Obama's ground organization in South Carolina - no pay to play

South Carolina political veterans said Obama's ground organization was one of the best they had seen, consisting of 9,000 volunteers and nearly 150 voting-day staging areas. His operation overlooked no potential source of votes. For example, an aggressive vote-by-mail program helped to drive up absentee Democratic ballots in Richland County, home to the state capital of Columbia, to nearly 8,000, compared with less than 1,000 in 2004.

Most significantly, Obama virtually swept the African American vote despite rejecting typical tactics deployed in the South, including paying "street money" to local leaders and community organizers to get people to the polls. Obama campaign officials bragged about bucking this long-entrenched system, but they weren't certain until Saturday whether it would work.

9. Boy, can the Obama campaign organize. Steve Hildebrand helped to put this together. Jeremy Boyd, Stacey Brayboy and Anton Gunn executed it. Cornell Belcher polled it. And Michelle Obama helped more than one might expect.