• Overall, Obama leads Clinton and Edwards in SC by at least 10 points...
  • Obama   37 percent
  • Clinton   27 percent
  • Edwards  15 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  22 percent

• ...and leads among Black voters by more than 20 points
  • Obama  53 percent
  • Clinton  21 percent
  • Edwards  3 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  24 percent

• Don’t Know/Not Sure make up 22 percent of those polled, a bit higher than expected

BLACK & WHITE VOTERS

• Among Black women, who make up the bulk of the Black vote in SC, they support Obama more than 2-1
  
  • Obama  48 percent
  • Clinton  23 percent
  • Edwards  4 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  25 percent

• However, among single Black mothers, the gap is much more narrow
  
  • Obama  35 percent
  • Clinton  32 percent
  • Edwards  0
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  32 percent

• Obama’s strongest area of support is among younger Black men under 45...
  
  • Obama  75 percent
  • Clinton  15 percent
  • Edwards  3 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  8 percent
    

• ... And weaker among older Black women, 60+
  
  • Obama  45 percent
  • Clinton  23 percent
  • Edwards  4 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  29 percent
    

• Regular Black churchgoers (those who attend 2 or more times a week) support Obama as well,
  
  • Obama  52 percent
  • Clinton  20 percent
  • Edwards  4 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  24 percent
    

• ...With the strongest support coming from younger, occasional Black church attendees (once a week or less)
  
  • Obama  61 percent
  • Clinton  16 percent
  • Edwards  0 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  23 percent
    

• When it comes to White voters overall, they tend to support Clinton...
  
  • Obama   17 percent
  • Clinton   35 percent
  • Edwards  29 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  19 percent
    

• ...with the support even more pronounced among White women
  
  • Obama     15 percent
  • Clinton     38 percent
  • Edwards   28 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  19 percent
    

OVERALL

• Overall, Obama’s support may run deeper than Clinton’s. 29 percent of those who support Obama say they do so enthusiastically, while only 20 percent say the same for Clinton
  
• When asked about the surrogates, Bill Clinton had higher favorable ratings than candidate Edwards, but below Sen. Clinton and Obama
  
  • Hillary Clinton  78 percent
  • Barack Obama  76 percent
  • Bill Clinton  75 percent
  • John Edwards  70 percent
  • Oprah Winfrey  67 percent
  • Michelle Obama  57 percent
  • Elizabeth Edwards  56 percent
  • Jim Clyburn  50 percent

• When asked about key issues, voters polled ranked these as the most important issues:
  
  • Economy (37 percent)
  • Iraq (23 percent)
  • Health Care (18 percent)
  • Immigration (6 percent)
  • Education (4 percent)
  • Crime & Drugs (4 percent)
    

• Overall, those polled think Obama is more honest and trustworthy...
  
  • Obama  34 percent
  • Clinton  18 percent
  • Edwards  19 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  30 percent
    

• ... And has the best vision for America...
  
  • Obama  39 percent
  • Clinton  26 percent
  • Edwards  16 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  19 percent
    

• ...But say that Clinton has the best experience to be president.
  
  • Obama  20 percent
  • Clinton  49 percent
  • Edwards  10 percent
  • Don’t Know/Not Sure  21 percent

• Voters also said that they think that setting the right tone and vision is important, but it is more important to have the experience to manage and run the Washington D.C. Bureaucracy
  
  • “Vision and tone” is important  39 percent
  • But “experience to manage and run” is needed, too  51 percent

Methodology:

Results for the statewide survey are based on telephone interviews conducted by professional callers under the direction of Lester & Associates. For the sample, a voter file was provided by the South Carolina Democratic Party. The survey included 600 adults, 18 years of age or older, who said they "were likely" to vote in the January 29, 2008 democratic primary. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 2.9% percentage points.  For results based on smaller subgroups the error attributable to sampling is higher. Fifty-four percent of survey respondents were African-American, 43 percent were white and 3 percent were of "other" races.  

Read Kevin Chappell on the poll results