COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Standing in the chapel of Benedict College yesterday morning, Chiaka Fergeson said she liked the policy prescriptions she had just heard from New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"She has a lot of passion, that impressed me," the junior, who is majoring in social work, said after listening to the Democratic presidential candidate's address. Ms. Fergeson said she liked Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as well, but she plans to vote for Mrs. Clinton today because "I just feel like he's not ready."

The young African-American woman said neither Mr. Obama's race, nor Mrs. Clinton's gender was a factor in her voting decision.

The two leading Democrats may hope that all South Carolina voters are so unaffected by the politics of identity, but they were taking no chances yesterday, as each courted votes before audiences calculated to appeal to the other's perceived strengths.

Mrs. Clinton kicked off the final day of campaigning before the state's primary with her speech before an audience of more than 500 at the historic black college not far from the state Capitol. Mr. Obama opened his day at a pair of roundtable discussions with panels of female voters.

After a bruising campaign week, each of them talked about issues and the struggles of regular people -- avoiding the attacks against each other that have reverberated through the Palmetto State.

The third contender, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, wasn't eager for voters to forget the strife, however, as his campaign aired new radio and television commercials showcasing some of the charges that his rivals had fired at one another in Monday night's contentious debate. "While Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama seem intent on tearing each other down, I'm intent on building you up," Mr. Edwards said in one ad.

The last-minute maneuvering came as South Carolina's Democrats were about to vote in a primary that would mete out their own convention delegates and help frame the competition for the vastly larger trove of delegates at stake in other states' primaries and caucuses Feb. 5.

After beginning the month with a victory in the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Obama shot to the top of polls in South Carolina, supplanting Mrs. Clinton as the leader in a state in which African-Americans represent a significant share of the electorate. But, while Mrs. Clinton has divided her week between this state and others voting Feb. 5, the Clinton campaign has still devoted extensive resources to South Carolina -- notably the time of her popular husband, former President Bill Clinton.

The polling consensus depicted Mr. Obama with a significant lead over Mrs. Clinton, although at least one survey showed his margin shrinking slightly in recent days. Mr. Edwards was in third, although two polls showed his support moving up on the eve of a primary he won four years ago. The latest MSNBC/McClatchy survey, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, showed Mr. Obama, 38 percent; Mrs. Clinton, 30 percent; and Mr. Edwards, 19 percent.

Mrs. Clinton appeared on the Benedict College stage with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and former New York City Mayor David Dinkins. The two prominent African-American politicians have been campaigning for her across a state in which more than half of the Democratic voters are expected to be African Americans.

"Some people have asked me -- though they claim to be color-blind -- if I feel awkward supporting the senator when her opponent is a man of color," Mr. Rangel recounted, saying his reply was, "Who do you know who can do the job?"

Mr. Dinkins recalled former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's famous observation that politicians campaign with poetry, but must govern with prose. "Lofty rhetoric is nice, but you've got to govern," he said.

In a litany of her policy proposals, Mrs. Clinton mentioned neither of her opponents, but seemed to be implying a contrast to her first-term senator rival, Mr. Obama, when she said of Mr. Rangel and his leadership of the powerful tax-writing committee, "He didn't get there by leap-frogging; he got there by hard work, day in and day out."

Mrs. Clinton touched on familiar proposals regarding health care, the environment and the war in Iraq, and in an appeal to the constituency before her, said: "I also want to do more to help the historically black colleges and universities. So many leaders have come through these doors. ... But our help has not kept up with the need. I want to double the amount of money that goes to our historically black colleges."

Mr. Obama, in an appearance on the University of South Carolina campus, sat before 20 televisions cameras at a table with a handful of women. Reacting to their observations about issues including health care, education funding and vocational training, he highlighted selections from his campaign proposals.

He cautiously praised the stimulus compromise announced Thursday by the Bush administration and House leaders of both parties, but said it should do more to provide aid in areas such as unemployment insurance.

Today's vote comes after a week of backbiting between the winners of the previous nominating contests. In particular, the Clinton campaign tried to put Mr. Obama on the defensive over comments he made before last week's Nevada caucuses, when he observed to a newspaper editorial board there that the Republicans had been seen as the party of ideas over much of the past 10 or 15 years.

Mrs. Clinton denounced the comment in Monday's Myrtle Beach debate, sparking a flurry of attacks between the two candidates. Her aides argued, in person and in a controversial radio commercial, that the statement meant that Mr. Obama had endorsed GOP ideas -- a suggestion that the Illinois senator emphatically denied.

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Clinton aides argued further that the statement was an implicit attack on the presidency of Bill Clinton. The Obama camp ridiculed that suggestion, but Mr. Obama and his aides did contend that Mr. Clinton and his wife's campaign had made a series of false statements about Mr. Obama's record -- notably, his position in opposition to the Iraq war.

Some neutral parties, including South Carolina's leading Democrat, Rep. Jim Clyburn, questioned the Clinton campaign rhetoric. But whoever wins on the immediate argument, or in today's primary, the vitriolic exchanges suggested a longer-term hazard for Mr. Obama, who has based a major part of his appeal on a characterization of himself as a figure able to bring an end to the divisiveness of traditional Washington politics.

David Axelrod, a chief strategist for Mr. Obama, acknowledged the longer-term perils of the campaign's vitriolic turn, but insisted, "You have two choices: to ignore blatant falsehoods or the other is to straighten them out.''

All of the campaigns are looking beyond today's vote to the haul of nearly 1,700 delegates to be awarded Feb. 5, since 2,025 delegates will be needed to win the nomination this summer at the Democrats' Denver national convention. Earlier in the campaign season, many analysts expected that the unprecedented concentration of primaries and caucuses would produce an early nominee. It now appears, that the race could turn into a longer slog through the spring.

With that possibility, Pennsylvania's April 22 primary -- once expected to be irrelevant -- could end up as a genuine battleground for either or both parties.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfsen said her campaign is already running television commercials in nine states, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The Obama camp has a similar national television presence, running commercials in most of the same states as well as on national cable networks.

"We are up in 9 states; we have robust ad buys across the country," Mr. Wolfsen said Thursday. "I don't know whether we are going to outspend them, but we are going to have all the resources that we need."

The Edwards campaign announced that he would be heading to appearances in Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee in the next two days.

The battle for delegates opened a new front yesterday, as Mrs. Clinton's campaign announced that she would support the seating of delegates from Michigan and Florida at the Denver convention.

The Democratic national committee had voted to strip those states of their delegates as a penalty for holding their primaries earlier than specified by party rules. All of the major Democrats had pledged earlier not to campaign in those states in order to preserve the status of the four states, including South Carolina, that were approved for voting before Feb. 5.

If those two states' delegates are reinstated, it would almost certainly benefit Mrs. Clinton, as she was the only major contender on the Michigan Democratic ballot, carrying 55 percent of the vote.

The Obama campaign denounced her statement. "It's a kind of classic bait and switch," said Mr. Axelrod. "She assured the early states she was going to honor this agreement. As soon as the early-state primaries are over, she changes her mind. It's almost breathtaking."