How did Obama only barely win Charleston, considering he won Charleston County?
North Charleston (the second largest municipality in the county) went pretty heavily for Obama. It's also 45% black.
According to Wikipedia, Charleston is 41% black, and it rejected an amendment against gay marriage way back in 2006. I'm actually surprised Obama didn't do much better there.
That is odd. It might be that a lot of the republicans there are business-oriented types who mainly vote R for economic issues, and could range from moderate to liberal on social issues.
Also, the VAP tends to be slightly whiter than the overall demographics, although this would also apply to North Charleston.