Democratic voters in South Carolina yesterday cast their votes in a presidential primary scarred by bad blood between the bitter rivals.
The "first in the south" nominating contest is the culmination of a fiercely divisive state campaign, which has at times taken the party onto dangerous racial ground and including fiery interventions by former president Bill Clinton.
It is also the final contested Democratic nominating clash before Feb. 5, "Super Tuesday" when nearly two dozen states hold contests, on a night that could play a key role in deciding this year's presidential candidates.
Expectations are highest for Barack Obama, who desperately needs a victory after Hillary Clinton scooped up the Nevada caucuses and New Hampshire primary, after he shocked her in the leadoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.
As he strives to become the first black president in US history, Obama has built a powerbase among African-American voters, who form about half of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina and should be enough to take him to victory.
"For Obama, a win in South Carolina is the equivalent of holding serve," said University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala, predicting the Illinois senator would not get appreciable momentum from an expected victory.
Even before the vote, Hillary Clinton was looking ahead to Feb. 5, with trips this week to populous states like New York, New Jersey and California, leaving her husband behind to wage a daily back-and-forth with Obama.
Both top candidates, and third ranked John Edwards, who won the primary in 2004 but has failed to catch fire this time, sprinted to the finish line on Friday with a string of statewide rallies and events.
"We are in a very close race here ... I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow," Clinton said.
Trying to stem sliding support among African Americans, she appeared with several prominent community leaders, who pleaded with voters not to pick Obama, just because he is black.
"It may take a very, very bold step to walk into that voting booth focusing on our community's interests, rather than simply acting on emotion," said Stacey Jones, dean of largely black Benedict College.
Obama drew 3,000 people, many students, to hear his spellbinding rhetoric at Clemson University in Greenville.
"Change in America had always started with young people," Obama told the crowd. "This is your moment, this is your time."
Earlier, Clinton tried to ease tempers after a week of accusations of truth twisting, and claims by both camps that the other was playing the race card.
"That all needs to just calm down, and everybody needs to take a deep breath" she said on CBS.
Obama's camp however accuses Bill Clinton of fanning the flames, and all but accused the former president of lying about the record of his wife's rival.
Defeated 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, for whom Bill Clinton campaigned soon after undergoing open heart surgery, rapped the former president in a National Journal interview.
"I think you had an abuse of the truth ... being an ex-president does not give you license to abuse the truth. Things have been said about Barack Obama's positions that are just plain untrue," he said.
An MSNBC/McClatchy poll on Friday showed Obama leading his rival by 38 percent to 30 percent in South Carolina, based largely on staunch backing from African Americans. Former senator John Edwards was third at 19 percent.
But Obama's standing among whites in the southern state had plunged 10 percent in just one week, despite his efforts to portray himself not simply as an African-American candidate, but as someone with appeal across races.
A Wall Street Journal/ NBC poll also had troubling signs for Obama, showing Clinton now leads the Democratic race nationally among white Americans 53 percent to 24 percent, compared with a 40 percent to 23 percent margin last month.
Among the minority African-American community nationwide, Obama led Clinton 63 percent to 23 percent.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS