The Obama Effect: Democrats' chances in the S.C. House

Here's a video I prepared for publication on the Saturday Opinion Extra page for this week. It's from an endorsement interview with Rep. Jimmy Bales, who's being challenged in the Democratic primary for District 80 by Stanley Robinson.

Mr. Bales mentioned in passing in the first minute or so of the interview that he hoped Democrats would pick up a few seats in the S.C. House this year. Not quite hearing him, I asked a little later whether he had said he thought Dems might regain a majority.

Actually, he did think there was an outside possibility of that, but mainly he was hoping his party would find itself in a better tactical position with a few more seats. He mentions some districts in particular where he thought Democrats might prevail.

Here's the kicker -- he's pinning his hopes on Barack Obama. This is a theme I've been running into, in various forms, in these interviews so far. The Obama Effect ranges from motivating folks who were previously uninterested in politics to run. And it prompts Mr. Bales to hope to get closer to 58 Democrats in the House, from the present 51. This depends, of course, on Mr. Obama being the nominee -- as does so much else.

The Democratic Presidential Primary back in January created a lot of excitement, and we're still seeing the effects.

A little bit of inside baseball: On the video, you'll hear Cindi jumping in to make sure I have it right, and won't go hog-wild on the "Democratic Majority" theme. She has nothing to worry about; I'm a professional.