Lazy Saturday Reads: South Carolina in the Spotlight
Posted: February 27, 2016 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics 40 Comments
Hillary Clinton invited to bachelor party in SC
Good Morning!!
Today should be a big day for Hillary Clinton. She is expected to win the South Carolina Democratic primary by a large margin. According to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, she has “a greater than 99% chance of winning” the state’s “first in the South” contest.
I’m totally psyched for for this. I plan to be on the internet most of the day following developments in SC. We can use this post as a live blog until the thread gets too long. We will put up new threads if necessary. It should be a fun day for Hillary supporters. So enjoy yourselves, Sky Dancers!
The Washington Post: In South Carolina, will Clinton’s expected victory shift momentum? (I think the momentum shifted in Nevada, but the media needs to keep their narrative going.)
The Democratic presidential contest has moved to South Carolina, where voters began casting their ballots Saturday in a primary that serves as two starkly different milestones for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Clinton is looking to her expected victory here to prove her strong support among African American voters — and to cement her status as the presumptive front-runner heading toward Super Tuesday three days later, when six of 11 Democratic contests will take place in Southern states with large populations of black voters….
Clinton began a barnstorming tour of South Carolina on Tuesday. She and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, crisscrossed the state on separate itineraries, hitting a total of about a dozen events over three days, speaking to predominantly African American audiences of a few hundred in cities and small towns. Each drew on decades of experience with the powerful church- and civic-based black voting turnout machine.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that this article is mostly dominated by Sanders ass-kissing. If you want to read that stuff, you can head over to the WaPo link.
Supporters cheer Hillary at SC rally.
Post writer Anne Gearan reports from SC: What happens when Hillary Clinton crashes a bachelor party? She’s in the photos.
Joe Schreck and his 10 groomsmen were toasting Schreck ahead of his wedding with a round of Bloody Marys when Clinton and her entourage swooped into Saffron, a cafe and bar in Charleston, S.C.
They asked her for a photo — all 11 of them. When Clinton realized she was in the middle of a pre-wedding party, she exclaimed: “He’s getting married today! That’s pretty exciting.”
A day before the South Carolina primary, Hillary Clinton stumbled upon a pre-wedding party at Saffron Cafe and Bakery in Charleston, S.C. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
The campaign trail has taken Hillary Clinton through coffee shops and bakeries, diners and ice cream parlors, stands at state fairs where they fry things that shouldn’t be fried. And, Friday, it took her to a bachelor party.Joe Schreck and his 10 groomsmen were toasting Schreck ahead of his wedding with a round of Bloody Marys when Clinton and her entourage swooped into Saffron, a cafe and bar in Charleston, S.C.
They asked her for a photo — all 11 of them. When Clinton realized she was in the middle of a pre-wedding party, she exclaimed: “He’s getting married today! That’s pretty exciting.”
Clinton’s personal photographer asked the men to pose, arranging them to Clinton’s left and right. The photographer, Barb Kinney, playfully suggested that a few of them kneel around Clinton — just as they would do later around the bride. This happened.
“I love having men at my feet,” Clinton said, laughing, as Kinney and the men all took photos.
“This is exciting,” she said.
“This is cool,” one man agreed.
Shreck was asked what his future bride would think about all this, and he said “She’ll love it!”
Jackie DeBose, center right, with her friends at Clinton field office
The New York Times: For Black Women in South Carolina, It’s Clinton’s Turn.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Jackie DeBose woke up early on Sunday, well before sunrise, grabbed her rhinestone-bedazzled Obama hat and her vintage “Hillary for President” button, loaded her suitcase in the trunk of her Lexus and headed to pick up three friends for a road trip to South Carolina.
The next day, still weary from an 11-hour drive, the four retirees from Ohio and Virginia walked into the old Kiki’s Chicken and Waffles restaurant that serves as the Clinton campaign’s field office here.
“It’s a very important state, and I didn’t want her to lose, so I said, ‘If we don’t do our part, who is going to do it?’ ” Mrs. DeBose said, holding a flip phone issued by the Clinton campaign in one hand and call list in the other.
The four, all black women in their late 60s or early 70s, counted themselves among Mrs. Clinton’s most ardent supporters eight years ago. But when Barack Obama emerged as a leading candidate during the 2008 primaries, Mrs. DeBose and her friends had to make an agonizing choice between supporting a candidate who could become the first female president, or the one who might become the first black one….
They ended up voting for Barack Obama, but this time they are determined to help put the first woman in the White House.
Voting booths in SC
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST and anyone still in line at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote, the state’s election commission says. South Carolina has 53 Democratic delegates up for grabs, with an additional six unpledged Superdelegates who are party officials who can commit to whomever they want.
South Carolina operates under an open primary system, which means people can participate in the primary even if they’re not registered Democrats. People who already voted in the GOP primary, however, cannot participate.
The primary comes a week after Clinton won Nevada’s Democratic caucuses 53 percent to 47 percent, where she performed well among black voters. More than three-quarters of black Democratic voters in Nevada caucused for Clinton, signaling she would also come out strong in South Carolina.
In 2008, 55 percent of South Carolina Democratic primary voters were black and then-Sen. Barack Obama wound up winning that primary. But this time around, polls show Clinton will almost certainly prevail. A CBS News Battleground Tracker Poll released earlier this month showed Clinton with a 19-percentage-point lead ahead of Sanders, 59 percent to 40 percent.
I wonder if Bernie Sanders will congratulate Hillary if she wins tonight? He failed to do that in Nevada.
After the SC primary the candidates will move on to Super Tuesday states, which will be voting in just a couple of days. Nate Silver has a useful article on what Bernie Sanders would have to do to catch up with Clinton in the all-important race for delegates.
Jane and Bernie Sanders with top surrogate and Obama hater Cornell West
Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Need Momentum — He Needs To Win These States.
The media narrative of the Democratic presidential race is that Bernie Sanders has lost momentum to Hillary Clinton. After nearly beating Clinton in Iowa and then crushing her in New Hampshire, Sanders had a setback on Saturday, the story goes, losing Nevada to Clinton by 5 percentage points. And this weekend, Sanders is about to lose South Carolina and lose it badly.
All of this is true insofar as it goes. But it doesn’t do nearly enough to account for the demographic differences between the states. Considering the state’s demographics, Sanders’s 5-point loss in Nevada was probablymore impressive than his photo-finish in Iowa. It was possibly even a more impressive result than his 22-point romp in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, a big loss in South Carolina would be relatively easy to forgive.
That doesn’t mean Sanders is in great shape, however. Based on the polling so far, Sanders is coming up short of where he needs to be in most Super Tuesday (March 1) states, along with major industrial states like Ohio andPennsylvania where he’ll need to run neck and neck with Clinton later on.
These conclusions come from a set of state-by-state targets we’ve calculated for Sanders and Clinton, which are based on some simple demographic factors in each state. As has been clear for a long while, Sanders performs better in whiter and more liberal states. But the abundance of new polling from Super Tuesday states, along with the Nevada result, gives us the data to establish more accurate benchmarks than the ones we set before. (See last week’s article “Bernie Sanders’s Path To The Nomination” for our previous estimates.) In particular, although Sanders might not have won the Hispanic vote in Nevada, he’s clearly made up ground among Hispanic voters. African-Americans, in contrast, remain overwhelmingly in Clinton’s camp. There may also be an urban/rural divide in the Democratic vote, with Sanders performing better in more rural areas.
Click on the link to check out the numbers.
Hillary Clinton during a forum at Denmark-Olar Elementary School in Denmark, S.C., February 12, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS
In Other News:
NYT: Inside the Republican Party’s Desperate Mission to Stop Donald Trump.
Politico: 8 times Chris Christie suggested Donald Trump shouldn’t be president.
NYT: Conservative Group to Air Ads Featuring Ex-Students Saying Trump University Deceived Them.
WSJ: IRS Commissioner Says Donald Trump Audit Scenario ‘Rare.’
Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg View: Trump’s Debate Was a Disaster. If Voters Notice.
Candace Kirby at Medium: Why Are the Media Afraid to Ask Bernie Sanders the Uncomfortable Questions?
Eric Boehlert at Media Matters: Speech Transcripts: The Press Finds A New Hoop That Only Clinton Must Jump Through.
Excellent summary of the case against Sanders at DailyKos: #RevealTheDeal; At Long Last Senator Sanders, Will You Reveal the Deal?
What stories are you following today?
peej
Carissa
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
The best part was Bernie clarifying that he isn’t a Democrat!!!! But now, he’s a Democratic Socialist? Nope, he’s an Opportunistic Socialist, who’s trying to ride a horse into the victory circle that isn’t his horse. Sad, sad, man!!!! I’ll vote for him if I have too, but I can promise you it will take all I can muster to drag myself to the polls.
Nope, he’s just an opportunist. He’s too thin on policy to call himself a Democratic Socialist (or any other ideological stripe). Both he and Trump seem to be drum majors in search of a parade in front of which to jump. They have way more in common than just their pronunciation of yuge.
He’s not a socialist either. Just a loud shouter with a nasty temper.
NYT Editorial Board says Clinton’s plan to control Wall Street and banks is superior to Sanders’
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/27/opinion/a-better-way-to-control-the-banks.html
Everything is coming up roses! Thanks BB.
That’s a good looking group of people.
I’m hate watching Trump on TV, now: boy, did Rubio get under his skin!
Rubio is finally doing the exact right thing. I hope he keeps it up. Trump is as thin-skinned as they get.
All these blustering, finger-pointing, bullying types are thin-skinned. They’re insecure inside and don’t want anyone to know.
Contrary to the narratives we were flooded with out of the NH race, women are in fact going for Clinton: Women for Hillary are the Real Revolution. And more women are speaking up about it: How Hillary Supporters Found Their Voice. From a link in that article, here is part of the epic rant of a Clinton supporter (all caps in the original):
AND IF YOU COME AT ME FOR EVEN ONE GODDAMN SECOND WITH A “YOU JUST LIKE HER BECAUSE SHE’S A WOMAN” I WILL DESTROY YOU WHERE YOU STAND. I LIKE HER! I LIKE HER POLICIES, I LIKE HER PLANS, I LIKE WHAT SHE STANDS FOR, I LIKE THAT SHE’S GROWN AND EVOLVED AS A HUMAN AND POLITICIAN! I LIKE THAT SHE WAS FOR MANY OF US MY AGE ONE OF OUR FIRST ROLE MODELS OF A SMART, PROFESSIONAL, KICKASS WOMAN AND THAT SHE ISN’T AFRAID OF THE WORD “FEMINIST” AND I’M SICK OF HAVING TO APOLOGIZE FOR LIKING HER, FOR HAVING TO QUALIFY AND SEE YOUR SIDE AND RESPECT YOUR OPINION WHEN I FUCKING DON’T AND YOU FUCKING DON’T RIGHT BACK. I LIKE HER!
The Candace Kirby article was terrific. The media has created such a double standard that it’s impossible for any fair person not to see it and understand it as a bias against Hillary.
Bernie’s life story isn’t nearly as compelling as that of Hillary. His pretend-like civil rights hero mantra is a joke and easily dispelled simply by looking at the facts. If everyone who did what Bernie Sanders did in the early 60’s was considered a Civil Rights hero, we wouldn’t have enough paper in the country to list them. But none of that has stopped Sanders or his supporters from trying to paint him as Martin Luther Sanders, Jr. And as a Lesbian I never cease to be amazed that Bernie and his supporters are still trying to paint him as some sort of Gay Rights Torch Bearer, when he’s nothing more than a guy who navigated his way through the mine field of LGBT equality just a little bit better than some of his political peer group. A peer group, by the way, that didn’t live in or represent Liberal VT. His only chance to claim real bonafides as a pioneer on Gay Marriage he passed up in 2006 when he told the Associated Press that he was “comfortable” with civil unions, not full marriage equality. (To justify his stance, Sanders complained that a battle for same-sex marriage would be too “divisive.”)” Gay rights Icon my ASS!!!!!!
And FINALLY Bernie is being vetted!!! So WTF took the MSM so long? Let me guess, Hillary hatred? I’m still burning down Rachel Maddows email inbox. I will not relent until she and the rest of the MSNBC crew quit behaving as surrogates for Bernie. I hope Hillary beats Sanders by 30 points tonight and slaughters him in the SEC. Maybe then we can fill some vindication over this ridiculous attempt to make Bernie into the Second Coming of Barack Obama. It was a ridiculous notion to begin with, but the MSM has sure tried to make it a self fulfilling prophecy.
Break MSM on down! I am not liking their them, and have a real hard time watching them anymore.
Listening to the Bernie camp say they are more for Trump than for Hillary. Who created this bull pucky?
Thank you BB for the more than encouraging coverage of SC. With the media being the big people’s version of a high school clique complete with unabashed sexism, it is so good to be able to follow events without constantly flinching or getting angry.
I hope I can ask – not a question, exactly, but what do people think of this and what to do about it – about something that happened today after I re-registered Democrat a month ago, after switching to Independent on June 2nd, 2008. I’ve recently retired and wanted to use some of that free time to work on getting not just HIllary, but Democrats back into government in this state that been eviscerated by Republicans in the last 6 years.
This morning, though, at the very first meeting I attended, some guy got up and took most of the time needed for precinct business to ask that all of us in our district sign a petition to be forwarded to DNC, that superdelegates be bound to cast their votes according to the votes in the primary. I could not believe this! This district was middle to upper middle class, with a lot of Bernie supporters, and it was going to pass without a murmur. I’d had very little sleep, from transitioning from all the years working second and third shift, and I’m a nerd anyway, so maybe not the best spokesman, but I had to raise the point that -not- binding the superdelegates cost the candidates with the most primary votes the nomination in 2008, and here it is 8 years later, with the same candidate, and their switching the rules might negatively affect her. There followed an oh-so-southern exchange where the guy’s rank (Professor) was made clear, and exception was taken to my correcting him so baldly about the primary votes, but the end result was an even vote to forward the proposal, with the chairman breaking the tie to do so. There was an acknowledgement that the proposal “appeared” partisan.
To me, this looks likes Democratic corruption at the micro level. I felt like some researcher watching cells divide. My initial reaction was to just drop out of the whole process again. Hillary seems to have given up on this state, because she’s set up no campaign offices here yet that I can find. I want to help Democrats take back this state, but want no part of what I saw this morning.
Any advice? And if this isn’t the proper place to ask, just say so or let spammy have it and I’ll understand.
Not surprising. Bernie’s supporters are financially comfortable and won’t suffer much if a Republican wins the WH. Trust me, that’s not going to happen, and none of this will matter in a few days. Hillary is going to blow Bernie out on Super Tuesday and beyond.
I don’t know what state you’re in, but chances are Bernie isn’t going to win it. Furthermore, the last thing the DNC wants is Bernie Sanders as nominee. It’s not going to happen. His followers are living in la la land.
Thank you, BB. It’s NC, making national headlines for all the wrong reasons.
After 2008 left the Democratic base out in the cold, the Repubs struck here like a coiled serpent: put an Enron-esque governor in, took away the safety net for the unemployed -and- made workers pay back an employer created deficit, initiated “pro-life” legislation Utah would’ve envied, gerrymandered districts in a manner that rivals Bush v. Gore for one-off legal strongarming, and brought us (again) to national attention for sheer election unworkableness.
Voters receive weekly updates now on when to vote and for whom: now or in June? State or national? Oh, and be sure to bring your ID de jour, depending on how the now evenly divided Supreme Court decides.
With all this confusion, Bernie might win it, but your perspective makes think that won’t matter much in the big picture.
I have a friend who works for state govt in NC and she has told me horror stories about what has happened since the Republicans took over. It makes me wonder just how Democrat those Bernie-supporting “Democrats” were at your meeting. Does one have the opportunity to register with a particular party affiliation in NC? I know we did in NY, but we don’t in VA so people can cross over and pretend to be the opposite party to vote in primaries.
You are doing the right think, Early. Thank you. Just a small amount of participation and getting involved has an enormous impact on local politics.
Earlynerd, thank you for speaking up in the meeting. Please don’t drop out of the process. Sounds as if your input is needed.
Thank you, Riverbird.
Just got back from seeing President Bill Clinton campaigning for Hillary here in Tulsa Oklahoma. My 19 yearly son and 16 yearly daughter are “yuuuuge” Hillary supporters( as am I ). Both kids got to shake his hand and they are walking on air. Bill very clearly laid out Hillary’s plans on education, banking and health care. Her plans are game changing, definitely not status-quo.
Bill was introduced to the stage by the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Hillary was endorsed by the state senator from the district where the rally was held.
Crowd was large and enthusiastic. Incredibly diverse and had a large contingent of young people.
Hi Adam,
Thanks for that report. I’m sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner. Do you think Hillary will win Oklahoma? Bernie’s people are saying he can take the state, but I doubt it.
I think Hillary wins but it will be close. There was a lot of enthusiasm in the crowd and many of the communities African American and American Indian Leaders were there.
SC exist polls show that voters think Hillary is more honest and trustworthy than Bernie.
ROFLOL! The Bernie bros are about to get an education in who is actually the base of the Democratic Party.
Politico:
Hillary Clinton flips the script. In South Carolina, she’s the candidate she always wanted to be. And Bernie Sanders is the one with the rocky path forward.
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This could be over very quickly. No wonder Bernie turned tail and ran to Minnesota.
ABC News SC exist poll coverage:
Live South Carolina Democratic Primary Exit Poll Analysis
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-south-carolina-democratic-primary-exit-poll-analysis/story?id=37241467
It is so time for us to have something to cheer about! The Republican women sitting around me at the senior center on Wednesday were not happy with Trump and his harsh policies. That’s encouraging to me living in a Republican dominated area.
BTW I did hear that Bernie congratulated Clinton on Nevada. NYT
I guess I missed it. Thanks for the correction.
MSNBC is hyping Bernie’s popularity with college students, talking about “the clintons” representing the past.
Earth to MSNBC: “The Clintons” are not running. Hillary is running for president. I put on CNN, and it sounds like they are about to call the race for Hillary. The polls aren’t even closed yet.
Wolf Blitzer just said that if Hillary doesn’t win overwhelmingly, “Bernie Sanders could springboard into Super Tuesday with new momentum.”
I’m here with two baskets of clean laundry to fold. I have a feeling the results will in before I finish!
Finally the down to the minute!
CNN calls SC for Hillary. She will speak soon.
Yay, WINNER, WINNER, we luv Hillary and all the people in Hillaryland
Yay!
She got the young voters! Not so with the white voters.
If the numbers hold, it will be a land slide on the delegates for Hillary.
84% of Black voters went for Clinton.
Lawrence O’Donnell is ripping Hillary and Rachel is about to either throw up or cry, according to tweeters I follow. I shut MSNBC off.