I knew this day would come. But I didn't know it would come so soon. Today is the last day I will post a blog entry on keithboykin.com. We tried to hold on for a few months after we shut down the old site, but now things are moving so quickly that I can't continue to maintain this blog.

The good news is that I am now the editor of a brand new web site called The Daily Voice, which launches today. It's the most exciting media project I've been involved with in my entire life, and I'm thrilled to be in the middle of the cutting edge plans for the site.

We launch today with some heavy hitters, including Rev. Marcia Dyson and Jacqueline Jackson, each of whom is taking a different position on the presidential campaign than their famous spouses.

We've also got contributions from former Essence magazine editor Diane Weathers and bestselling author Crystal McCrary Anthony. And later in the week we'll hear from John Amaechi, Deval Patrick, Terry McMillan and Isaiah Washington. Plus we have a special interview with Janet Jackson. I can hardly contain my enthusiasm about all this.

I think this site is going to be revolutionary. I'm biased, I know, but I really think this is the spot that I've been looking for all along.

I should also say this. The Daily Voice is not a gay site. Or a straight site. But rather it's a place for all of us to come together in the African American community. Whether you're male or female, gay or straight, young or old, Republican or Democrat, we want to hear your voices. I see this as a space where Rev. Jesse Jackson may contribute one day and then Clarence Thomas the next. (And you all know what I think about Clarence Thomas.)

Still, this new project is much bigger than me. It's about us, our community, our people coming together as one. This past weekend, as I watched the new Barack Obama music video, "Yes We Can," I suddenly felt inspired again. I remembered what it felt like to believe that anything is possible. I remembered what it felt like not to listen to the cynics and the naysayers. And I remembered the awesome power we have inside of us when we only dare but to dream.

Many of my dreams have come to life over these past few years, and now I hope the dreams of our community can breathe life as well. Thank you so much for the journey with me the past few years on keithboykin.com. I love you all, and i will miss you in this space. But I look forward to seeing you in the next spot, The Daily Voice.

Goodbye!

To understand the scope of Barack Obama's big victory in South Carolina on Saturday, consider this. Obama not only defeated Hillary Clinton by a 2-1 margin, he also won more votes in the South Carolina primary than Republican frontrunners John McCain and Mike Huckabee combined. Yes, that is not a misprint.

Democratic turnout was incredibly strong in this Republican state, indicating that the Democrats are much more excited about the race and their candidates than the Republicans were a week before. A record 530,000 Democrats voted Saturday, nearly 100,000 more than in last week's Republican primary.

Obama's numbers in this red state also suggested that he might be able to assemble a national multiracial coalition in the fall general election campaign that could compete and win in some southern states traditionally won by Republicans. About as many South Carolina white men voted for Obama as for Clinton, and about 70 percent of white voters said they would be satisfied if Obama won the Democratic nomination, according to exit polls reported in the New York Times today.

The news also spelled trouble for Clinton, whose campaign was widely criticized by fellow Democrats for negative attacks. "If the South Carolina result buoyed the Obama team, it left Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign facing a new set of questions," the New York Times reported. "Her advisers’ steady attacks on Mr. Obama appeared to prove fruitless, if not counterproductive, and the attack-dog role of former President Bill Clinton seemed to have backfired."

Perhaps as a result of the negative campaigning and their enthusiasm for a viable African American candidate, black voters in South Carolina abandoned the Clintons after years of loyalty. Even black women, a targeted constituency by both campaigns, voted overwhelmingly for Obama. "More than half of black voters in the state said the country was definitely ready for a black president, while only about a quarter of white voters reached the same conclusion," the Times reported. That's a dramatic turnaround from other polls that had shown that blacks were less likely than whites to believe America was ready for a black president.

It was a stunning victory for Obama that exceeded all expectations. With Clinton and Obama now tied with 2 wins each, the battle turns to the delegate count and the Super Tuesday election on February 5. If Hillary Clinton hoped to surprise or startle Obama in South Carolina, she failed. If Obama hoped to prove himself in that state, he more than succeeded.

Just finished watching the South Carolina debate and I have a few quick observations. I thought the first hour was a hot mess. Clinton and Obama spent a good deal of time throwing mud at each other, and I don't think it helped either of them. John Edwards also played a critical role, at one point teaming up with Clinton against Obama, especially on the question of his voting "present" more than 100 times in the Illinois state senate. But Edwards didn't hold back against Clinton either and he took her on as well.

The nastiest exchange of the entire debate took place when Senator Obama charged that he was working as a community organizer while Clinton was a corporate lawyer on the board of Wal-Mart. Clinton fired back by saying that she was working against the Republicans when Obama was a lawyer representing a slumlord in Chicago. Score one point for each candidate.

Two weeks after the election, analysts are still scratching their heads trying to come up with an explanation for the stunning disparity between the pre-primary polls and the final results in the New Hampshire primary.

The prevailing theory seems to blame the problem on the unusually large number of undecided voters who made up their minds at the last minute. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won that group.

Is it just me, or is race suddenly becoming an issue in the presidential campaign that it wasn't before Barack Obama won Iowa?

Last week, former Bush political strategist Karl Rove described Obama's unfortunate "you're likable enough" remark to Hillary Clinton at the New Hampshire presidential debate as "trash talking" that he said "was an unattractive carryover from his days playing pickup basketball at Harvard."

They said it would never happen. They said the Clintons were politically dead and would never recover from a huge loss in Iowa and the projected loss in New Hampshire. But something funny happened on the way to the nomination tonight. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton upset Barack Obama by pulling out a stunning victory. The polls were completely wrong, and at the end of the day, the pundits were left scratching their heads.

Last month I predicted Barack Obama would win New Hampshire and Hillary Clinton would win Iowa. As it turns out, I had it completely backwards. But oddly enough, I predicted the Republican result completely accurately in both Iowa and New Hampshire. I predicted Huckabee, Romney and McCain would finish first, second and third in Iowa and McCain, Romney and Huckabee would finish first, second and third in New Hampshire. Maybe I'm too close to the Democratic field to make objective analysis.

I watched both the Republican and Democratic debates and I didn't see a clear winner in either one.

On the Democratic side, I thought all the candidates were competent and strong. I loved the part at the end when they talked about what mistakes they had made during the campaign in previous debates. It was also interesting that Edwards and Obama seemed to team up on the left (literally and figuratively) on the change side and Clinton and Richardson, when he wasn't busy pounding on the table, seemed to team up on the right (literally and figuratively) on the experience side. When did experience become a leper, Richardson asked.

On the Republican side, Romney was the focus of much of the attention and criticism, but John McCain curiously didn't speak up much. All the Republicans, except for maybe Ron Paul, were far too conservative for me. It seems they only talk about fear-based issues like national security, 9/11, "Islamofascism," terrorism and illegal immigration.

The night belonged to Barack Obama. Mike Huckabee won the Republican vote in the Iowa caucuses, but the night really belonged to Obama. After a long hard fight, Obama emerged on top with a strong victory over his two closest rivals, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.

It was also a night about change. A record 220,000 Democrats showed up at the caucuses to cast their public ballots in the election. When all the votes were counted, Obama won convincingly, carrying most of the 99 counties in the state, winning on all the major issues that the voters cared about, and even carrying the women's vote against a formidable woman candidate.

To see my law school classmate standing on the stage as the first African American ever to win the Iowa Caucuses made me extremely proud. I felt proud to be a black man and proud to be an American tonight. "They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high," Obama began his speech. "But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do."

Over the next few months, we will be adding some new features, changing some things, and making some improvements. The first thing you will notice, though, is that the daily blog feature has been suspended.

I will still be posting articles from time to time on this blog, but only when I have something important to say.

Meanwhile, if you would like to access the old blog with all the existing comments and other features, set your bookmark to http://www.keithboykin.com/blog2.

And finally, if you would like to continue using the message board from the old site, it is still located at the same URL. Go to http://www.keithboykin.com/bb/ to access it.