projected to have won a substantial victory in today's South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, according to the Associated Press and television networks.
The projections came moments after the polls closed here in the Democratic primary, one of the nastiest in this year's presidential sweepstakes.
Illinois Sen. Obama took a commanding lead over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to today's exit surveys. Former Sen. John Edwards was also running.
South Carolina is the first Democratic primary in the South and the first with a significant black electorate. Obama, seeking to become the first African American in the White House, and Clinton, heiress to her husband's popularity in the African American community, fought over a variety of issues -- including race.
"A tough competition is good," said Jenny Backus, an unaffiliated Democratic strategist. "But we have to come together in the general election. There are three qualified candidates. We would be better off debating their different leadership styles than ripping each other's faces off."
Clinton, who will get the results while seeking votes in Tennessee, placed much of the campaigning in the hands of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who won South Carolina in his 1992 White House run. Critics accused the former president of injecting race into the contest through a series of veiled remarks. Clinton angrily denied the assertion, and at one point even snapped at the media.
Local polls showed an increasing gap between black and white Democrats as the week passed.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-carolina27jan27,0,3866781.story
Barack Obama was projected to have won a substantial victory in today's South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, according to the Associated Press and television networks.
The projections came moments after the polls closed here in the Democratic primary, one of the nastiest in this year's presidential sweepstakes.
Illinois Sen. Obama took a commanding lead over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to today's exit surveys. Former Sen. John Edwards was also running.
South Carolina is the first Democratic primary in the South and the first with a significant black electorate. Obama, seeking to become the first African American in the White House, and Clinton, heiress to her husband's popularity in the African American community, fought over a variety of issues -- including race.
"A tough competition is good," said Jenny Backus, an unaffiliated Democratic strategist. "But we have to come together in the general election. There are three qualified candidates. We would be better off debating their different leadership styles than ripping each other's faces off."
Clinton, who will get the results while seeking votes in Tennessee, placed much of the campaigning in the hands of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who won South Carolina in his 1992 White House run. Critics accused the former president of injecting race into the contest through a series of veiled remarks. Clinton angrily denied the assertion, and at one point even snapped at the media.
Local polls showed an increasing gap between black and white Democrats as the week passed.