Jan 26, 2008 4:00 pm US/Eastern
Obama, Clinton Fight For South Carolina Win
COLUMBIA, S.C. (CBS) ―
Democratic presidential rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton collided Saturday in a racially charged South Carolina primary, prelude to the Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 national convention delegates.
Former Sen. John Edwards was the third contender on the ballot, hoping to benefit from the acrimony between the other two.
South Carolina offered 45 Democratic National Convention delegates, as well as the campaign's first indication of Obama's political appeal in a state with a large black population.
According to early CBS News exit polls, the economy was far and away the issue most on the minds of South Carolina Democrats today. It was cited as the most important issue by 52 percent of voters, followed by health care at 26 percent and the Iraq war at 18 percent. Nearly nine in 10 South Carolina Democratic voters say the U.S. economy is in bad shape.
Fifty-seven percent of South Carolina Democratic primary voters said Bill Clinton's campaigning was important in their vote.
Seventy-seven percent of all South Carolina Democratic primary voters - including 83 percent of black South Carolina Democratic primary voters - think the country is ready for a black president. Seventy-four percent think the country is ready for a woman president.
Clinton hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history.
After playing a muted role in the earlier contests, the issue of race dominated an incendiary week that included a shift in strategy for Obama, a remarkably bitter debate and fresh scrutiny of the former president's role in his wife's campaign.
Clinton and Obama swapped accusatory radio commercials earlier in the week.
The former first lady aired an ad saying Obama had once approved of Republican ideas. His camp responded quickly: "Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected." First she, then he, pulled the commercials after a couple of days.
Given the bickering, Edwards looked for an opening to reinvigorate a candidacy all but eclipsed by the historic campaign between Obama and Clinton. He went on the "Late Show with David Letterman" at midweek to say he wanted to represent the "grown-up wing of the Democratic party."
That was one night after a finger-wagging debate in which Obama told Clinton he was helping unemployed workers on the streets of Chicago when "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."
Moments later, the former first lady said she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."
Each side accused the other of playing the race card, sparking a controversy that frequently involved the former president.
"They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender. That's why people tell me Hillary doesn't have a chance of winning here," Bill Clinton said at one stop, strongly suggesting that blacks would not support a white alternative to Obama.
Clinton campaign strategists denied any intentional effort to stir the racial debate. But they said they believe the fallout has had the effect of branding Obama as "the black candidate."
By week's end, one poll indicated that Obama's support among whites in the state had dropped sharply, a danger sign for him in the rush of primaries and caucuses that begins on Feb. 5.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
