South Carolina memories

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Watching the South Carolina Republican primary results tonight brought back warm memories of the 2008 South Carolina Democratic primary.

I was a voter protection lawyer for the Obama campaign assigned to a majority-black rural area southeast of Columbia. The voters were proud of their role in helping to elect America’s first black President.

After the polls closed, we returned to Columbia in time to be present for Sen. Obama’s victory speech. Later that evening, one of my best friends called to read me Caroline Kennedy’s op-ed in the NYTimes (“A President Like My Father“), which moved me to tears. I was 10 years old when her father died, and I’ll always remember her as the little girl standing at attention while her father’s funeral procession passed. It was one of those moments that made me feel that what we were doing was connected to history.

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