The
South Carolina Primary for Democratic Presidential nominees will be the last in the list of the early primaries. It is scheduled to be held on 26th January, Saturday. It will not only be the last primary held before the Super Tuesday on February 5, but will also be the first Democrat Primary to be held in a Southern state for the 2008 US Elections. Both the main contenders Sen.
Hillary Clinton and Sen.
Barack Obama have campaigned vigorously over the last few days, trying to woo the delegates in their favor. The prominent presence of former President
Bill Clinton in the fray has also added to the excitement of the situation.
Sen. Obama was received with boisterous enthusiasm by a big crowd that gathered at Sumter, South Carolina, on Thursday, 24th January. He warned the potential voters against being ‘hoodwinked’ or ‘bamboozled’ by any form of negative campaign undertaken by his rivals. Obama is considered as a favorite in this state by political pundits, which has one of the largest African-American presence in the US. This section represents nearly half of the Democratic party loyalists in the US.
Bill Clinton publicly criticized Obama’s past political stances including his opposition to the Iraq war and his praise of Ronald Reagan while speaking to a gathering at the Lexington Community Center on Thursday, 24th January. One among the audience stood up and suggested Clinton to refrain from merely reacting to Obama’s provocations and rather focus on the key social and political issues. Clinton was quick to react with characteristic candor, when he said that he would accept it as a ‘pretty good advice’.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, in the mean time, went on with her well thought out strategy to counter the popularity of Sen. Obama in South Carolina. She tried to expose Obama’s pro-Republican tendencies, by revealing his sympathies with the policies of Ronald Reagan, as expressed in a radio ad. In the ad, Obama maintained that the Republican Party was the ‘party of ideas’ for a very long time. Sen. Clinton also campaigned vigorously in an attempt to secure the support among the Hispanics. It is largely believed that the support from the Hispanic population would serve at least two important purposes. First, it would portray her as a sympathizer with the ethnic minorities in the US, and secondly, it would counter and balance Obama’s heavy support among the African-Americans.
Obama reacted to the two-pronged attack from the Clintons by saying that he always knew that the Clintons would leave no stone unturned to win. However, he also asserted that he would consistently keep challenging any false accusation made against him by his rivals.
Amidst the fierce battle between the two major campaigning groups, Sen.
John Edwards, has complained that his voice is not reaching across to the people loud enough. Sen. John Edwards, incidentally, was the winner from the South Carolina Democratic Primary in 2004.
