I just walked in the door from work and turned on the news. South Carolina's polls have just closed and Fox News is declaring, based on exit poll data, that Obama has won a significant victory over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
I think the suggestion of Hillary's "inevitability" has just crashed and burned for certain.
Hillary Clinton has already departed South Carolina and is en route to Nashville to stump for Super Tuesday at a town hall event.
Hold on to your wallets, Tennesseans...
[UPDATE 9:00 pm CST]
Obama takes South Carolina by storm, and the speculations continue on whether former President husband Bill Clinton hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign by going on the stump for her. Notice, if you will, the use of the term "rout" used in so many media sources:
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/us/politics/26cnd-carolina.html?_r=1&ex=1359090000&en=bd5825e71e9fbd5f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin" target="_blank">Senator Barack Obama won a lopsided victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday, drawing widespread support from a high turnout of black voters in the first Southern contest of the presidential campaign.
His chief rivals for the nomination, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, were in a race for second place as returns continued to trickle in from the state’s precincts.
The rout for Mr. Obama, who trailed in polls here just weeks ago, reinvigorates his campaign after a series of second-place finishes behind Mrs. Clinton, whose campaign had sought to lower expectations for her performance in South Carolina.
(...)
Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.
(...)
Barack Obama crushed top rival Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina Democratic primary Saturday, in a decisive victory that could reinvigorate his campaign after suffering back-to-back losses to the New York senator.
Their front pages proclaims "Obama Routs Clinton in South Carolina."
(...)
A vast wave of support from African-Americans lifted Barack Obama to victory in South Carolina's Democratic primary. But his showing among white voters suggests an uphill battle in the upcoming primaries where blacks play less of a role.
Blacks accounted for a majority of voters in South Carolina, 53 percent -- the highest turnout among African-Americans in any Democratic presidential primary for which data are available. And a huge proportion of them, 80 percent, supported Obama, compared with 18 percent for Hillary Clinton and just 2 percent for John Edwards.
(...)
Bill Clinton's aggressive campaigning in South Carolina in the days leading up to the state's primary may have had a net negative effect among South Carolina’s Democratic primary voters, CNN exit polls indicate.
Roughly 6 in 10 South Carolina Democratic primary voters said Bill Clinton's campaigning was important in how they ultimately decided to vote, and of those voters, 48 percent went for Barack Obama while only 37 percent went for Hillary Clinton. Fourteen percent of those voters voted for John Edwards
Meanwhile, the exit polls also indicate Obama easily beat Clinton among those voters who decided in the last three days — when news reports heavily covered the former president's heightened criticisms of Obama. Twenty percent of South Carolina Democrats made their decision in the last three days and 51 percent of them chose Obama, while only 21 percent picked Clinton.
It should be noted before it is forgotten by public that Obama wasn't the one to pull out the race card. America's "First black President" and his candidate wife did that. It seems to me that it backfired for team Clinton in South Carolina.
One can only wonder what comes next from team Clinton out of their bag of dirty politics in the days before Super Tuesday. Personally, I'm expecting anything at this point in the Democratic Party race.
Maybe they'll blame it on a vast black-wing conspiracy?
On another note, Hillary is still leading in the number of delegates for the Democratic nomination. It will be interesting to see what happens to the Democratic Party if the popular vote rules in favor of Obama but the delegate vote supports Hillary.
Tighten up your cinch straps, ya'll, and hold on to your hats. Trails about to get a mite bumpy...
[UPDATE]
No sooner said than it happens. The first next bump.
Camelot has endorsed Obama.
Over the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.
Thus begins Caroline Kennedy's OP-ED at the New York Times.
Now, let's follow the thinking here. Bill Clinton rode in on an Arkansas razorback mule in the 90's trying to emulate the stallion riding entry of John F. Kennedy (hey, it's MY analogy, just laugh and nod your heads, damma). Now we see the DAUGHTER of the late President Kennedy endorsing the neoCamelot's opponent...
Things that make you go HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
COULD this be the beginning of Camelot endorsing someone other than the former "heir apparent?"
COULD THIS BE the first death knell of the Clintonistas?
COULD IT BE POSSIBLE that one day Jimmy Olsen will look at Clark Kent and suddenly realize that a pair of glasses just aren't an adequate disguise? Ok, that last question popping into my head tells me that I've been awake for WAY too long.
More tomorrow.
Once and Always, an American Fighting Man
.