Rolling Stone: WTF Happened to Bernie Sanders in South Carolina, Explained
The magnitude of Clinton's victory — in particular among African-American voters — raises serious questions about the viability of Sanders' 2016 bid.
Here's what you need to know.
Clinton knocked it out of the park?
As good as New Hampshire was to Bernie Sanders, South Carolina was even better to Hillary Clinton. Most striking: Clinton beat Sanders on his core issue. South Carolina voters who care most about income inequality voted for Clinton 63-37.
Did the Clinton "firewall" hold?
Clinton won among African-American voters by a margin of 86-14. Black women chose Clinton 89-11.
This is a ringing endorsement of Clinton by black voters, make no mistake. But these numbers look like something else, too: A key component of the Democratic electorate exercising a veto of the Sanders candidacy.
Was there a big turnout?
Here's where things start to look worse for Sanders. His path to victory depends on what he calls a "political revolution," a movement that draws new and unlikely voters to the polls. But turnout in South Carolina was way down from the 2008 battle between Clinton and Obama — lower by nearly a third. Here's an eye-popping stat for you: Sanders' 2016 vote total would have barely beaten that of 2008's third wheel, John Edwards.
What does this mean for Super Tuesday?
Clinton comes out of South Carolina having beaten heady expectations and carrying momentum into the Super Tuesday primaries.
Many of these contests are in Southern states with large African American populations, including Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, Tennessee and Texas.
If South Carolina is not an outlier, Clinton could win huge down South, banking a sizable delegate advantage, and begin to recapture the aura of inevitability with which she began this campaign.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wtf-happened-to-bernie-sanders-in-south-carolina-explained-20160228
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