Black voters helped vault Obama

By GINA SMITH - gnsmith@thestate.com

When the words flashed across the TV screen that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was the projected winner of South Carolina’s primary, Don Doggett flipped on the radio.

Within seconds, the elementary school principal and his two daughters, ages 9 and 2, were dancing and making up lyrics to every pop song that came on.

“Obama, Obama. We really love you,” the three sang as mother and wife, Ljubica Doggett, laughed and clapped.

“It’s one of those historical moments when you’ve got to celebrate,” said Doggett of Columbia. “There’s a level of excitement you wouldn’t believe in this house, in houses all over this state tonight.”

Propelled by overwhelming support of black and women voters as well as record turnout, Obama scored a wipeout win.

Capturing more than half of all votes, Obama’s landslide halts U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York from winning three primaries in a row and claiming the title of Democratic front-runner.

The results reveal a sharp racial divide in the Palmetto State. Black voters solidly backed Obama; white voters split between Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

South Carolina’s first-in-the-South vote was a must-win for Obama who, previously, had won only the Iowa caucuses.

Obama campaigned across the state after organizing in every county a grass-roots network staffed by an army of more than 15,000 volunteers.

Visits to beauty salons and barbershops were paired with Obama and media mogul Oprah Winfrey appearing at Columbia’s Williams-Brice Stadium.

The Clinton campaign was calling Saturday’s result an “expected win” in South Carolina, a state where the demographics favored a black candidate. African-Americans cast more than half of Saturday’s votes.

Still, many South Carolinians are waving off such comments and enjoying what they call “a rare moment in the sun.”

Annie Bennett, 86, remembers sitting with her grandmother in Abbeville County and hearing tales of slave life.

There were the church services where her grandmother, then a slave, wore a red bandanna around her head and tended to both her children and the master’s, too. There were the long hours of hard work and an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

“Just think of how far we’ve come,” said Bennett of Columbia. “Grandmother said to me, ‘I had no choices in my life.’ Now, I have a choice to vote for an African-American for president.”

It was with her grandmother in mind that Bennett called voters and canvassed neighborhoods for Obama in recent months.

Early Saturday morning, Bennett gathered her friends in her senior citizens’ apartment building and drove them to the poll.

“I like the way (Obama) talks about bringing all Americans together,” Bennett said. “Maybe this young man is the someone who can do it. We’ve got a ways to go.”

While not the first African-American to win the S.C. presidential primary, Obama is considered the first viable, mainstream candidate.

In contrast, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s two White House runs in the 1980s were aimed at empowering blacks.

The Greenville native reached voters in the new South, where “Hands that once picked cotton will now pick a president,” Jackson said.

Those who voted for Obama said it was Obama’s colorblind message of unity, paired with inspirational oration, that convinced them.

Exit polls showed Obama winning over most voters who wanted “change.”

Obama also won over a majority of those under the age of 60.

“I’m very impressed with (Clinton) but she’s our mothers’ contemporary,” said Jenna Micklash, 28, an attorney in Columbia.

“Maybe I’m (part of) a different generation of feminists,” Micklash said. “I haven’t had the struggles that older women have. Today, sometimes (women are) treated differently. But I’ve been able to achieve everything I wanted to.”

As the candidates head into the delegate-rich Tsunami Tuesday, it’s unclear whether Obama’s S.C. win will pose a momentum-building blessing or a race-based hindrance.

Some say Obama’s racially divided win might pigeonhole him as the “black candidate” with limited crossover appeal. That’s a stark contrast from Iowa and New Hampshire where Obama enjoyed strong white support.

That white support wasn’t replicated in South Carolina because of the state’s history, speculated Blease Graham, a political scientist at USC.

“It’s only been in the last three or four decades that racial moderation has even been a part of the political scene on South Carolina,” Graham said. “Iowa and the earlier states have a very different history, a very different relationship with race.”

At the Columbia Convention Center Saturday, the audience chanted “Race doesn’t matter” and booed when a picture of former President Bill Clinton appeared on a TV monitor.

Several voters said they were bothered by Bill Clinton’s jabs at Obama in recent days as Clinton canvassed the state for his wife.

Obama’s S.C. base, including longtime Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, shook off the primary’s racial divide.

“At his rallies, you see young people, old people, people of all races, blue collar, white collar,” Riley said. “I haven’t seen anything like this since the Kennedy era. He overcomes race.”

Reach Smith at (803) 771-8658.