The battle for South Carolina has now begun with Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama coming there to campaign in early February. In fact, there were reports that Obama “stepped on” Clinton’s visit by positioning his close to hers, so as not to give her an uncontested ride in the polls. Nevertheless, it was the first time voters had the benefit of their attention and they both showed well in a state that was won by the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s campaign in 1988.
  
Obviously sensitive to the possibilities, Obama began to roll out his connection to the civil rights movement, citing his appreciation for the legacy of Rosa Parks and Septima Clark in appearances that attracted 2,000 people in Orangeburg, 3,000 in Columbia. His reference to Clark was not an idle one, since Clark, a confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a major civil rights activist, was born in Charleston and taught in Columbia for nearly 20 years, becoming an icon in that state. 
  
But he was also received well by some Whites, who came to the integrated rallies and spoke well of his chances and the contradiction that it posed to Southern Whites. One White engineer, for example, said that it posed the problem of “doing the right thing culturally or doing the right thing civically.”
  
This is a key to the fact that he probably was not part of the marginal cadre of traditional White liberals who voted for Jackson, but perhaps a moderate who could be moved to vote for a Black man for the first time in his life.
  
Meanwhile, Clinton had also made a splash among Blacks who had voted for her husband and thought, like some, that Obama did not have enough experience that she had been a senator longer, and had actually been in the White House for eight years.  
  
A key Black politician, State Senator Darrell Jackson, however, got himself in trouble by suggesting that a Black man at the top of the national ticket would bring the whole thing down and that every Democrat would lose as a result. It was later discovered that these remarks were not objective in that Jackson, who also pastors a 10,000-member church and has a consulting firm, was receiving $10,000 per month from Clinton’s campaign.  
  
Nevertheless, Jackson said what many of those attracted to Clinton will be thinking.  They will go with her not only because of the overhanging positive sentiments Blacks have toward her husband, but because they are a practical crowd who want to win.
  
Many want to be close to power for whatever reason and to do that they must pick the surest horse. How many of these will there be? I don’t know. It all depends on whether the potency of Obama’s attraction continues to grow or fizzles out.
  
Perhaps because she is better positioned to trade on the Clinton appeal, the New York senator’s pitch was surprisingly light. She used her appearances to highlight her views on the Iraq War, to shore up a position that seems to be less popular than Obama’s and she talked about wanting to have the Confederate flag removed from the State House grounds. The hard bread-and-butter issues played a minor part in her stomp speech to integrated audiences, but to predominantly Black audiences as well.
  
That said, Obama appears to be gaining influence in South Carolina, having been endorsed by Dick Hartpootlian, the former state Democratic chair with significant contacts among White voters and key ministers in that state. It remains to be seen who powerful Rep. Jim Clyburn supports, since he has chosen not to endorse anyone so far, but to serve as a moderator of the attempts of all candidates to be presented to the Black community. 
  
If Obama continues to excite Whites in that state, he could win the primary and, by doing so, could create a coalition formula for Democratic victory in other Southern states in the general election. And, although Democratic leaders gave away the South to the Republican Party in 2000 and 2004, South Carolina could be a beachhead to the White House in 2008.

Dr. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute and professor of government and politics. His latest books are “White Nationalism, Black Interests” (Wayne State U. Press) and “Freedom Is Not Enough” (Rowman and Littlefield Press).