Picking a President, Palmetto Style.

Early returns were described by the Associated Press as "a rout" as Barack Obama handily defeats Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina Democratic Primary. A series of no-holds-barred attacks on Obama in the past ten days by the Clinton campaign - especially the former president - apparently have backfired.

A last-minute surge of voters to native son Sen. John Edwards turned out not to be enough to catapult him into a second place finish ahead of Clinton, but all signs point to Edwards continuing his fight for the nomination - perhaps all the way to the convention.  

In another surprising development, the Democratic voter turnout today in this reddest of red states was GREATER than the GOP turnout in the hotly-contested Republican Primary a week ago. When The Beat asked Obama last June about his strategy to win the general election should be become the nominee, he said he would win every state John Kerry won in 2004 and put a number of other states in play where Democrats had not been competitive in recent years. Surely he didn't mean South Carolina? (J.S.)

Developing...