Joe Biden has vastly inflated his South Carolina polling among black voters from the last time he ran for the White House, in 2008.
“When Barack clobbered me in the campaign, you know, I had more black support in South Carolina than anybody, including him,” the former vice president said Tuesday, referring to his old boss, former President Barack Obama. “I got blown out in Iowa, and all of a sudden everything changed.”
The comment by Biden, 76, made to a select group of black reporters in Washington, D.C., Tuesday afternoon, does not reflect a single poll conducted in 2007: the then-senator for Delaware rarely rose about the low single digits in that year’s South Carolina public opinion research.
After Obama, then a senator for Illinois, became the first African American to win an Iowa caucus, earning almost 38% of the vote on Jan. 3, 2008, his polling in South Carolina skyrocketed, helped by the state’s active black community. Biden secured 0.9% of the vote in Iowa, finishing fifth, and dropped out on Jan. 3, 2008. Rather than changing the trajectory of Biden’s campaign, his Iowa performance confirmed his consistently low polling throughout 2007.
Hillary Clinton, then a U.S. senator for New York, dominated in South Carolina until close to the end of 2007, when Obama surged. Biden was never within15 percentage points of either of the front-runners.
CNN polls released in 2007 July had Clinton with a double-digit advantage on her closest competitor, Obama and Biden nowhere in sight. In July, Clinton had 39% support and Obama 25%, followed by John Edwards with 15% and Al Gore — who didn’t enter the race — with 10%. Biden didn’t register. In December, Clinton had 42% of the vote and Obama had 34%. Biden was among the “others” who were on 3% or less.
In August 2007, Clemson University recorded Clinton at 26%, Obama at 16%, Edwards at 10%, and Biden at 3%.
A November 2007 SurveyUSA poll put Clinton on 47%, Obama 33%, and Edwards 10%. Biden was among the “others” who, added together, amounted to 5%. The following month, a second SurveyUSA poll found that Clinton had dropped to 44%, Obama had risen to 40% and Edwards was on 11%. Biden was among the “others” who, added together, amounted to 3%. At third SurveyUSA poll that month found that Clinton was at 41%, Obama 39%, and Edwards 17%. The “others”, including Biden, were on an aggregate of 1%.
Two InsiderAdvantage poll in December 2007 put Biden – just – in double digits, though still fourth place. In early December, Obama was leading with 26% over Clinton on 24%, Edwards 15% and Biden 10% drew closer to the frontrunners. Later that month, Obama was on 28%), Clinton 22%, Edwards 12% and Biden still 10%.
A spokesman for the Biden campaign did not immediately return the Washington Examiner’s request for data supporting his candidate’s statement.
[Also read: Joe Biden dismisses veiled insults from Democratic rivals]
