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South Carolina: It used to be Edwards country

A poll shows him at 6 percent among blacks, a key bloc.

from the January 25, 2008 edition

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Still, there is a little doubt about the import of South Carolina in his fight for relevancy. He has visited more often and raised more money here than his rivals. His campaign aired 3,621 television spots in the state in November and December, according to Nielsen figures, more than double Obama's and Clinton's combined.

He has missed no opportunity to remind voters of his roots here, holding "Homecoming Rallies," a "Bringing It Home" bus tour, and, this week, a "Back Roads, Back Home Barnstorm" to highlight his ties to rural America.

In theory, his antipoverty, anticorporate message should have played well in South Carolina, which has lost thousands of jobs in recent years as factories have closed or moved overseas. But his campaign stops here have seen fewer news crews and thinner crowds than they did in Iowa and New Hampshire. At a buffet-style cafe in Winnsboro Sunday, Edwards shook hands with supporters but gave no remarks.

Standing in a corner of the cafe, Jackie Mincey, a retired restaurant owner, said he lit on Edwards through a process of elimination. "I ain't voting for no woman, and I ain't voting for no black," he said. "There ain't no one left but Edwards."

In some ways, say analysts, Edwards's sagging fortunes here this time go beyond Clinton and Obama.

Edwards, who moved as a boy to North Carolina, where he became a trial lawyer and senator, ran in 2004 as a Southern populist against a Massachusetts liberal. Even then, his chief appeal was to white South Carolinians. Edwards trounced Senator Kerry among whites, 52 percent to 27 percent, but narrowly edged past Kerry, 37 percent to 34 percent, among blacks.

African-Americans in the South tend to be warmer to northern liberals – whom many associate with the civil rights movement – than do its whites, says C. Danielle Vinson, a political scientist at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.

Some Democrats say Edwards has failed to refresh the message and strategy that worked for him here in 2004. "He's relying on his past laurels very strongly and unwisely," says Waring Howe, chair of the Charleston County Democratic Party and a member of the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Howe endorsed Obama last week.

Edwards has complained bitterly of his rivals' "celebrity" treatment in the media. But this week, he sought to steal some for himself. He was a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, stumped in South Carolina with actor Danny Glover, and taped an interview to air Friday on The Tyra Banks Show.

On Thursday morning, his campaign announced a new 90-second Web ad, which will appear in the guise of a film trailer. Its title: Native Son: The Movie.

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