Obama projected to win South Carolina

This is off CNN.Com:

(CNN) -- Barack Obama will win the South Carolina Democratic primary by a substantial margin, CNN projects based on exit polls.

A win in South Carolina was considered crucial for the Illinois senator, who finished second to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada.

Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards were competing for second place.

[....]

As South Carolina's Democratic primary voters went to the polls Saturday, almost half of them had made up their minds more than a month ago, according to exit polls.

In the 2004 primary, nearly a quarter decided either the day of the primary or in the three days prior who they would support, but this year, only 10 percent of this year's voters waited until Saturday to choose.

Another 10 percent decided only in the last three days, and 32 percent decided in the last month.

Forty-seven percent made up their minds at least a month ago, more than double the percentage of 2004.

The early exit polls were taken from a sampling of 1,269 voters statewide.

Turnout was strong in some places Saturday as voters streamed to the polls.

"Turnout has been steady, and some counties have described it as heavy," said Chris Whitmire, spokesman for the state election commission. "Our absentee numbers indicate that we could have higher turnout than last weekend," when the Republican Party held its primary.

Now here is some CNN/Time exit poll data on the race:

African-Americans: Obama 81%, Clinton 17%, Edwards 1%

African-American women: Obama 82%, Clinton 17%, Edwards 0%

Whites: Edwards 39%, Clinton 36%, Obama 24%

It appears that African-American men and women have turned out to support Obama for the South Carolina primary. Even more interesting is that African-American women chose race over gender in this primary. Were African-American women angered over how the race issue had risen in the past couple of weeks before the primary? I really can't say yet.