Where the race tipped

Looking back on this Democratic primary process, I think the decisive moment was Obama’s win in South Carolina or, to be more precise, the nature of it. Obama and Clinton went into the contest both having chalked up wins: Obama in Iowa, Clinton in New Hampshire and a hotly disputed one in Nevada. But Obama’s massive win in South Carolina put him in the box seat—a position he never relinquished.

Perhaps, the most important consequence of Obama’s win in South Carolina was to frame the race in his favour going into Super Tuesday. Super Tuesday, with more than 20 contests, was always when the Clintons thought that they would wrap this thing up; they never imagined that a candidate could compete against someone with Hillary’s name recognition, fund-raising and organisational advantages in this many contests simultaneously. But South Carolina gave Obama a vital edge—wining a state with such an awful history of race relations, pushed the historic nature of his candidacy to the fore.

It was hard not to feel moved by seeing African-Americans who had been disenfranchised purely because of the colour of their skin voting for the first serious black candidate for president and watching an African-America candidate win a majority of the white vote under 30 in a state which had been home to some of the ugliest examples of racism in America’s history. It seemed, in some ways, redemption for America’s original sin. This sentiment undoubtedly seeped into much of the coverage that followed.

At the same time, the Clintons’ negative campaigning turned a lot of the media off. The Clintons became cast as the bad guys trying to stop this hopeful figure by whatever means possible. There’s no doubt that some in the press responded hysterically to every slap the Clintons took at Obama, while virtually ignoring much of the harsh rhetoric that came out of the Obama campaign. 

This prism combined with Obama’s political skills fundraising and organisational efforts allowed him to avoid a knock out blow on Super Tuesday. Having done that, it was possible for him to go on a hugely successful run for the rest of the month building up a delegate advantage that Hillary has never managed to really challenge. Without the South Carolina campaign, this would not have been possible.