Obama, Clinton sprint to finish
2008-01-26 09:05
Columbia - Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on Friday sprinted to the finish line of the South Carolina primary, with polls tipping Obama for a vital win before the campaign goes national.
"We are in a very close race here ... I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow," Clinton said, as she chased votes ahead of Saturday's nominating contest, which was preceded by bitter sniping between the two camps.
After defeats in the previous two showdowns in New Hampshire and Nevada to the New York senator, Obama needs a victory, knowing a shock defeat could dampen his hopes before February 5, when nearly two-dozen states vote.
Clinton, trying to stem sliding support among African Americans, who form half the Democratic electorate here, appeared with several prominent community leaders, who pleaded with voters not to pick Obama, just because he is black.
"It may take a very, very bold step to walk into that voting booth focusing on our community's interests, rather than simply acting on emotion," said Stacey Jones, dean of largely black Benedict College here.
Illinois Senator Obama also hit five venues in South Carolina, ahead of its first-in-the-south primary, drawing 3 000 people, many students, to hear his spellbinding rhetoric at Clemson University, in Greenville.
'This is your moment'
"I love you," someone shouted from the crowd. "I love you back!" he joked.
"Change in America had always started with young people," Obama told the crowd. "This is your moment, this is your time."
Obama was wrapping up his campaign with a rally in state capital Columbia, while the former first lady flew into Charleston for a late night event with former president Bill Clinton.
Earlier, she tried to ease tempers after a week of accusations of truth twisting, and claims by both camps that the other was playing the race card.
"That all needs to just calm down, and everybody needs to take a deep breath" she said on CBS.
Obama's camp however accuses Bill Clinton of fanning the flames, and all but accused the former president of lying about the record of his wife's rival.
Defeated 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, for whom Clinton campaigned soon after undergoing open heart surgery, rapped the ex-president in a National Journal interview.
"I think you had an abuse of the truth ... being an ex-president does not give you licence to abuse the truth. Things have been said about Barack Obama's positions that are just plain untrue."
Cross-racial appeal
An MSNBC/McClatchy poll on Friday showed Obama leading his rival by 38% to 30% in South Carolina, based largely on staunch backing from African Americans. Former senator John Edwards was third on 19%.
But Obama's standing among whites in the southern state had plunged 10% in just one week, despite his efforts to portray himself not simply as an African-American candidate, but as someone with cross-racial appeal.
A Wall Street Journal/ NBC poll also had troubling signs for Obama, showing Clinton now leads the Democratic race nationally among white Americans 53% to 24%, compared to a 40-23% margin last month.
Obama led Clinton, 63% to 23% among the minority African American community nationwide.
The Clinton camp sparked more anger, calling for delegates to the Democratic nomination convention, stripped from Florida and Michigan, over a scheduling dispute, to be reinstated.
"I hear all the time from people in Florida and Michigan that they want their voices heard in selecting the Democratic nominee," Clinton said, adding she would keep to a pledge not to campaign in Florida ahead of its primary next week.
Obama's camp however reacted angrily.
Make-or-break moment
"It seems like Hillary Clinton will do or say anything to win an election," said campaign manager David Plouffe.
Republicans cranked up the pace of their sprint towards Tuesday's Florida primary, a make-or-break moment for the stuttering campaign of former front-runner Rudolph Giuliani.
Senator John McCain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney meanwhile traded punches, each trying to break the tie ahead of Tuesday's voting.
Obama stunned the former first lady with victory in the leadoff Iowa caucuses on January 3, but her win in the next two contests set up a tense struggle going into February 5.