Posted on 04/10/2007 2:01:34 PM PDT by John Cena
4/10/07) U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has rocketed to the top of the field of contenders for the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary crown, leaving the candidacy of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in a cloud of dust.
The news stunned political experts and pundits.
“Obama has started a brush fire across the country” that Clinton may find difficult to quench, said Francis Marion University polit1ical scientist Neal Thigpen.
“Obama clearly has got momentum,” said Winthrop University professor Scott Huffmon.
The Illinois senator’s showing represents a complete turnaround for Obama who trailed in earlier South Carolina surveys.
Today, Obama holds a comfortable lead in South Carolina, according to a new telephone poll.
He leads with 34 percent of the Democratic primary vote, followed by Clinton with 20 percent.
What is worrisome for the Clinton campaign is that she is in danger of slipping into third place in South Carolina. The poll shows that former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is only three percentage points away from overtaking Clinton.
Matt Towery, chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based polling firm Insider Advantage, was somewhat surprised by the Obama showing.
“The margin of Obama’s lead in South Carolina was stronger than I expected this early in the race,” he said.
Obama was the overwhelming choice of blacks, winning 33 percent of the African-American community, to 28 percent for Cliinton.
That represents a sharp shift in black sentiment since both candidates announced their candidacy. Obama was unknown at the time.
“More and more blacks are for him,” Thigpen said. “A lot didn’t know him at the time of his announcement. That changed as more came to hear him and know him.”
The telephone poll was taken of 500 registered Democratic voters April 6-8.
The good news couldn’t have come at a better time for Obama. On Friday, he will put in a campaign appearance in Florence where he will conduct a noon community meeting on healthcare services.
That will be followed by an address that evening to the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus at its annual dinner in Columbia. Clinton tried to get invited but was turned down.
Mo Elleitlee, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, dismissed the latest South Carolina poll numbers.
“It’s way too early in the campaign to be talking about polls,” he said. “Polls don’t mean that much right now.”
He then added, “We’re .looking forward to the debates.”
Huffmon cautioned the Obama folks not to get too cocky.
“Hillary has got a lot of money to help make up for the lost ground,” he said, noting that she raised $26 million the first quarter and that she has access to millions more.
Obama pretty much matched her dollar for dollars in that first reporting period.
The $64,000 question is can Obama sustain the momentum he has? How will he measure up against the competition?
The upcoming debates April 26 will be crucial.
Edwards is about to move past Hillary in SC...
Think of where she would be if she HADN’T bought off that black political leader/consultant for $250K or whatever it was. She just needs to come up with more contracts like that for another 5 to 50,000 leaders in the community. Sounds like an assignment for Bubba!
Hillary is the easiest Democrat to defeat in the general election.
Hillary is the easiest Democrat to defeat in the general election.
Hitlery has a lot of persuadin’ to down South.
Then it's a good thing she ain't no ways tired. ;)
Hillary chills, but can she thrill?
( Don't 'cha just love jive talk? )
NOT
i agree, and as such, the one that i want to be the eventual nominee...we can beat her
Well Edwards’ wife got sick too soon for him to win the nomination. Had the illness been revealed in Dec it might have made a difference.
I don’t care. I don’t want her or her slimeball husband anywhere near the white house. As of right now, there aren’t any candidates on our side who inspire me. So my only concern for 2008 is seeing Hillary not elected. After that, we’ll probably get a lousy candidate regardless of who wins, but atleast it won’t be her
SC is just plain weird. Didn’t Al Sharpton win the primary in 04 or come very close to it?
Very.
Edwards is the sleaziest, the phoniest and the biggest hypocrite of them all. Hillary is about the same. I saw Obama on Letterman last night and somewhere in there he threw something in that I wasn't expecting from a lib. America is still the last great bastion of hope and freedom in the world . Wow. Obama is proceeding cautiously.
>> HILLARY SUCKS!!! I HOPE HER WHOLE CAMPAIGN IS A HUGE EMBARASSMENT!!!<<
Well, for the reason you mention, I hope Hillary is quite successful in the Democrat Primaries.
She’ll be destroyed when the national spotlight moves onto her. She’s not a likeable person. At all. Romney or Giuliani would destroy her on that merit alone.
Isn’t South Carolina where the beast bribed a local Black leader for his support? I wonder if the guy was scamming her all along? Won’t that be a hoot?
Over the weekend (think it was Sunday night) I was watching Edwards do a townhall type thing on C-Span. Some college kid asked him, ‘Senator, what do we do about Iran ?’ He replied ‘We need to get our European allies together and talk to them [Iran]’ before quickly moving on to talk about healthcare with another audience member. That there summed up his whole Iran strategy.
Senator Hillary Clinton was invited to address a major gathering of The American Indian Nation two weeks ago in upper New York State. She spoke for almost an hour on her future plans for increasing every Native American's present standard of living, should she one day become the first female President.
She referred to her career as a New York Senator, how she had signed "yes" for every Indian issue that came to her desk for approval. Although the Senator was vague on the details of her plan, she seemed most enthusiastic about her future ideas for helping her "red sisters and brothers".
At the conclusion of her speech, the Tribes presented the Senator with a plaque inscribed with her new Indian name - Walking Eagle.
The proud Senator then departed in her motorcade, waving to the crowds. A news reporter later inquired of the group of chiefs of how they had come to select the new name given to the Senator.
They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of crap it can no longer fly.
>>SC is just plain weird. Didn’t Al Sharpton win the primary in 04 or come very close to it?<<
Sharpton finished 3rd in South Carolina in 2004 with about 10% of the vote. Not very impressive in a state where 40% of the Rats are black.
I have a feeling Obama will do better there. I would guess he’s probably not as polarizing in the black community. Or perhaps he is. Hard to tell just yet.
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