I sure hope AFRICAN AMERICANS and the rest of S.C. residents, do not fall for this bull. How any African American could vote for a man WHO HAS TURNED HIS BACK ON THEM IN FAVOR OF SHAMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS, is beyond my comprehension.

'Our Moment Is Now,' Obama Declares
Oprah Winfrey Helps Candidate Pull a Huge Crowd in S.C.

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 10, 2007; Page A06

COLUMBIA, S.C., Dec. 9 -- An overwhelmingly African American audience took center stage in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination here Sunday, as Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), joined by television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, appealed to black voters to set aside their doubts and seize the opportunity to send him to the White House in 2008.

"South Carolina, our moment is now," Obama said to an audience estimated by organizers as made up of 29,000 people at the University of South Carolina's football stadium. "Don't let them tell you we've got to wait. Our moment is now."

"Dr. King dreamed the dream," Winfrey said, referring to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "But we don't have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality."

Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) are in a fierce competition for the Democratic votes of both African Americans and women in South Carolina, whose Jan. 26 primary is the fourth contest on the nomination calendar next year. The state was given a prominent, early date by the Democratic National Committee because of its sizable black population.

Winfrey's appearance here underscored how vital the support of both groups is to Obama's hopes of winning the Democratic nomination, as well as the concern within his campaign that, in contrast to states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, the senator from Illinois is not nearly as well known here and needs to improve his standing, particularly among black women.

"They've both done the math, and they know that women are going to be 60 percent of the primary vote; and African Americans are going to be 55 percent of the vote, and African American women 65 percent of the African American vote," South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Carol Fowler said of the two leading candidates. "Both campaigns are fishing in the same pond."

As if to highlight the stakes here, former president Bill Clinton, who is enormously popular in the black community, spent parts of both Saturday and Sunday in the state, campaigning before African American audiences and attending church services in Charleston.

The most recent poll of South Carolina Democrats, a Mason-Dixon survey published in Sunday's editions of the Columbia newspaper the State, showed an extremely tight race, with Clinton at 27 percent and Obama at 25 percent. Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) was third at 18 percent; 24 percent said they were still undecided.

Obama held a double-digit lead among African American voters, while Clinton enjoyed a similar lead among women. A recent poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that African American women admired Clinton more than Obama.

Obama's Sunday rally was held under ideal conditions -- an almost cloudless blue sky and temperatures hovering near 70 degrees. It was a stark contrast to the frigid wintry weather that greeted the senator and Winfrey in Iowa on Saturday.

Cars began filling the parking lots around Williams-Brice Stadium long before local pastors had finished their sermons here Sunday morning, and long lines of people snaked around the stadium entrances until the gates were opened at 12:30 p.m. The crowd was the largest of the 2008 campaign and rivaled some of the biggest crowds at the close of general-election campaigns.

Asked why she had come to the event, Afredia Boyd of Columbia said: "It was more Obama than Oprah. But she just kind of put the icing on the cake."

"Let's face it," said Dot Law of Hilton Head. "Voters are about numbers. Oprah can attract the numbers, and hopefully once you come and hear him you will then make up your own mind. . . . I don't think she will make you vote, but she can bring out a lot of people here that can hear his message that may not have wanted to come to hear otherwise."

"You've got to get people's attention," said Jim Margolis, media adviser to the Obama campaign. "This is a wake-up. It tells people to pay attention. . . . It's about generating excitement. She does that for us, but he's got to make the sale."

Winfrey and Obama ended their whirlwind weekend tour by traveling to New Hampshire, where 8,500 people braved a winter storm to see them Sunday night in Manchester.

In Columbia, a religious idiom and echoes of the civil rights movement flowed through the speeches of Winfrey, Obama and Obama's wife, Michelle. The candidate quoted from the Book of Psalms as he surveyed the crowd in the stadium and the weather overhead: "Look at the day the Lord has made," he marveled.

Winfrey said it was "amazing grace" that brought her to the campaign trail for Obama, and she talked of growing up in the South in the 1950s. She got female heads nodding throughout the stadium when she talked about the beauty salons that populate the Palmetto State and the humidity that ruins hairdos. "We love to keep our hair done down here," she said, brushing her hands through her own hair.

Winfrey drew responses of "no" and "nonsense" when she said there are those who say the youthful Obama, who is in his third year in the Senate, should wait for his turn before seeking the presidency. The cries turned to cheers and applause as she continued: "Think about where you'd be in your life if you waited when the people told you to. I wouldn't be where I am if I waited on the people who told me it couldn't be."

Toward the end of his speech, Obama evoked the struggles of the civil rights movement to encourage the audience to help him change history, noting that neither he nor Winfrey nor his wife would be where they are were it not for the courage of others.

"They stood up when it was risky. They stood when it was hard," he said, his voice rising along with the audience's cheers. "They stood up when it wasn't popular. They stood up and they went to jail. They sat down and then they stood up. They sat down when they weren't supposed to. The fire hoses came out. The dogs came out. But they kept on standing up. Because a few stood up, a few thousand stood up, and then a few million stood up. Standing up for courage and conviction, they changed the world. South Carolina, we can change the world."

Kendre Harvin-Green, who said it was Winfrey who prompted her to hire a babysitter and drive two hours to come to Sunday's rally, supports Obama, but she had nothing but praise for Clinton, as well. "She's, of course, an attractive choice because of Bill," she said. "You kind of feel comfortable about her because you feel like he knows what to do. At the same time, I just think Obama represents the change that we need."

Several African American women said they were weighing the choice of helping elect the nation's first African American president or the first female president. Patricia Parham said she is torn between Clinton and Obama. In the end, she said, race and sex will be secondary in her decision. "I'm looking at the best person . . . because, if they're not meeting the needs of the people, being male or female doesn't make a difference," she said.

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