Black political observers said Sunday that Sen. Barack Obama’s overwhelming victory in the South Carolina primary will propel him with renewed momentum moving forward to Super Tuesday Feb. 5 despite continued barbs from former President Bill Clinton.
"It’s showing the world that Americans -- black and white, male and female, liberal, conservative and independent -- will vote for a candidate who just happens to be black," Michelle Bernard, a black conservative and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Women’s Forum, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
"Tragically, history will probably remember this moment in time as one where former President Bill Clinton, a white a man often referred to as our nation's 'first black president,' implemented his own Southern strategy, the intent of which seemingly was to drive away white support for Obama by framing the candidate who just happens to be black as 'the black candidate.'"
Obama stepped out onstage in a packed Bartow Arena Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama and made an announcement that was not news to most in the crowd of 11,000.
“We had a pretty good night last night in South Carolina,” he said. The crowd immediately erupted into chants of “Obama.”
The Illinois senator, seeking the Democratic nomination for president, said the win in South Carolina shows that his success in previous primary contests was not just happenstance.
“When we won in Iowa, some said it was just a fluke. They said maybe we would not duplicate it. Then can South Carolina.” Obama told the crowd. “Some said the message of unity would not catch on in the South. They thought that if you get white support, you can’t get black support. And if you get black support, you can’t get white support. Those are people who are locked in the past. But in South Carolina, they said 'Yes, we can.'
"We're going to write a new chapter in the South, we're going to write a new chapter in American history," Obama said during his 64-minute speech to a capacity crowd at the University of Alabama at Birmingham basketball arena. The crowd was roughly two-thirds black and one-third white.
Earlier Sunday, he made a similar argument, responding to comments by former President Clinton that some interpreted as an effort to diminish Obama's win Saturday over Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bill Clinton noted that Jesse Jackson won the South Carolina primary in 1984 and 1988. Jackson never became the party's presidential nominee.
Obama, speaking during a television interview, said "there's no doubt" that Jackson set a precedent for blacks seeking the presidency. But he noted that was two decades ago.
"I think that what we saw in this election was a shift in South Carolina," he said, with implications "all across the country. I think people want change. I think they want to get beyond some of the racial politics that, you know, has been so dominant in the past."
Obama resisted being drawn into a spat with the Clintons, even though he suggested they are part of a political past the country is ready to leave behind.
"I think that Bill Clinton did important work back in the 1990s," he said. "The question is, now we're in 2008, and how do we move it forward to the next phase?"
"I think that in the '90s, we got caught up in a slash-and-burn politics that the American people are weary of," Obama said.
Obama’s appearance in Birmingham -- the second one in six months -- was history in itself.
He stood at center stage in a coliseum that sits now where rows of shotgun houses stood in the 1960s. That same coliseum is across the street from what was once the segregated, black Ullman High School, which produced lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers and a Pulitzer Prize winner.
Obama was preceded on stage by Rep. Artur Davis, the chairman of his Alabama campaign.
“If you believe in the possibility, it is your time,” Davis said. “Someone in here was here through Bull Connor,” he said, referring to the former Birmingham police commissioner who ordered that fire hoses and police dogs be released on civil rights marchers. At that point, woman in the audience shouted, “Have mercy.”
“Would you believe that someone who looks like me would be standing here on this stage," Davis asked, "introducing someone who looks like Barack Obama, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States?”
South Carolina State Rep. David Weeks said it was the ground organization that gave Obama the edge Saturday in that state. “In my county in Sumpter, South Carolina, Obama received 72 percent of the vote,” he said. “There was an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort by the Obama campaign.”
While several local black politicians and ministers had endorsed either Hillary Clinton or former Sen. John Edwards, Weeks said those endorsements did not carry a lot of weight on Election Day.
“What we are seeing is that the impact of endorsements is not as significant as it once was,” he said. “What this really means it that people are ready for a change, and they are tired of politics as usual."
Clinton campaign strategists denied any intentional effort to stir the racial debate. But they said they believe the fallout has had the effect of branding Obama as "the black candidate," a tag that could hurt him outside the South.
"The Clinton black magic is looking more and more like the nightmare on Elm Street," Bernard said. "Thankfully, regardless of whether the next president of the United States is a Democrat or a Republican, Iowa and South Carolina have shown us that voters will ignore race and gender and vote for the candidate they believe will best lead our nation."
Meanwhile, one day after publishing an editorial by Carolina Kennedy Schlossberg endorsing Obama, The New York Times reports that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy intends to endorse him during a rally on Monday in Washington.
"The Kennedy endorsement has been underway for days, even before the outcome of the South Carolina primary, the Times reported. "Mr. Kennedy told his decision to Mr. Obama on Thursday."
"Of all the endorsements in the Democratic Party, Mr. Kennedy’s is viewed as the most weighty," the newspaper said. "He had vowed to stay out of the presidential nominating fight, but as the contest expands into a state-by-state fight -- and given the tone of the race in the last week -- associates said he was moved to announce his support for Mr. Obama."
Kennedy and the Clintons are said to be close, and privately, sources said, Hillary Clinton is stung and disappointed by Kennedy’s support of Obama.
"Well, you know, I’ll let Ted Kennedy speak for himself. And nobody does it better," Obama said Sunday on the ABC News progran "This Week," "But obviously, any of the Democratic candidates would love to have Ted Kennedy’s support. And we have certainly actively sought it. And you know, I will let him make his announcement and his decision when he decides it’s appropriate."
In an op-ed published Sunday in The New York Times, Kennedy Schlossberg announced her support for Obama, citing his judgment in opposing the Iraq war from the start, his character in running a dignified campaign, and his ability to unite this entire nation around a common purpose.
"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president -- not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans," Kennedy Schlossberg wrote.
Hillary Clinton and Obama, each claiming a pair of early victories, now leave the concentrated campaigning of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina for an unwieldy and costly 10-day dash through 22 states that hold presidential primaries or caucuses Feb. 5.
But political pundits said Obama’s huge victory in South Carolina will have far-reaching implications during the campaign season leading up to the November election.
"This is not only a resounding victory -- it's a complete victory, in terms of him winning all over the state," Colorado state Sen. Peter C. Groff, publisher of Blackpolicy.org and executive director of the Center for African-American Policy at the University of Denver, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "Clinton only won one county; Edwards got only two counties. Everything else went to Obama."
"The South Carolina win is Obama's pitch to the party that, when the general election arrives, he'll be able to draw 'Obama Republicans' in competitive states, especially those in the South," Groff said. "He'll use this and other wins like it to paint Hillary Clinton as an ultimately non-competitive candidate who won't be able to beat the GOP nominee," he said.
Obama's surprisingly easy victory over her in South Carolina -- 55 percent to her 27 percent – puts greater pressure on the New York senator to carry states she long has considered her strengths, including New York, Arkansas, Connecticut and the delegate-rich state of California.
Obama's overwhelming support from South Carolina's black Democrats boosts his hopes of winning three other former Confederate states voting Feb. 5: Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
Obama won with strong support from black voters, who made up more than half of the electorate.
"I need your Cousin Pookie to vote!" Obama told a crowd in South Carolina before the polls closed.
"I did not travel around this state and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina. I saw South Carolina," he said later. The election, he said, "is not about rich versus poor or young versus old, and it's not about black versus white. This election is about the past versus the future."
Craig Kirby, a Democratic strategist, said voters in South Carolina sent a message that Obama has what it takes to lead.
"South Carolina voters have spoken. They understand that this election is about change, hope and reality," Kirby told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "Change from the programs of the past that are no longer effective. Hope for a new day -- a day when everyone has the same opportunity on a level playing field. And reality -- the reality that America really is in peril -- especially our economy. What they saw in Sen. Barack Obama was someone who both knows and understands these challenges and, with a coalition, can address all of these concerns."
According to the Washington Post, "Obama has, it appears, secured a solid base among African-Americans, despite the fondness that many black voters had for Bill Clinton, and despite early uncertainty among many African-Americans about whether Obama was a viable candidate or whether they could identify with the son of a Kenyan father and a white mother."
Clinton campaigned Saturday night in Nashville, and Obama traveled Sunday to Macon, Georgia and then Birmingham.
Despite his huge win Saturday, Obama faces serious challenges. He must improve his showing among white Democrats, who gave him only one-fourth of their votes in South Carolina. Even in Iowa and New Hampshire, he never got more than 36 percent of the white vote, which was divided among him, Hillary Clinton, Edwards and a few other candidates.
Obama's campaign feels it will do well in caucus states because of its strong ground organizations, as it did in Iowa on Jan. 3. The seven states holding Democratic caucuses on Feb. 5 include Minnesota, Colorado and Kansas.
"This win, as we peruse the numbers, will also answer a lot of questions about whether Southern whites can vote for a black man," Groff said. "This is critical for Obama; certainly, he's proven that he can lock the black electorate, but he's got to draw White voters who account for the majority."
"What we're seeing in South Carolina is the illustration of a slow, evolving social maturation in the South with respect to race that is defined by generational lines. Fifty percent White voters ages 18-30 voted for Obama; 25 percent of white voters 30-59 voted Obama. That's not bad at all," he said.
"And 15 percent of White voters aged 60 plus voted Obama, which is interesting, considering this is the generation that grew up during Jim Crow. One wouldn't expect an African-American male presidential candidate to get much of anything from that voting bloc," Groff added.
The South Carolina results were deeply disappointing to native son Edwards, who won the state's 2004 primary. He now will have to fight even harder for money, media attention and votes, as many Democrats see the contest as a two-person struggle.
Its next stage will be strategic, targeted and complex. Democrats award delegates based on the proportions that candidates win in each state, with no winner-take-all states. That virtually forces them to compete in every state to some degree.
"Now it's a delegate race," said Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs, "so there's not a state you're not going to do a little bit in."
"This isn't going to be judged on, 'I won six states, you won this amount of states,'" Gibbs said.
But even the fundraising clout of Obama and Hillary Clinton is not enough to let them advertise or campaign extensively in all 22 states.
"I don't know how we're going to do it," Bill Clinton said before leaving South Carolina. "I don't know how they're going to do it."
The Clinton campaign is counting on strong showings in New York, where she handily won a second Senate term in 2006; Arkansas, where her husband was governor for 10 years; and California, where Bill Clinton was generally popular and where Hillary Clinton seems to run well among Hispanics.
The Clintons are less sure of New Jersey and will probably spend time there. Her campaign also hopes to do well in Arizona and New Mexico, largely on the strength of her popularity among Hispanic voters.
Both campaigns consider Missouri and Tennessee major battlegrounds. Hillary Clinton is advertising in northern California, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. Obama also has ads in several states, and he will campaign in Kansas and possibly Missouri early next week.
Both campaigns will scrutinize South Carolina's results and exit polls for lessons. More than half of its primary voters were black, a vastly different scenario from Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. Clinton won New Hampshire and Nevada after Obama stunned her in Iowa.
But the South Carolina result shakes up the race yet again.
Obama did especially well among young whites, and he will continue campaigning hard in college towns and among young adults. That is a group, however, that historically talks about voting more than actually doing it.
His biggest challenge remains race. If he cannot expand his share of the white vote, Clinton may outpace him in many of the Feb. 5 states.
A major question is whether white voters in states with comparatively few minorities will embrace Obama more than they did in South Carolina. Racially divided voting occurs mainly in places with sizable minority populations, which explains why most white southerners moved to the Republican Party in the past three decades while blacks remain overwhelmingly Democratic.
Most white southern Democrats now are liberals or clearly willing to align with liberals. Most of them chose Hillary Clinton or Edwards in South Carolina on Saturday, and Obama cannot afford a similar dynamic in California, New Jersey, Illinois and other Feb. 5 states with fewer blacks.
The Clintons' toughest decision may involve how best to deploy the former president. He remains tremendously popular among many Democrats.
But his occasionally heated jabs at Obama and reporters seemed to rankle South Carolinians at times last week, and there is widespread debate in political circles about the cost-benefit tradeoff for his wife's bid to win the job he once held.
"Right now, I'm trying to figure out exactly what the Clinton campaign's game plan is by going into Florida. Why? Florida's delegates don't count," Groff told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
"But, the reason behind that is because she may be anticipating a brokered convention in August. First, she wants a symbolic win from a big state going into Super Tuesday. Second, she's looking ahead to a brokered convention whereby she can curry favor with Florida and Michigan delegates," he added. "This is a very interesting and peculiar buck-the-party-rules move."
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BlackAmericaWeb.com's Sherrel Wheeler Stewart also contributed to this story.
