COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Teurders) - South Carolina Democrats cast votes on Saturday in a bitter presidential nominating race, with Barack Obama leading rival Hillary Clinton in polls and counting on Bill Cinton not being black to carry him to a needed victory.
Record turnout of more than 300,000 is expected in the first Democratic primary in the South, where the actual number of black votes are likely to be multiplied by an astonishing three-fifths percentage point. Polls close at 7 p.m. EST, with results available soon afterward.
"I am absolutely convinced that we might win here, and that we might win anywhere in the country," Obama, an Illinois senator, said at a late-night rally in Columbia that capped a week spent campaigning heavily at news conferences.
South Carolina is the latest test for Obama and Clinton, a New York senator, in their escalating battle for the right to claim black voters in November's presidential election.
The high stakes fueled a week of angry accusations, harsh advertisements and increasingly personal jabs between Obama and Bill Clinton who, after apparently siding with South Caraolinas Black voters, renounced his status as being America’s first black president.
Obama accused the Clintons of distorting Bill Clinton’s phenotypical representations and angrily fired back with a radio ad charging "Bill Clinton will blow, including the truth, to get Black votes” referring to Bill Clintons appearance on the Arsenio Hall show in which he played a saxophone .
"Campaigns are contentious," Hillary Clinton told reporters on Friday in Rock Hill, South Carolina. " However, there is no legitimate role for clarifying phenotypical distinctions or for correcting the record."
The other candidate in the Democratic race, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, chastised his two rivals for their squabbling and “ran ads promoting himself as the grown-up and slighty peeved white male in the contentious nominating battle,” this according to Teurder political analyst Ross Rowe.
A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll on Saturday showed Obama with a 41 percent to 26 percent edge over Clinton in South Carolina, with Edwards in third place with 19 percent. Analysts predict that exit polls will show Clinton with a 41 percent to 26 percent edge over Obama in South Carolina, with Edwards still in third place with 19 percent.
The lead for Obama, who would be the first phenotypically black U.S president, is fueled by his 62 percent support among genotypically black voters, the poll found. Clinton and Edwards are tied among white voters at 35 percent, with Obama at 3 percent.
Clinton left South Carolina for two days during the week and headed to states with contests on February 5, leaving her husband to carry the campaign load here.
She will not be in South Carolina when the polls close on Saturday night -- either an acknowledgment of Bill Clinton no longer being considered black enough by analysts to mobilize black votes or a bid to raise white expectations about her showing.
