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Obama, Clinton look to next White House fights
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Exit polls showed Obama won four of every five black voters, who made up more than half of the primary electorate. He also won one-quarter of white votes, higher than many had predicted. Edwards and Clinton split the remaining white vote.
Bill Clinton's attacks on Obama appeared to hurt his wife, exit polls showed. About six of every 10 primary voters said his campaigning was important to their votes. Obama won 47 percent of those, while Hillary Clinton won 38 percent.
Obama also won more than half of the voters who decided in the last 24 hours, the exit polls showed.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, had chastised his two rivals for their squabbling and portrayed himself as the grown-up in the contests, but he was beaten badly in the state of his birth.
It was his third consecutive third-place finish after a second-place showing in Iowa, but he said he would push on to the next round of voting.
"Now the three of us move on to February 5 where millions of Americans will cast their vote and help shape the future of this party and help shape the future of America," Edwards told supporters in Columbia.
A record-smashing turnout of more than 500,000 people cast ballots in the first Democratic primary in the South.
The Republican presidential contenders, who held their primary in South Carolina last week, are focused on Florida's critical Tuesday primary.
Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are in a tight race in Florida after splitting contests last week -- McCain won South Carolina and Romney won Michigan and Nevada. A new Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll showed the two deadlocked at 30 percent each in Florida.
(Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst and Deborah Charles; Editing by Sandra Maler)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
