South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn tells Fox News that he’s not surprised that Bill Clinton blames him for undercutting his reputation with black voters after the Democratic primaries — but that Clinton is himself to blame for any damage he might have incurred.

Clinton told ABC News last week that Clyburn “used to be” a long time friend of his, and that Clyburn “was not Hillary’s supporter. Never. Not ever. Not for a day.” Informed that Clyburn had said that the former president’s credibility with the black community had been damaged, Clinton responded “That may be by the time he got through working on it, that was probably true.”

Clyburn was a forceful critic of President Clinton’s campaign tactics during the South Carolina primary, calling Clinton’s comments — including his claim that he was having the race card played on him - “bizarre.”

“Black people are incensed over all of this,” Clyburn said at the time, adding that African Americans had come to a near unanimous conclusion that the Clintons were “committed to doing everything they possibly can to damage Obama to a point that he could never win.”

In an interview with James Rosen, Clyburn said President Clinton “is not correct in his conclusions” about his feelings towards Clinton’s wife, claiming that while his heart had been with Obama, his head had been with Hillary. Clyburn officially endorsed Obama just before the end of the process in June — but made his leanings clear throughout the process.

As for whether Clinton feels Clyburn undermined him with black voters, the congressman said “that’s easily to be understood from his comments, and I just beg to differ with that. Because the fact of the matter is, all the stuff that I saw reported were reports on things the President said from his own mouth.”

Clyburn specifically pionted to Clinton’s comparison of Obama’s win in SC to Jesse Jackson’s 20 years earlier - where Jackson won the black vote and not much else on the way to losing the Democratic nomination to Michael Dukakis.

“Most people thought that the most telling thing back in January was the equation that the president made of Jesse Jackson having won South Carolina caucuses 20 years earlier, and compared that with Obama winning the South Carolina primary. there’s a big difference in a caucus and a primary,” said Clyburn. “Irrespective of what the president may have meant by the statement, a lot of people interpreted that as having a racial connotation, and Jim Clyburn didn’t speak on that issue at all.”

As for whether Clinton did, in fact, hurt himself among black voters, Clyburn said “i don’t know that i’ve done any surveys to determine whether or not the president, former president has ever damaged himself or not.” What does his gut tell him? “My gut tells me that some things I ought to keep to myself.”

Relevant sections of Rosen’s interview and Bill Clinton’s comments to ABC are below.

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After a sound victory in the South Carolina primary, Senator Barack Obama delivered a rousing victory speech to a crowd of about 1,500. The 18-minute long speech, delivered with the aid of a teleprompter, was conciliatory and, at times, stinging when it came to his rivals.

Gracious in victory, Obama said his “fierce competitors” were “worthy of our respect and admiration.” He observed, “And as contentious as this campaign may get, we have to remember that this is a contest for the Democratic nomination, and that all of us share an abiding desire to end the disastrous policies of the current administration.”

But realizing his fight is far from over, he also noted, “We are up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election. We know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics; this is why people don’t believe what their leaders say anymore; this is why they tune out.”

“The choice in this election,” Obama said, “is not between religions or genders. It’s not about rich versus poor; young versus old, and it is not about black versus white.” The crowd cheered. “It’s about the past versus the future.”

The senator concluded his remarks with a hopeful, yet patently Obama mantra. “Where we are met with cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t – we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people in three simple words: Yes we can.”

Watch (most of) Senator Obama’s speech here:

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Instead of waiting around in South Carolina to deliver the traditional concession speech after her big loss, Sen Clinton’s motorcade sped off to the Columbia airport before the polls closed. She was wheels up to Tennessee shortly after we learned that FOX had called the race for Barack Obama — and after she called to congratulate Obama for his historic victory.

On the plane, spokesman Jay Carson acknowledged the huge win for Obama in nearly every demographic, saying the campaign had seen this thumping coming for awhile. In what they’ve often called a “race for delegates,” Clinton could find herself down 13 in South Carolina — but aides point out that they’re still up by nearly 100 after counting those unpledged “superdelegates,” and that there are no truly big delegate prizes awarded until February 5th.

As for whether aggressive campaigning by Bill Clinton hurt her in South Carolina, Carson said the former president is still the most popular Democrat in the country — and challenged reporters to come up with a single negative, nasty remark President Clinton made about Obama.

At her rally in Nashville, Clinton briefly acknowledged the loss, saying “I want to congratulate Senator Obama and thank South Carolina.” But she quickly moved on to stress the importance of Florida and the February 5th states before launching into her standard stump speech.

UPDATE: Asked by an audience member how the SC results would affect the race, Clinton said “I’m very, very proud to have competed there. It was a close contest going into it. I congratulate Senator Obama. We have each won several of these contests in these early months.

“I’ve always said this contest was gonna go a long time,” she said. “February 5th has always been, for me, the key , we’re going to be doing everything we can here in Tennessee, and all the states that are going to be voting on February 5th. It stretches from Massachusetts to California. I’m excited about competing here and competing everywhere.”

The following press release was sent to reporters covering the South Carolina primary from SC GOP Chairman Katon Dawson:
Dawson: No surprise to see Democrats settle for Senator Obama

SCGOP Chairman confident Republican will carry South Carolina in November

COLUMBIA, S.C – South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson tonight released the following statement on the results of the South Carolina Democrat Presidential Primary:

“It was no surprise to see Democrat primary voters in South Carolina today settle for Illinois Senator Barack Obama.  Although Senator Obama is one of history’s most inexperienced presidential candidates, his opponent Senator Hillary Clinton abandoned her liberal candidacy here because our voters have never backed a Clinton – and John Edwards was too out of touch and too negative to defend his 2004 win on his own home turf.

“Tonight, I am more confident than ever our Party’s nominee for president will be overwhelmingly supported in South Carolina no matter who wins over the liberal Democrat primary base.”

As we in the press corps wait for Senator Barack Obama’s 9 o’clock victory speech here at the Columbia Convention Center, the crowd is trickling in after going through security. Obama’s staffers are freely mingling in the press area - something they did in Iowa, but not in New Hampshire - or Nevada, when they all left the state before the caucus. A giant television screen suspended from the ceiling is blasting CNN - which just showed video of Senator Hillary Clinton leaving her South Carolina hotel. The crowd booed. The boos were just as loud when the monitor showed video of former President Bill Clinton speaking in Independence, Missouri. The crowd, of course, cheers every time the network delivers pro-Obama news. At one point the diverse crowd chanted, “Race doesn’t matter!”

Barack Obama began what would be a successful day in his candidacy at Columbia’s Bethelehem Baptist Church, followed by a quick stop at a polling precinct at the historically black Benedict College - sans press. A small press pool was allowed to accompany Obama to greet patrons of Harper’s Restaurant, where Obama exchanged pleasantries and posed for photos with nearly every table and some of the restaurant’s employees before leaving.

The Senator spent much of the day holed up in his Columbia hotel, where he did multiple interviews via satellite with South Carolina and February 5th state television stations. To unwind, Obama along with two staffers (including his body guy, Reggie Love, who used to play for Duke University and 6′8″ trip director, Marvin Nicholson) played a little basketball with some of Obama’s Secret Service detail. Obama’s team won the best of three contest, two games to one.

Shortly after the polls closed in South Carolina, Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Communications Director Robert Gibbs emerged from their hotel to walk the short block to the Columbia Convention Center. Gibbs told a gaggle of reporters that it appears the white vote was “far closer” than anyone had thought it would be - early exit polls show that Obama received a whopping 80% of the African American vote and 24% of the caucasian vote as compared to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards’ 38% each.

This is an election about delegates - not states, Gibbs said. The campaign sent out a statement that estimated Obama snatched 25 delegates here in South Carolina. Clinton picked up 12 and Edwards 8, per the Obama campaign. Their tally now has Obama leading the delegate count 63 to Clinton’s 48 and Edwards’ 26.

Gibbs waas sure that the race for the nomination would not be decided by February 5th. Expect a long battle that could extend into April. Gibbs was unsure if Hillary Clinton had called Barack Obama to congratulate him on his victory, but in a statement put out by the Clinton Camp, Clinton said she had called to “congratulate him and wish him well.” It continued, “We now turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard in Florida and the twenty-two states as well as American Samoa who will vote on February 5th.”

Senator Barack Obama today spoke on the campus of Clemson University in South Carolina. About 3,000 or so, mostly students, stood outdoors in the cold to hear the candidate for president. “I know that a lot of young people have grown up cynical and skeptical about the political process, and don’t believe that change is possible,” Obama said at the top of his speech. “And what I hope to do,” he said, “is to persuade you that anything is possible if you’re ready for change.”

The senator didn’t speak long, but attempted to empower the young voters by letting them know that their vote counts. All they have to do is take a look at Iowa.  Obama explained that although the youth turnout in Iowa was unexpected by political pundits, students came through in unprecedented numbers - something he surely hopes will happen in South Carolina and elsewhere.

Take a listen to the senator’s close to the student voters:
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In a tight race, the expectations game is crucial; a better than expected second place in a state can be spun as a win for an underdog, while a closer than expected victory can be seen as a loss for a front-runner.

So when Clinton aides point to recent polls to suggest they’re expecting a double-digit loss in South Carolina, reporters see them trying to set expectations low so that a four-point loss might turn into a positive story for the campaign.

Similarly, when the Obama campaign released a memo today pointing out just how much Clinton has done to win the state, reporters understand that they’re trying to prevent an Obama win of any size from being seen as a loss — or just as bad, as expected and therefore unimportant.

In the memo, Team Obama tells interested parties to look past the Clinton spin — saying  “the truth is Hillary Clinton’s campaign is pulling out all the stops to win in South Carolina. And it includes saying and doing just about anything to win.”
Trouble is, Obama himself criticized Hillary for not taking the state seriously enough after spending much of the last week in Feb 5th states — telling CBN’s David Brody, “I think the South Carolina voters will have to make an assessment in terms of how seriously she’s taking the state. She said last night that Bill Clinton wasn’t the one running for resident, but this is the next primary and he’s the one who’s staying behind.”

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer asks “does the Obama campaign think we are giving up on South Carolina or going all out for it? I guess it depends on the day.”

Read the full Obama memo after the jump

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Hillary Clinton finally made it back to South Carolina on Thursday, kicking off the final stage of her campaign here with what the campaign called a major economic speech focused on tacking the immediate and long-term economic challenges facing America. But if they thought it was major, they didn’t pretend it was new; the speech was largely centered on already-announced policies to stimulate the economy and fix the housing crisis.

She blamed the slide toward recession on President Bush’s “hands-off,” adviser-heavy approach to running the government — a trait she’s often ascribed to Barack Obama. The Illinois Senator has admitted he’s not much of a Chief Operating Officer, saying he would leave the day-to-day management of bureaucracy to others.

“We’re here in part because the President failed to listen to the voices of people who are hurting, failed to get involved in the actual work of running the government, and failed to act,” she said. “Instead, he has stayed at a comfortable cruising altitude, well above the realities of peoples lives, delegating responsibilities to his advisers, hoping the buck would stop somewhere else, anywhere else.”

And after bashing Obama for claiming the Republicans have been the party of ideas over the last decade, she also blamed the ideas of this administration for the economic downturn. “The problem with our economy is not the American people; instead, the problem is in part the bankrupt ideas that have governed us for the last 7 years.”

Finally, there was the familiar talk vs action theme that’s been the foundation of her campaign against Obama since Iowa. “The presidency matters more now than ever,” she said. “We need a president who will run the government and manage the economy. The American people don’t hire a president to talk about our problems, but to solve them; to set a vision for the future and then to roll up our sleeves and get about fulfilling it.”

“It’s time we had a president who believes leading an economic comeback is a full-time, hands on job.”

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While addressing a crowd of 200 people in Bennettsville, South Carolina, John Edwards criticized Hillary Clinton for choosing to leave the state in the days before the January 26th primary.

Clinton left South Carolina after participating in Monday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach to campaign in states scheduled to hold contests on February 5th.

“Right after the debate, she flew out and she’s been gone and she won’t be back until I don’t’ know—later in the week or until primary day,” Edwards said. “And the question is, if she’s not going to spend time here the week before the South Carolina primary, what do you think the chances are she’s coming back after the primary? And what are the chances she’s coming back when she’s president of the United States?”

In his criticism of Clinton’s absence, Edwards sought to depict her as a politician not genuinely committed to the needs of those living in rural South Carolina. He also characterized the rural South as “forgotten America,” emphasizing his Southern upbringing to persuade voters that he identifies with and understands their economic hardships.

“We need a president of the United States who actually understands your life. It’s one thing to fly into South Carolina from some place else, give a speech, go to a debate and then fly back out,” he said. “It is a very different thing to have lived here, to have grown up in this part of the country and to understand in a personal way what’s happening in your lives. I do.”

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On the heels of Monday night’s Democratic presidential debate, John Edwards launched a new television ad on Tuesday to run in South Carolina, challenging his Democratic opponents on accepting lobbyist money—an issue that has become the touchstone of the former North Carolina senator’s grassroots campaign.

The 30-second ad, titled “What Happened,” begins with side-by-side images of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the screen. The announcer says: “One gets more money than anyone from drug companies. The other one takes more money than anyone from Washington lobbyists. What’s happened to the Democratic Party?”

As the pictures changes to images of Edwards speaking before large crowds and mingling with supporters, the narrator continues: “The only one who’s never taken a dime from PACs or Washington lobbyists, who knows we’ve been ignored too long, who knows that rebuilding the middle class is more important than politics—our John Edwards. The only one.”

Edwards has centered his campaign on the principle of “taking back America.” He reasons that one cannot reduce the power of lobbyists who control Washington if he or she is accepting their money. While campaigning in Iowa in December, Edwards announced he would ban all corporate lobbyists and individuals who have lobbied for foreign governments from working in his administration, if elected.

In an attempt to make a comeback in a state he won during the 2004 primary election, Edwards will embark on a two-day “Back Roads, Back Home Barnstorm” of South Carolina on Wednesday, targeting small towns and rural communities in the hopes that his populist message will resonate among rural voters. During Monday night’s debate, Edwards argued that he is the only Democratic candidate who can “go everywhere and compete head-to-head” with the Republican nominee, including in places like the rural South—a demographic, he said, the Democrats cannot afford to lose in the general election.

“We can’t concede places like South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri,” Edwards said.

“We always do well in Chicago, or New York, or Los Angeles, Seattle. We do well in the big urban areas. The question is: Are we competitive in the rural areas, in the tougher places for Democrats to compete?”