KEY POINTS:
Free food from the Government: that's what George, the cleaner at Jukes barber's shop, expects when Hillary Clinton is in the White House.
He was in no doubt about which way he intends to vote this Sunday. Momentarily resting his busy broom, the memory of a golden era of handouts brought a smile to his face. "When Bill was in charge, a government truck would come by every month and hand stuff out," he said.
"That was Jimmy Carter," said Joe Grover, a barber, looking up from the buzzcut he was giving a customer. "You've got the wrong President."
Tucked between empty lots and boarded-up shops, Jukes is the neighbourhood hub where politics and local gossip intersect. The excitement is building for what might well be the most important vote the predominantly black Democratic electorate will ever cast.
All three candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, appeal in different ways.
Obama has had to overcome an unexpected obstacle. Mocked by hoodie-wearing black teens as a "Hafrican" or a "50-per center" because of his dual-race background, Obama initially struggled to get the support of working-class blacks. Many voters assumed he was white.
The Obama campaign has also been ignored by the Democratic machine, which is backing Clinton. Politics is a rough-and-tumble contact sport in South Carolina, where high-profile endorsements are often bought for money. The tradition on polling day is for candidates to hand out "walking around money" to local politicians, to ensure that the black vote turns out. They in turn have been known to pass out US$5 ($6.50) and US$10 bills to voters while laying on vans to deliver them to the polls.
There is no evidence of such blatant corruption taking place yet. But the leading candidates have radically different approaches to energising supporters. The Obama campaign has bused in teams of volunteers from around the country. They canvas door-to-door and make cold calls.
Clinton's campaign has swept up local black Democrats, offering large salaries to local bigwigs. The most prominent is the veteran state senator and pastor Darrell Jackson, who runs the 9000-member Bible Way church, as well as an advertising agency. He turned down the Obama offer of US$5000 a month for close to US$200,000 from the Clinton camp.
Blacks make up a third of South Carolina's population, but many do not bother to vote and, as a result, often find themselves represented by white politicians.
Black voters are split along class lines. Around 75 per cent of those with a university education have a "very favourable" view of Obama. But poorer, older blacks, especially women, tend to prefer Clinton.
A waitress said America is not yet ready for a black president, as he is sure to be assassinated if elected. Both she and her mother were going to save Obama from such a fate by voting for Clinton.
THE ATTACK OF THE ATTACK ADS
* Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign ran a radio ad in South Carolina on Senator Barack Obama's comments about Republican ideas. "The Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years," Obama said, in words replayed in Clinton's ad."Aren't those the ideas that got us into the economic mess we're in today?" the ad's narrator asks. "Hillary Clinton thinks this election is about replacing disastrous Republican ideas with new ones, like jumpstarting the economy."
* Obama responded with a radio ad which said Clinton's accusations were "what's wrong with politics today. Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected. She'll say anything and change nothing. Now she's making false attacks on Barack Obama. It was Hillary Clinton ... who quote 'paid tribute' to Ronald Reagan's economic and foreign policy. She championed Nafta, even though it has cost South Carolina thousands of jobs. And worst of all, it was Hillary Clinton who voted for George Bush's war in Iraq."
- INDEPENDENT
