By Ellen Wulfhorst
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Reuters) - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton jockeyed for position on Sunday in a bruising U.S. presidential race after Obama scored a landslide win in a South Carolina primary tinged with the issue of race.
"I think (the result) speaks extraordinarily well, not just for folks in the South, but all across the country," said Obama, who beat Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin in Saturday's Democratic selection contest in South Carolina.
"People want change. I think they want to get beyond some of the racial politics that, you know, has been so dominant in the past," Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, told ABC's "This Week."
Obama's victory, after losses to Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada, gave him momentum heading into February 5 "Super Tuesday" Democratic contests in 22 states for their party's presidential nomination. Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois, won the first contest in Iowa earlier this month.
Clinton, a second-term senator from New York and wife of former President Bill Clinton, would be the first woman president.
Clinton and her husband drew criticism for comments seen by some as minimizing the role of blacks in the 1960s civil rights movement and the importance of Obama's success in South Carolina, a state with a large black population.
The Clintons have long enjoyed support in the black community, and she predicted Democrats would unite around whoever wins their party's nomination for the November 4 general election against the yet-to-be chosen Republican nominee.
Republican President George W. Bush's second term ends next January. Continued...
Obama campaigning in South Carolina.

Barack Obama has won the South Carolina Democratic primary, with 55 percent of the vote.

Hillary Clinton came in second with 27 percent of the vote, while John Edwards was third with 18 percent.

"Tonight, the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina," Obama told his supporters. 

"In nine short days, nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again," he said, referring to Super Tuesday, which will be on February 5. 24 states will be holding primaries or caucuses on that day.

Clinton reportedly called Obama to congratulate him on his victory.

"I have called Senator Obama to congratulate him and wish him well," she stated.

A CNN exit poll showed Obama with 81 percent of the black vote, in a primary where 55 percent of voters were black. The exit poll also showed Obama with 24 percent of the white vote, while Edwards and Clinton received 39 percent and 36 percent of this demographic, respectively.


===Results===





 Candidate

 Votes

 %

 Delegates (Est.)



 Barack Obama 

 295,091 

 55% 

 25



 Hillary Clinton 

 141,128 

 27% 

 12



 John Edwards 

 93,552 

 18% 

 8



 Dennis Kucinich* 

 551 

 0% 

 0



 Total 

 530,322 

 100% 

 45



Dropped out of race