By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

Inside the press room at the Democratic debate in Orangeburg, reporters mixed talk of politics with discussions of where they’d visit over the weekend, dinner plans and how nice it will be to visit South Carolina during winter, after braving Iowa and New Hampshire in December and January.

The debate served as a large-scale reunion for members of the national political press who will be tagging along with the candidates for the next months leading up to the primary and through the national election in November 2008.

Time magazine’s political columnist Joe Klein proved the perfect example of how the events of a political campaign, even if they’re 70 miles away, can have a positive economic effect on Charleston.

Given that scheduled events attended by the presidential candidates extended well into the weekend, Klein decided to stay for the duration at a resort on the Isle of Palms and asked for restaurant recommendations.

Newsweek’s Howard Fineman hobnobbed with The New York Time’s Maureen Dowd, and National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson fretted about her inability to find her assigned seat.

It turned out she was seated behind the crew from CNN, which included reporter Candy Crowley and senior political analyst Jeff Greenfield.

Prior to the start of the debate, Greenfield chatted about South Carolina’s ultimate importance to the candidates.

“Frankly, it’s early yet, and I’m not really sure (about the state’s importance). If a clear winner appears to emerge out of Iowa and New Hampshire, and given the shadow of 22 primaries right behind it, South Carolina might not be anywhere near as important as it now appears to be,” he said.

“In fact, if (Illinois Sen. Barack) Obama is for real, something we won’t really know for several months yet, and given the state’s large percentage of African-American voters, other Democratic candidates might just concede it to him to concentrate on other states like New York and California.”

But Mo Elleithee, senior spokesman for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign, disagreed, saying that given the front-loaded primary season in store for next year, South Carolina probably has more importance than it ever has in the past.

“With everybody moving their primaries up to early February, (the states have) created a situation where their voters are going to be at kind of a disadvantage when it comes to sizing up candidates, who simply won’t have time to campaign in all those states,” Elleithee said.

“As a result, I think South Carolina takes on even more importance because voters in other parts of the country will be looking to it, as well as Iowa and New Hampshire, other states that will get visited a lot by the candidates in the months ahead, to help them make up their minds.”

Regardless, Greenfield is looking forward to frequent trips to South Carolina, especially as the weather turns colder up north, he said.

“Nothing against Iowa, but covering the Iowa Caucus is a cold, dark business and, in reality it’s an event that only something like 5 percent or 6 percent of the state participates in,” he said. “After that, it’ll be wonderful to come down to Charleston for some extended campaign coverage.”

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122