South Carolina Democratic Party Primary Goes for Sen. Barack Obama

It was expected that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, would win in the Democratic Party Presidential Primary on Saturday in South Carolina. What was not expected was the size of his victory.

He won 55 percent of the vote with rivals Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards receiving 27 and 18 percent of the vote respectively. Sen. Obama did well among all demographic groups in his victory which now sends the Democrats in the 22-state marathon on Feb. 5, "Super Tuesday."

There are several subtexts to this vote though that bear watching for the Democrats on Super Tuesday. According to exit polls in South Carolina, Sen. Obama received 80 percent of the votes of African-American males and 77 percent of the votes of African-American females; those numbers for white Democratic Party primary voters in South Carolina were 27 percent and 22 percent, respectively. Sen. Clinton for her part, won non-black women over the age of 60 and former Sen. Edwards won among non-blacks aged 30-59.

In the aftermath of the election, analysts were mulling over these figures and how they might be interpreted in states that vote on Feb. 5 in Democratic primaries. South Carolina's Democratic Party primary electorate was 54 percent African-American, a total not likely to be matched in the states casting ballots on Super Tuesday. But Sen. Obama's win in Iowa (93 percent white Democratic Party primary electorate) and Sen. Cilnton's win in Nevada with help from the party's Hispanic voters show that it is hard to predict whether the voting on Feb. 5 will prove decisive. Several analysts are already on record saying it will not.

There will be more on the impact of this election but the consensus among Washington analysts is that the race is still wide open and has come down to a two-person contest between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton. It seems former Sen. Edwards will stay in the race and he could play a significant role at the convention if neither of the two front-runners can achieve a majority of the delegates needed to secure the nomination.