* We fully realize the lyrics go ‘North Carolina,’ but we had nothing for a headline, and this song cracks us up. Continuing our political updates, Obama body-slammed Clinton in South Carolina Saturday night, and we’re only 36 hours away from learning the fate of Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential run. As we’ve been doing all month, political wonk Jon Schnaars recaps what took place. Eight days away from Super Tuesday, in case you were wondering.

Momentum – Barack Obama had it coming out of Iowa, then slammed into a wall in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton captured it in New Hampshire and carried it through Nevada. This put Obama on the ropes. Then came South Carolina, and another momentum swing.

The Results
For Barack Obama, South Carolina was nothing short of a steamrolling. The Senator from Illinois captured 55 percent of all primary voters. He more than doubled the number of votes received by Clinton, who placed second with 27 percent of the vote. John Edwards finished a distant third at 18 percent. The win gives Obama two of the first four primary victories, pulling him even with Clinton. Obama’s wins have come in larger states however, with South Carolina accounting for 54 delegates and Iowa 57 (to Clinton’s 33 in Nevada and 30 in New Hampshire). The evening’s second biggest storyline was voter turnout – 100,000 more Democrats voted at their primary than Republicans voted at their GOP contest a week earlier.

The Predictions
There’s really only one thing that can be said for certain: on February 6th, the day after Super Tuesday, it’s very unlikely that we will be any closer to knowing who the Democratic presidential nominee will be. And surely, momentum won’t be carrying Obama to victory from here. Looking at the voter breakdown from Saturday, it’s not hard to see that black voters played a strong role in securing this victory for Obama, who they favored by a margin of 78 to 19 percent. Just as women voters were seen to be key to Clinton’s success in earlier contests, black voters made their voices heard here in a powerful way. Edwards actually captured the largest percentage of white voters, and women voters supported Obama in numbers that mirrored the race’s final results. South Carolina has not been carried by a Democratic presidential nominee in the general election since Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Obama’s overwhelming victory opens up the now legitimate question of whether he can forge a new Southern alliance for the Democratic party.

In many ways, South Carolina marks the end to a prelude. The Clinton campaign was criticized heavily in media circles for the actions of former President Bill Clinton. Many have wondered openly about Bill’s role in the campaign, as well as what that role might be if Hillary Clinton were to win in November. Obama meanwhile has been cast as having passed a major test for his campaign. With the full force of the Clinton campaign on him, he captured a massive victory.

Super Tuesday is another beast though, and the days two largest prizes line up nicely for Clinton. In Nevada, Clinton captured a large majority of the Hispanic vote, and California is another state where Hispanic voters play a large part (ditto for NY), both states where Clinton should be set up to win. If Clinton takes both CA and NY, Obama must hope to keep things close in those two states so that he can claim a victory on the day with wins in smaller contests. The final piece of this complicated puzzle is John Edwards, who is done after a 3rd place finish in a state that he won in 2004. Edwards can now truly play the role of spoiler, as his campaign can continue to accrue delegates, even if only in 10 and 12 percent chunks, which can then be signed over to another candidate when Edwards eventually drops out of the race. One would have to think that Obama would be the benefactor in that situation, which throws another monkey wrench into the complex nominating machinery.