Obama wins in South Carolina. Barack Obama routs Hillary Clinton in hotly contested S.C. Democratic primary. The audience chanted “Race doesn’t matter” as it awaited Obama to make his appearance. But it did.

About half the voters were black and according to polling place interviews doen. And four out of five of them supported Barack Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama is the first-term Illinois senator. He got a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and Edwards split the rest.

Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina was running third, a sharp setback in the state where he was born and scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years ago. Even so, aides said he would remain in the race.