S.C. primary voters need to remember today that tracking polls and national media commentators don't have the inside track on who's going to win the Democratic presidential nomination. That's really up to us.

True, voters from two small states that don't look like America think Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., should oppose President Bush on Nov. 2. From that, the TV pundits - with their inside-the-Beltway view of politics - have "deduced" that Democrats want an electable alternative to Bush. So they're spurning the candidates they really like to back Kerry.

But if Kerry strikes you as the wrong man to engage Bush in an election-year dialogue on the nation's foreign and domestic problems, don't vote for him. Same goes for S.C. favorite son John Edwards, the N.C. senator who - as the polls this week have it - is neck and neck with Kerry in South Carolina. If you like Gen. Wesley Clark, the Rev. Al Sharpton, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., or Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, better, you should vote for that person.

South Carolina has a well-deserved national reputation for independence of thought - leading some outside observers to deem us politically incorrect. We shouldn't worry about that today.

Let's vote as we want to. If we do, the outcome might surprise the national observers - and more important, bring greater honesty to the race for the nomination.

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