Coalition carries Obama to SC win

I just got back from Darlington County, South Carolina, where I was volunteering for the Obama campaign. I'll write more about the whole weekend later, but for now, I wanted to mention how impressed I was by the range of people Obama was able to bring together. Support from black voters, which was augmented by huge turnout in heavily African-American counties, was the most important factor in his victory. Seventy-eight percent of black voters supported Obama, which was much higher than most polls had predicted.

But his success among white voters was impressive as well. Obama received 24% of the white vote, compared to 40% for Edwards and 36% for Clinton. This was better than expected, since some polls from during the week predicted that he'd get around 10% of the white vote. And 52% of white voters under 30 chose Obama, compared to 27% for Clinton and 21% for Edwards.

Finally, though this last observation is completely speculative, I got the feeling over the weekend that Obama won despite having much less name recognition among the general electorate than Clinton (and possibly Edwards, who won the state's 2004 primary). For example, when I got the receipt for my hotel room, the Obama campaign's group rate discount was noted as "BARAKABAMA." Everyone agrees that Obama's personality is one of his greatest strengths; I wonder if he could have done even better with more time to woo voters.

SC Exit polls [CNN]