Obama wins South Carolina

The polls closed less than a minute ago and CNN is already projecting, based on exit polls, that Barack Obama will emerge as a "strong winner" in South Carolina.

UPDATE: CNN is now reporting that 81% of black voters voted for Obama according to exit polls.

UPDATE II: MSNBC calls it for Obama as well.

NBC News declared Sen. Barack Obama as the projected winner in South Carolina's Democratic primary.

Obama won South Carolina by a substantial margin, with Hillary Rodham Clinton running second and John Edwards third, NBC reported.

Obama reached out for victory over Clinton in a racially charged primary, a prelude to the Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 national convention delegates.

UPDATE III: The Associated Press calls it a "rout" for Obama over Clinton.

Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially-charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was running third, a sharp setback in the state where he was born and scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years ago.

The Associated Press made its call based on surveys of voters as they left the polls.

About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and Edwards split the rest.

UPDATE IV: CNN projecting Hillary Clinton will come in second in South Carolina. Developing...