Hillary Clinton: Wins South Carolina Straw Poll

Hillary Clinton is now the official front runner for the Democrat presidential nomination. On Wednesday the Richland County Democrats held the nation’s first straw poll for the 2008 presidential race and the surprise winner was U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

Clinton’s victory at the sparesely attended event was a mild upset. Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a native South Carolinian and last year’s Democratic vice presidential candidate, had been considered the favorite.

Clinton got 44 votes to 34 for Edwards. Virginia Gov. John Warner came in third with 32 votes and U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware got 24 votes.

Everyone else scored in the single digits.

The straw poll was conducted by the Democratic Party of Richland County, the most Democratic county in South Carolina and the state’s second-most populous.

Fancy that and Flap thought she was just running for re-election to the U.S. Senate