TRACE THE '08 RACE IN POLLS TRACE THE '08 RACE IN POLLS USA TODAY's interactive presidential poll tracker helps you dig into the polling trends nationwide and in major primary states. USA TODAY INTERACTIVE QUIZ USA TODAY INTERACTIVE QUIZ Democratic presidential candidates did some last-minute campaigning in South Carolina Friday wooing women and black voters a day before the primary there. Front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama focused on their messages to voters rather than attacking each other as they have in the past. A new McClatchy/MSNBC poll out Friday shows that Obama leads overall in South Carolina, but his support among white Democrats fell in one week to 10% from 20%. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, in third-place, appeared to pick up the white support Obama lost. Edwards sought to underscore the squabbling between his rivals that intensified this week. In Florida, the race for Tuesday's high-stakes primary is tight between Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as Rudy Giuliani trails widely. All the Republicans were campaigning in the state Friday. Florida Sen. Mel Martinez was expected to endorse McCain on Friday, the Associated Press reported, a move that likely will give the Republican presidential candidate a crucial boost with the state's Cuban-Americans. The decision is a blow to Giuliani, the former New York mayor in a close fight with McCain for support of voters in the Cuban-American community, and to keep his candidacy alive. Two Republican officials disclosed the upcoming endorsement to the AP on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the announcement. On Friday, Clinton told NBC's Today Show that she must respond in kind to attacks from Obama even though she'd rather keep the race for the Democratic presidential nomination focused on their differences on public policy issues. "I try not to attack first, but I have to defend myself, I do have to counterpunch," Clinton said. "I have tried to make it clear that this election has to be about the future. It is perfectly legitimate to draw comparisons and contrasts. I think both Senator Obama and I have made it clear we do want to focus on what we each would do for our country. It has been obviously an incredibly intense campaign. ... But I do want to make it clear that our campaigns have to stay focused on what you know the legitimate differences are so we can give voters information." Campaigning in South Carolina Clinton sounded more business-like as she spoke to voters about her goals as president. Obama is walking a tricky racial line in South Carolina, openly appealing to black voters while striving not to be tagged as "the black candidate." His success or failure will help decide his party's presidential nomination, and could strongly influence the fall general election if he prevails over Clinton. Blacks comprise large portions of the Democratic electorate in Deep South states, and they could help Obama win a handful of primaries, including South Carolina. But the more Obama is seen through a racial lens, the more it might hamper him in other states, especially those where voters are unaccustomed or unwilling to support black candidates. Obama's aides have acknowledged the dilemma, saying it is inevitable for the first viable black presidential contender. On Friday, Obama spent a chunk of his time reaching out to women voters, who make up 60% of Democratic voters in South Carolina. He sprinkled his appearances with references to the women in his life. "Women are carrying a big load," he said at a "women's economic roundtable" staged at a diner in Charleston. "I know this because I was raised by a single mom." He was joined at the event by several Charleston- area women who spoke of their challenges to raise small children, pay bills and watch their elderly friends struggle with prescription-drug prices. Edwards, meanwhile, highlighted the bickering between Clinton and Obama. He joked with several hundred people at a restaurant in the northwestern part of the state, making light of the clash between the two. Edwards said he had considered asking the two to have dinner with him at a relative's house. "Then we had the debate on Monday night in Myrtle Beach ... and we saw all of the petty personal bickering," Edwards said. "That may be the way they do politics in New York, that may be the way that they do politics in Chicago. But South Carolina's better than that." Edwards has consistently trailed Clinton and Obama in South Carolina polls taken here before Saturday's primary and he's struggling to make himself heard above what's become a tense campaign between the front-runners that's increasingly framed by race. Nearly half of South Carolina's primary voters in 2004 were black and their vote is considered critical. Edwards on Friday also launched a new radio and a new television ad that both focus on the "nasty squabbling and personal attacks" between his rivals. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee's cash-strapped presidential campaign scraped together enough money to run a new TV ad, although in limited fashion. The commercial, in which the Republican calls for abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, will air on national cable news channels over the next four days, campaign aides say. It will not, at this point, be seen on widely viewed broadcast channels in pricey Florida before Tuesday's primary, or in other states. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher, rallied evangelicals to win Iowa but has faced a string of defeats since the Jan. 3 caucuses. A South Carolina loss last week left his shoestring campaign hungry for money. Some staff left; others aren't getting paid; and the candidate himself acknowledged the financial troubles Tuesday. Former venture capitalist Romney asserted Friday he is better equipped than his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination — who all have more government experience — because "the only way to get America on track economically is to have a president who actually understands how the economy works." With fear of a recession growing, Romney tried to build on a strong debate performance the prior evening by reiterating his outsider's credentials as a businessman. He blamed government paralysis in Washington for failure to expand health insurance coverage, end illegal immigration and wean the country from foreign oil. "And part of what we're seeing right now in our economy is one of the manifestations of failing to act on the part of Washington," Romney told a breakfast meeting of the Latin Builders Association Inc. Playing on the decades he spent in private business while his rivals were in government, Romney said, "I happen to believe that the only way to get America on track economically is to have a president who actually understands how the economy works." McCain disagreed. Speaking to reporters on his bus elsewhere in Florida, McCain insisted his service on the Senate Commerce Committee is better preparation for overseeing the U.S. economy than Romney's private-sector experience. He said the Commerce Committee has broad jurisdiction over every aspect of the economy. "Running an investment company is probably a good thing to do. Making national policy concerning our economy is probably more beneficial to the nation," said McCain, who went on to criticize Romney's economic record as governor. "He raised taxes by $730 million, and the flight of manufacturing jobs was double that of the national average. His health care plan, we now find, is $245 million in the red, according to the Boston Globe yesterday." Enlarge By Mary Ann Chastain, AP Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. John Edwards appears at a campaign rally to ask people for their vote on eve of the South Carolina Democratic primary in Charleston, S.C. Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.
Am heutigen Samstag stehen im US-Bundesstaat South Carolina die Vorwahlen der Demokratischen Partei zum Kandidaten für die US-Präsidentenwahl 2008 an.

Im Vorfeld der Wahlen hatten Radiospots der Kandidaten Barak Obama und Hillary Clinton für Aufregung gesorgt, in denen sich die beiden Demokraten gegenseitig angriffen. So warf ein Obama-Spot Clinton vor, den Irakkrieg unterstützt zu haben. Zudem wurde behauptet, Clinton verdrehe Obamas Aussagen, sie würde „alles sagen und nichts verändern“. In einem Spot Clintons wiederum wurde Obama vorgeworfen, er stehe der konkurrierenden Republikanischen Partei zu nahe und sei ein Sympathisant des Republikanischen Ex-Präsidenten Reagan. Beide Aussagen werden aber inzwischen nicht mehr weiterverbreitet, nachdem innerhalb der Partei kritisiert wurde, solche Aktionen könnten die Einheit der Partei gefährden. Inzwischen betonte Clinton auch, man wolle die Debatte nun wieder zu wichtigen Diskussionen lenken. Auch Clintons Ehemann, der ehemalige US-Präsident Bill Clinton, der seine Frau bei ihrem Wahlkampf lautstark unterstützt, äußerte sich, er habe sich vielleicht etwas „mitreißen lassen“.

Politische Beobachter messen der Entscheidung im „Palmetto State“, so der Spitzname South Carolinas, der frei mit „Palmen-Staat“ übersetzt werden kann, eine hohe Bedeutung zu. So denkt der Journalist A. Sheinin der Zeitung '„Atlanta Journal-Constitution“' aus Georgia, dass der Sieger in South Carolina mit einer erheblich höheren Medienpräsenz rechnen könnte, was auch seiner Kampagne neuer Dynamik verleihen könnte. Auch in Hinblick auf den „Super-Tuesday“ am 5.Februar, an dem in 24 Bundesstaaten Vorwahlen stattfinden, sei South Carolina wichtig. So könnte eine Niederlage Clintons im Südstaat South Carolina ein negatives Zeichen bezüglich ihrer Chancen in den anderen Südstaaten (wie etwa Georgia) sein, in dem die politische Situation teilweise vergleichbar ist.

Derzeit werden Obama die besten Chancen, die Wahlen in „SC“ zu gewinnen, beigemessen. So liegt er laut einer Umfrage von gestern 13 Prozent vor Clinton. South Carolina wird auch als der Staat gesehen, in dem die schwarze Bevölkerung erstmals eine wichtige Rolle spielen könnte. Im Gegenzug sicherte sich Hillary Clinton die Unterstützung zweier hoch angesehener schwarzer Frauen, einerseits Stacey Jones, einer College-Vorsitzende, und andererseits der Kreisrätin Bernice Scott. Scott hob hervor, bei dieser Wahl gehe es weder um Geschlecht noch um Rasse. Auch Jones sagte, obwohl viele Schwarze vermutlich größere Sympathien zu Obama hätten, würde sie dennoch die Wahl Clintons empfehlen, die die bessere Lösung sei.

An dritter Stelle in den Umfragen wird der ehemalige Senator von North Carolina, John Edwards, gesehen. (North Carolina ist ein Nachbarstaat von South Carolina.) Edwards wurde auch in South Carolina geboren. In einer Umfrage von Reuters, C-Span und Zogby erhielt er 21 Prozent der Stimmen. Er konnte dabei in letzter Zeit wesentlich aufhohlen.

Edwards hob noch bei einer Veranstaltung am heutigen Freitag hervor, dass er der Außenseiter bei dieser Wahl sei, da er es mit zwei Kandidaten aufnehmen müsse – Clinton und Obama –, die beide einen Wahlkampfetat von über 100 Millionen US-Dollar (etwa 68 Millionen Euro) zur Verfügung hätten. Gleichzeitig betonte er, er würde statt „persönlicher Angriffe“ sein Augenmerk auf die Dinge legen, die das Leben der Menschen von South Carolina wirklich betreffe. Damit spielte er wohl auf den oben erwähnten Disput über die Radiowerbung von Clinton und Obama an.

Die Vorwahlen der Republikaner in South Carolina fanden bereits letzte Woche statt. Hier siegte John McCain.