Obama wins by substantial margin in South Carolina

(Sen. Barack Obama defiantly delivers his victory speech in South Carolina. Video provided by MSNBC.com)

By Kimberly Chin
Assistant News Editor

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama dominated Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) in the South Carolina Democratic primary, winning 55 percent to a 26 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting on another Democratic primary with record turnout. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was right behind Clinton with 17 percent in the polls.

The Palmetto state victory has reinvigorated Obama's campaign after consecutive second-place finishes behind Clinton, who has won New Hampshire and Nevada. Obama also scored a major endorsement from Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy.

Obama's victory speech was defiant in the face of week-long attacks from Clinton's campaign, including from former President Bill Clinton himself.

"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 we've seen in a long, long time," he said. "They are young and old, rich and poor. They are black and white, Latino and Asian. They are Democrats from Des Moines and Independents from Concord; Republicans from rural Nevada and young people across this country who've never had a reason to participate until now.

"And in nine days, nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again," he said.

The record turnout in South Carolina was the fourth-straight Democratic contest with more voters than ever before; more than 530,000 voters turned out. Obama got more votes today than the entire Democratic turnout in 2004, said Howard Fineman, a Newsweek political analyst, on MSNBC.

Clinton decided not to deliver a formal concession speech, instead moving immediately beyond the contest to campaign in Tennessee. Instead, she released a statement, which said she had called Obama to congratulate him, thanking her supporters in South Carolina and calling for her campaign to "turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard" in the twenty-four states that will vote on Feb. 5.

Edwards delivered a concession speech in which he announced that he would continue to look to Feb. 5 to gain the support he needed, and told the low- and middle-income Americans that their voices will be heard in his campaign on Super Tuesday. "We will speak for you and fight for you," he told his supporters.

His third place standing came despite a bounce in the polls after a bruising debate on Tuesday, Jan. 22, in which Obama and Clinton leveled personal attacks against each other. South Carolina is Edwards' birth state, and he invested heavily in the state, in an attempt to show credibility as a native-Southerner.

Exit polls indicated a huge amount of support from black voters for Obama. He received 80 percent of their votes, compared with 18 percent for Clinton and 1 percent for Obama. The three candidates split white voters almost equally, but Clinton took the most with slightly more than 30 percent.

Obama emphasized the diversity of his support. "I did not travel around his state and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina," Obama told the cheering audience in South Carolina. "I saw South Carolina."

McCain edges Huckabee in South Carolina

Sen. John McCain accepts victory in the South Carolina GOP primary. (Video provided by MSNBC.com)

By Kimberly Chin
Assistant News Editor

Uncertainty continues in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, as Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) wins the South Carolina primary with 33 percent of the vote to become the GOP victor in the first Southern primary, a state he lost when he was the object of aggressive negative campaigning in 2000 by then-Gov. George W. Bush's campaign.

He edged out Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.), who received 30 percent of the vote, with 94 percent of precincts reporting, while Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) and Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) raced for third place, Romney trailing behind Thompson by less than 1 percent.

“It took us a while, but what’s eight years among friends?” McCain said in his victory speech, referring to his unsuccessful campaign against President George Bush in 2000. Shouts of “Mac is back! Mac is back!” echoed among McCain's supporters.

Every GOP winner in the South Carolina primary has become the nominee since 1980. And no Republican has won the White House without South Carolina for decades.

McCain's support again came from Independents and some Republicans, but he lost overall registered Republicans to Huckabee. Huckabee's core constituency, evangelical Christians, split its vote between McCain, Huckabee and Thompson, according to exit polls.

McCain appealed to the voters who felt that the top campaign issue remains the war in Iraq, according to exit polls.

Huckabee had announced that he had called McCain personally to congratulate him and thanked him for a "civil and decent" campaign. "The path to the White House is not ending here tonight," Huckabee said in his concession speech. "Tomorrow we wake up to fight the battle yet again and yet again."

Thompson delivered a rambling speech to his supporters even before the votes were fully tallied. "It's never been about me. It's never even been about you. It's been about our country," Thompson told his supporters. Pundits on MSNBC were laughing as he finished, and anchor Keith Olbermann asked "What was that?" as they came back on the air.

Analysts believe he may drop out of the race in the coming days, because he had been banking on a strong showing in South Carolina, and he did not indicate meeting that threshold. CNN reported that two sources said Thompson may be hitting the end of his campaign, with aides saying it had become "abundantly evident to us all."

Romney's shifted his focus from South Carolina toward Nevada earlier in the campaign, amounting to a victory for him there.

McCain's victory carries momentum for his campaign into Florida, where the GOP holds its next primary on Jan. 29, and where McCain already has a slight lead, according to polls conducted in the state. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is banking on a Florida victory to carry his campaign into Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, but his precipitous decline in the polls may prevent it from happening.