Democratic voters in South Carolina yesterday cast their votes in a presidential primary scarred by bad blood between the bitter rivals.
The "first in the south" nominating contest is the culmination of a fiercely divisive state campaign, which has at times taken the party onto dangerous racial ground and including fiery interventions by former president Bill Clinton.
It is also the final contested Democratic nominating clash before Feb. 5, "Super Tuesday" when nearly two dozen states hold contests, on a night that could play a key role in deciding this year's presidential candidates.
Expectations are highest for Barack Obama, who desperately needs a victory after Hillary Clinton scooped up the Nevada caucuses and New Hampshire primary, after he shocked her in the leadoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.
As he strives to become the first black president in US history, Obama has built a powerbase among African-American voters, who form about half of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina and should be enough to take him to victory.
"For Obama, a win in South Carolina is the equivalent of holding serve," said University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala, predicting the Illinois senator would not get appreciable momentum from an expected victory.
Even before the vote, Hillary Clinton was looking ahead to Feb. 5, with trips this week to populous states like New York, New Jersey and California, leaving her husband behind to wage a daily back-and-forth with Obama.
Both top candidates, and third ranked John Edwards, who won the primary in 2004 but has failed to catch fire this time, sprinted to the finish line on Friday with a string of statewide rallies and events.
"We are in a very close race here ... I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow," Clinton said.
Trying to stem sliding support among African Americans, she 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.
Obama drew 3,000 people, many students, to hear his spellbinding rhetoric at Clemson University in Greenville.
"Change in America had always started with young people," Obama told the crowd. "This is your moment, this is your time."
Earlier, Clinton 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 Bill Clinton campaigned soon after undergoing open heart surgery, rapped the former president in a National Journal interview.
"I think you had an abuse of the truth ... being an ex-president does not give you license to abuse the truth. Things have been said about Barack Obama's positions that are just plain untrue," he said.
An MSNBC/McClatchy poll on Friday showed Obama leading his rival by 38 percent to 30 percent in South Carolina, based largely on staunch backing from African Americans. Former senator John Edwards was third at 19 percent.
But Obama's standing among whites in the southern state had plunged 10 percent in just one week, despite his efforts to portray himself not simply as an African-American candidate, but as someone with appeal across races.
A Wall Street Journal/ NBC poll also had troubling signs for Obama, showing Clinton now leads the Democratic race nationally among white Americans 53 percent to 24 percent, compared with a 40 percent to 23 percent margin last month.
Among the minority African-American community nationwide, Obama led Clinton 63 percent to 23 percent.
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