South Carolina Results Live-Blog

You know how we do. Check back here in about an hour.

7:00 p.m.: MSNBC calls it for Obama, "by a substantial margin." No word yet on who's getting second, and that's what I'm curious about. I'm also curious to see how the vote breaks down, i.e. black and white and male and female.

7:01 p.m.: MSNBC is just Olbermann and another guy. Did they finally decide to get rid of Tweety? Hope so!

7:03 p.m.: Congressman Clyburn says that from what he's seen, Obama got a respectable amount of votes in white precincts.

7:04 p.m.: CNN also calls it for Obama.

7:05 p.m.: ABC via Daily Kos--This was the highest turnout among African-American voters in a Democratic Presidential primary since 1984, and there was a very high turnout among female voters as well.

7:07 p.m.: Olbermann just said that the AP headline calls it a "rout"

7:08 p.m.: 81% of the black vote goes to Obama!

7:09 p.m.: Obama won nearly 50% of the 18-29 vote, and it was apparently close to a three-way split among the white vote.

7:11 p.m.: MSNBC has 30 seconds to get Pat Buchanan and his racist trap off the screen, otherwise I'm switching to CNN.

7:21 p.m.: Sorry, the number of young voters I cited above was just for white young voters. Accounting for all 18-29 voters, the number actually goes up to 65%.

7:25 p.m.: Looking at the exit polls--Obama takes 55% of the female vote, including 82% of the black female vote. Also, Obama gets strong majorities across the liberal-moderate-conservative spectrum. Another interesting statistic--Edwards beats Clinton among voters who have done postgraduate study.

7:29 p.m.: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Clinton supporter, just said that the campaign will "stay the course" in terms of strategy. Which pretty much sums up her whole campaign right there.

7:32 p.m.: Interesting Republican news--Olbermann just said that one of the NYC police unions (representing sergeants I believe), and Florida governor Charlie Crist just endorsed McCain rather than 9iu11ani. Looks like Rudy will get the next Nelson Muntz "Ha-Ha!" graphic.

7:37 p.m.: Scarborough just pointed out that Florida has a closed primary, so that could blunt Crist's endorsement somewhat. But the timing is huge.

7:39 p.m.: MSNBC calls second place for Clinton. Obama to speak at 9 ET.

7:40 p.m.: Bill Clinton--South Carolina doesn't matter because "Jesse Jackson won it twice"? What the...

8:03 p.m.: 70% of voters think the Clinton campaign unfairly attacked Obama. Yet Congresswoman Sanchez would LOVE for Bill Clinton to come campaign for her. Suit yourself...

8:07 p.m.: MSNBC just showed the Clinton event in Nashville about to start. No word yet on whether or not she'll address the loss, although she already released a statement mentioning the Super Tuesday states, and also Florida. Unsurprising, since she's already indicated that she will undermine the DNC and Howard Dean by pushing for Florida and Michigan delegates to count.

8:16 p.m.: Look, I know how important it was for Hillary to get to Nashville so that she could raise money try to get votes, but if I were in South Carolina and I had worked really hard for her, I'd be kind of pissed that she couldn't have stuck around for one more hour.

8:18 p.m.: Lots of news flying around--Olbermann just said that Caroline Kennedy will endorse Obama in tomorrow's New York Times. Could Ted Kennedy's endorsement be far behind?

8:23 p.m.: Kleinheider just e-mailed me an interesting article, and I have to admit that this didn't even occur to me. For observant Jews, Shabbat ended tonight at 6:25, but the polls were only open until 7. Granted, there aren't that many Jews in South Carolina, and that's not as bad as Nashville holding an election on Rosh Hashonah (where even not-too-observant Jews go to synagogue) but that's still pretty bad. Charleston has one of the oldest communities in the country, and I have relatives in Columbia. I realize that holding elections on weekends is more convenient, but it runs into so many religious objections that it's really for the best to hold it during the week.

8:31 p.m.: Scarborough points out how the Clinton campaign keeps saying "On to Florida!". Let me make this very clear--by saying that, they are undermining the DNC and Howard Dean! The fact that they wouldn't be pushing for Florida and Michigan to count had they not been in the lead there is beside the point.

8:34 p.m.: Rather than listen to Pat Buchanan, I'll point out something that an interesting point that another African-American politician just made, Hotline via Kleinheider:

Ex-Rep. Harold Ford. Jr., on Obama receiving a quarter of the white vote: “We must remember how well he performed in Iowa and New Hampshire” among white voters (FNC).

Very true.

9:06 p.m.: Obama speaking.

9:11 p.m.: This sums up his campaign very nicely--it's not enough just to change the party in power in Washington, you also have to change the Washington status quo. And Hillary Clinton is that status quo.