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The Obama camp has leased space for their Greenville, SC headquarters right next door to the Republican campaign headquarters. But were they honest about the transaction? Read about it here. greenvilleonline.com

The first Rasmussen Reports poll of South Carolina’s United State Senate race shows Republican Senator Lindsey Graham attracting 50% of the vote while Democratic challenger Bob Conley earns 41%. Graham, who was first elected to the Senate in 2002, is viewed favorably by 52% of the state’s voters. Thirty-eight percent (38%) have an unfavorable view. Before serving in the Senate, Graham had been a member of the House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002. Conley is viewed favorably by 42%, and unfavorably by 32%. Twenty-five percent (25%) have no opinion of him. Although he is running for the Senate as...

A new poll shows that Republican John McCain might win South Carolina as handily as George W. Bush did four and eight years ago. McCain had a 59 percent to 37 percent lead in this state over Democratic rival Barack Obama, according to a recent American Research Group poll. Four percent remained undecided.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina's Democratic Party chairwoman said Wednesday that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's top qualification seems to be not having had an abortion. She later apologized.

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE KATHERINE JENERETTE’S 75-Day Whirlwind Campaign for US CONGRESSDATE: June 10, 2008MORE INFORMATION: www.jenerette.orgPHOTOS at: www.jenerette.org/photos       KATHERINE JENERETTE’S 75-Day Whirlwind Campaign for U.S. CONGRESS SUBJECT: Republican Congressional Candidate Katherine Jenerette thanks All-Volunteer Campaign Team - Congratulates U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, Jr. and remarks on the November Election I want to take this opportunity to congratulate U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, Jr. and offer my support to both him and to all the members of the Republican slate of candidates for the November 2008 general elections. With the primary election behind us it is time to...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham faced a long shot primary challenge Tuesday from a fellow Republican who has hammered his ties to Arizona Sen. John McCain. In Virginia, Democrats wrapped up a bitter contest to run for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Davis. And in Maine, Democrats chose between Rep. Tom Allen and political newcomer Tom Ledue in a U.S. Senate primary while both parties settled hard-fought races in the 1st Congressional District in the southern part of the state. Graham challenger Buddy Witherspoon, a retired orthodontist and former Republican National...

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s campaign today released new television and radio advertisements in advance of the June 10 Republican Primary. Both ads include supporting statements from presumptive Republican nominee for President John McCain. In the TV ad McCain calls Graham, “a reformer who is willing to take a stand and tackle the tough issues. He’s guided by conservative principles – like appointing conservative judges and keeping taxes low.” In the radio ad, McCain notes that unlike some political leaders who refuse to tackle the tough problems facing our nation, Graham “won’t run from a political fight.”...

There's no mistaking Lindsey Graham's loyalties or liabilities as he seeks a second term in the U.S. Senate. The 52-year-old Republican makes it clear that his future and that of Republican presidential candidate John McCain are tightly interwoven. "My re-election, I think, will benefit South Carolina because if he gets to be president, South Carolina's interests will have a receptive audience due to our relationship," Graham said in a recent interview. "I want to help him do the hard things." McCain recently made his first stop in the state since winning South Carolina's January primary, and Graham pumped his fists...

Katherine Jenerette says she has entered the Republican primary for the First District Congressional seat out of frustration with the GOP. "The Democrats have a home team advantage now," Jenerette says, "and Republicans need a congressman who can go toe-to-toe with them. We've had a Republican Congress for six years, and we can have more of the same or we can have someone in there that will make a difference. "I am not afraid to say what needs to be said and push legislation for family and values, fiscal responsibility, national security and subjects like immigration and border control. Republicans...

We have a three way Republican Primary in South Carolina’s First Congressional District. Henry Brown is an incumbent Congressman running for this fifth term. I really have no feelings toward Brown one way or the other. He isn’t one to show up in the media much. He received a rating of 96 from the American Conservative Union for 2007, not too shabby and he’s been involved in government for about 27 years, starting in the city council, moving up to state office and then Federal.He has two challengers in the primary. The first, Paul Norris, is the President of...

Brown runs on record; challengers want change Energy, veterans, taxes among 1st Dist. issues By Robert Behre The Post and Courier Saturday, May 24, 2008 First District Rep. Henry Brown is vying to serve a fifth term in Congress, but first he must overcome two Republican challengers who think they can do a better job. Johns Island businessman Paul Norris said he's making his first bid for public office because he wants to use his engineer's approach to solving problems that he said threaten the next generation. Professor and U.S. Army reservist Katherine Jenerette of North Myrtle Beach said...

At a sparsely attended campaign event in Beaufort on Friday, Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham promised he would work to solve the nation's immigration problems if reelected and pooh-poohed speculation that Arizona Sen. John McCain would tap him as a presidential running mate. About 30 people showed up to Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park to meet the senator during a Lowcountry boil his campaign sponsored. Mike Passanite, owner of Boundary Street Pizzaria, catered the event and said he was told to expect about 125. Norma Stewart of Sun City Hilton Head said rain in southern Beaufort County probably kept many...

South Carolina's Lindsey Graham is a flop. He pretends to be a conservative, but sells out conservatives and insults them while doing so. He pretends to be effective at reaching across party lines, but the only thing he effectively does is help the other party. He inhabits the Senate seat of Strom Thurmond, legendary for great attention to his South Carolina constituents, but Graham spends most of his time trailing behind John McCain like a valet as McCain criss-crosses the country in pursuit of the presidency. He called Ted Kennedy "one of the most principled men I've ever met." In...

Jenerette Campaign: It’s Amazing Old Man Brown Can Feed Himself We got a look this morning at the official press announcement on Katherine Jenerette’s run for Congressman Henry Brown’s District 1 seat and noticed a bit of a theme for this challenge to her fellow Republican: “… announced her bid for the Republican nomination for the 1st District US Congressional Seat, currently held by 72-year old Rep. Henry Brown of Hanahan.” “… we needed ‘new-blood’ and a new aggressive conservative congressman to represent the 1st District in Congress.” “…our district here in South Carolina has changed tremendously over the years.”...

Henry Brown Gets a Second GOP Opponent The circling of the wolves continues as Henry Brown gets a second GOP challenger. Desert Storm veteran and former Brown aid Katherine Jenerette of Horry County has filed to unseat her old boss. Charleston businessman Paul Norris filed for the seat last week along with Brown. This three way race could mean good things for Democrat Linda Ketner, as Brown is forced to invest money in the primary race. Side note: Jenerette’s website still has a picture of her and Henry together (as well as a link to Brown’s Congressional website). The site...

Former President Bill Clinton defended his role in his wife's presidential campaign in South Carolina, disputing claims he made race a campaign issue. Bill Clinton, shown with Brad Pitt, was in New Orleans this weekend as part of the Clinton Global Initiative. "What happened there is a total myth and a mugging," Clinton told CNN's Sean Callebs in New Orleans, Louisiana, over the weekend. "It's been pretty well established. Charlie Rangel ... the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in unequivocal terms in South Carolina that no one in our campaign played any race card, that we...

NEW YORK - Former President Clinton is pushing back on criticism that he fanned racial tension while campaigning for his wife in South Carolina. In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast Monday, Clinton said he had gotten a "bum rap" from the news media after he compared Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jackson's wins in the state in 1984 and 1988. Clinton was widely criticized for appearing to cast Obama as little more than a black candidate popular in a state with a heavily black electorate. "They made up...

Last week, I asked David Walker, the U.S. comptroller general, why he is quitting his job to travel the country on a "fiscal wake-up tour." His answer: Because we have only five to 10 years to address the federal government's looming shortfalls before we're faced with a fiscal crisis. In about a decade, the twin forces of demographics and compound interest will leave few options for solving the fiscal mess Washington has created. By then, our options will all be ugly. We could make draconian spending cuts, or impose large tax increases that will undermine our economy in the competitive...

Barack Obama would not be leading the Democratic presidential race without the enthusiasm and high turnout of black voters. They spearheaded his comeback win in South Carolina, where Obama trounced Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards with the backing of four out of every five black voters. They provided his margin of victory in many other states, and will play a key role in Tuesday's primary in Mississippi, where Clinton is the underdog. But Obama's campaign saw the limits of black support in last week's losses in Ohio and Texas, which kept Clinton's campaign alive. And the role black voters...

Niccolo Machiavelli was a political philosopher who expressed his thought in a campaign manual for scoundrels. When a threat to your success is small enough to be dealt with, he shrewdly warned, it is all too easy to ignore. When it has grown too large to ignore, it is often too late to do anything about it. So even the most unscrupulous ambition needs at least this much scruple: never take your position for granted. If you were preparing a new edition of "The Prince," you could illustrate this advice with Hillary Clinton's picture. As results came in on Super...

RICHMOND, Va. - The nation's first elected black governor said Saturday he is not ready to excuse comments former President Bill Clinton made about Barack Obama. In campaigning for his wife last month on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Clinton called Obama's opposition to the Iraq war "a fairy tale." Clinton suggested Obama had toned down his early anti-war fervor during his 2004 Senate campaign. "Barack Obama is not a fairy tale. He is real," former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder told reporters at a Democratic fundraiser as the former president spent the day campaigning for Hillary Rodham...

RICHMOND, Virginia (CNN) – Doug Wilder, the nation’s first black governor and a prominent backer of Barack Obama, told reporters Saturday that Bill Clinton has not yet atoned for his attacks on the Illinois senator during the South Carolina primary.

There was general amazement when (the now-muzzled) Bill Clinton did his red-faced, attack-dog, race-baiting performance in South Carolina. Friends, Democrats and media sycophants were variously perplexed, repulsed, enraged, mystified and shocked that this beloved ex-president would so jeopardize his legacy by stooping so low. What they don't understand is that for Clinton, there is no legacy. What he was doing on the low road from Iowa to South Carolina was fighting for a legacy — a legacy that he knows history has denied him and that he has one chance to redeem. Clinton is a narcissist but also smart and...

Make no mistake about it: If Hillary Clinton is elected president, her husband will be her rogue co-president, causing constant chaos, crises and conflicts for her new administration. And sometimes, that will be exactly what Hillary wants. Chaos is Bill Clinton’s signature style and he’s not about to suddenly change. No way. Nor does Hillary necessarily want him to be a new Bill. In many ways, his divisive role in her campaign has been carefully crafted by Hillary and her team. It might come in useful in the White House, too. Throughout Hillary’s campaign, Bill has given us an unfortunate...

William Jefferson Faubus The Clintons start a new conversation about race. by Noemie Emery 02/11/2008, Volume 013, Issue 21 In the 1990 Senate campaign in North Carolina, there was one ad and one moment that emerged as iconic. Run by Republican Jesse Helms against Harvey Gantt, a black Democrat, it showed a pair of white hands crumpling a piece of paper. "You needed that job," said the voice-over ominously, "but they had to give it to a minority." Those white hands now belong to Bill and Hillary Clinton, and their complaint is remarkably similar to that of the man in...

Did the Clintons know what they were doing? I believe that they were unaware what they're doing to themselves by their vicious negative campaign against Sen. Barack Obama. They and their colleagues set out to destroy him by innuendo, distortion and smear. His brilliant victory in South Carolina over the weekend was too late. There is not enough time for him before next Tuesday to erase the images they have created -- a teller of fairy tales, a racial candidate, a friend of crooks. Sen. Hillary Clinton shouted him down in the debates, the former president exploded in temper tantrums....

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the number three Democrat in the House of Representatives, thanked CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer for 'accommodating' the party on questions asked of their presidential candidates at last week's debate in Myrtle Beach.Blitzer did not dispute Clyburn's statement of collusion between CNN and the Democrats.From the CNN transcript:BLITZER: We spoke the last time just before the Democratic debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You urged the candidates, in your word, to chill, especially the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. You got a lot of mileage out of that. But they came out...

In September 1998, Greg Craig, a lion of the Washington legal community, left a top job at the State Department to go to the White House to help Bill Clinton fight impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. One of his first stops was to an old Democratic friend, Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who warned him what he was stepping into: “You’re about three days away from a delegation of senior Democrats coming up there to ask the president to resign.” That anecdote, recounted in Peter Baker’s history of the impeachment saga, came echoing back to mind in recent...

John McCain heads into Tuesday's Florida primary facing resistance from not only his fellow candidates, but also from the leaders of conservative talk radio, who some suggest have put their reputations on the line, as well. Talk radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh said that if McCain or Mike Huckabee are nominated, "it's going to destroy the Republican Party." Mark Levin calls the senator "John McLame." On Monday, Laura Ingraham said she was "concerned about the mental stability of the McCain campaign" and had cuckoo-clock sound effects accompany his words. "Sen. McCain is a great American, a lousy senator and a terrible...

Don Imus got into an animated discussion this morning about former President Bill Clinton's comparison of Obama's South Carolina primary victory over Senator Clinton to Jesse Jackson. ''If I had made that comparison to Jesse Jackson,'' I have a feeling that I'd be talking to Al Sharpton again,'' Imus told Michael Graham of Boston's WTKK. (image via AP via ABCNews)

As I write this, it is about 15 degrees outside my Virginia farm. Nonetheless, my llamas and sheep, deep in snow, seem perfectly cozy in their winter woolens; the peacocks are in their feathered wintered invulnerability to cold; the horses are in their winter hair and indomitable spirit; my cats, all curled up and sleepy; the dogs, slumbering by the fading embers of the fireplace. The Lord provides for his children. But we Republicans shiver in the cold and brace ourselves for the hard winds yet to come. In the aftermath of Sen. McCain's South Carolina victory, it can only...

After a bitter campaign that polarized along racial lines, Illinois Senator Barack Obama overwhelmingly won the South Carolina Democratic primary, Saturday, taking more than half of the vote... 55 per cent of the vote, compared to her 27 per cent...Edwards was far behind at 18 per cent. It is the most emphatic win by a Democratic candidate since the Iowa caucuses launched the presidential nomination campaign more than three weeks ago. But the race took a toll, both on Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton, as well as on the Democratic Party itself. The Obama camp complained that the Clinton camp,...

Hillary Clinton quickly bounced up off the canvas after her most lopsided electoral loss, but Barack Obama's South Carolina primary rout posed tough new questions for her White House bid. ... Obama riding a wave of African American support, drubbed the former first lady by 55% to 27% in the "first in the south" primary, tying their nominating race at two major contests each. But a defiant Clinton dispensed with a concession speech ... But the hooplah could not disguise the walloping handed to Clinton - a victory even more emphatic than the most one-sided polls had predicted. In pure...

It's hard to keep up with the flood of commentary from the left about Bill Clinton's increasingly negative role in the Democratic primary. Bob Moser of The Nation pens a particularly harsh assessment: After Saturday's primary, this Tar Heel can do nothing but offer a big, deep bow to the Democrats of South Carolina. Not because I was particularly rooting for Barack Obama over John Edwards--but because of these fine folks' rejection of the Clintons' gutter politics. The majority of white Democrats, in a state where the Democratic Party was so long the organized mob enforcing Jim Crow, repelled the...

On January 26, 2008, former President Bill Clinton said, “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988.” See this story. Clinton’s statement has caused most people to believe that Jesse Jackson won presidential primaries in South Carolina in those years. Actually there were no Democratic presidential primaries in South Carolina in either of those years. Jackson’s success in that state was in caucuses (Jackson was born in South Carolina).

There was only way to describe Barack Obama's victory over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in South Carolina: It was a rout. "After four great contests in every corner of this country, we have the most votes, the most delegates, and the most diverse coalition of Americans that we've seen in a long, long time," Obama declared at his victory celebration in Columbia. "There are young and old; rich and poor. They are black and white; Latino and Asian and Native American. They are Democrats from Des Moines and Independents from Concord, and yes, some Republicans from rural Nevada and...

SC Dems see record turnoutThe Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. --The South Carolina Democratic Party broke its own turnout record in Saturday's presidential primary and eclipsed the number of ballots cast by residents in the Republican primary the week before. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, more than 520,000 votes had been tabulated in Barack Obama's commanding victory. The returns easily eclipsed the 280,000 people who voted in the Democratic primary in 2004. Democratic officials characterized the record-breaking vote as a sign that the party is resurgent in South Carolina. "Even in this reddest of all states, Democrats can win," state...

Obama also greeted Scott Boyd, a 42-year-old neurosurgeon from Columbia, who said he's a lifelong Republican but voted for Obama in Saturday's primary. They talked briefly about the cost of malpractice insurance, and Boyd said afterward he was impressed with Obama's grasp of the issue. Boyd said he has never been this excited about an election. "He's an aggregator," he said. "I think he can bring people together. For me to be brought out of my Republican shell – I'm a convert now."

Sen. Barack Obama won 25 delegates in South Carolina's Democratic primary, narrowing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in the race for the nomination. Clinton won 12 delegates and former Sen. John Edwards won eight. Obama has won the most delegates so far. But Clinton leads the overall race for the nomination because she has the support of more superdelegates, a group of about 800 party and elected officials who automatically get to attend the national convention this summer. Superdelegates are free to support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries. Most superdelegates remain undecided. But among those...

Count Craig Crawford as a dissenting voice in the media storm decrying the racialization of the Dem primary race. The Congressional Quartely columnist and MSNBC political analyst offered his unconventional wisdom on a special Saturday edition of Morning Joe today. CRAIG CRAWFORD: I never understood exactly what Bill Clinton said that was supposed to interject race, actually. I know he was arguing at arm's length with Obama about the war and some other issues. It wasn't clear to me -- I mean the most direct reference to race I saw in this campaign was interjected by the media after New...

<p>"Politics is, at the end of the day, about ideas and philosophy, not simply rhetoric. But, as all the great presidents have shown, rhetoric matters, too. Beyond that, Hillary Clinton is a conventional liberal, as is Obama; the difference is that Obama is a graceful and dignified person who draws people to him rather than drives them away. He is impossible to dislike."</p>

Carl Bernstein isn't just, on the basis of his Watergate-busting fame, a liberal icon. He's also a certified Hillary Clinton expert, having devoted years to researching and writing a definitive biography of her, A Woman in Charge. So his comments tonight on Hillary's graceless reaction to her stunning defeat at the hands of Barack Obama carry special weight, and are likely to reverberate through Dem circles. Here's Bernstein's brutal take, appearing on CNN . CARL BERNSTEIN: One of the worst nights of Hillary Clinton's life. She had a chance at the end of the evening to be magnanimous, to say...

So writes Ezra Klein of the liberal The American Prospect about the controversy brewing over the seating at the convention of delegations from Florida and Michigan. Those states were stripped of their representation by the Democratic National Committee for holding their votes too early. The DNC also asked candidates not to campaign in either state, something they all agreed to, though Hillary left her name on the Michigan ballot. Now she wants to rewrite the rules in mid-campaign: "I hear all the time from people in Florida and Michigan that they want their voices heard in selecting the Democratic nominee....

Obama Beats Clinton 2-To-1Which means, of course, that Obama stands to pick up a big chunk of delegates, closing the gap between him and Hillary Clinton in the totals gong into Tsunami Tuesday in 10 days. The size and scope of the win seems quite overwhelming. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) scored an overwhelming victory over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) in South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary with strong support from black voters, according to network projections. The win sets up a full-scale clash between the two candidates on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. Obama, the first black candidate regarded as a...

Since we are today nearing the closing of the voting polls in the Democratic Primary of South Carolina, it would be interesting to lightly discuss the racial elements that have been brought to the publics attention by the Media, ever since Obama’s bid for the White House has taken the lead in all political discussions. One of the most important aspects of this year’s campaign has been the continuous advocacy of the claim that it has always been the Democratic Party who has been at the forefront in the fight for diversity (which ironically negates true racial integration) and racial...

January 26, 2008 8:18 PM Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here." This was in response to a question about Obama saying it "took two people to beat him." Jackson had not been mentioned. Boy, I can't understand why anyone would think the Clintons are running a race-baiting campaign to paint Obama as "the black candidate."

If Hillary had hoped to put a South Carolina loss in a racial-politics box, she may have failed. If she set out to lose South Carolina as badly as possible, she certainly succeeded. Barack Obama garnered well over twice as many votes than Hillary and three times as many as John Edwards in easily beating both. He also derided the attacks coming his way from the Clinton campaign in his victory speech: Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - NBC News declared Sen. Barack Obama as the projected winner in South Carolina's Democratic primary. Obama won South Carolina by a substantial margin, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in second and John Edwards third, NBC reported. Obama was projected to rout Clinton in the racially charged primary, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates. A third-place finish for Edwards would come as a sharp setback in the state where he was born and scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years...

Florida governor to endorse McCain TRIBUNE-REVIEW Salena Zito ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Associated Press is reporting that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will throw his support behind John McCain. He joins Sen. Mel Martinez in what may prove to be the push McCain needs over Mitt Romney as the two battle it out for first place in the Sunshine State. Getting Crist’s support was considered by all of the candidates a huge catch. Crist enjoys over a 70 percent approval rating.