Apologies to those of you less interested in South Carolina politics, but there is one final nugget that I can report about Palmetto State going’s-on.

Laurin Manning, widely known as the “Queen of the South Carolina Blogosphere,” has picked a candidate — Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

Manning, a law student at USC, runs an influential and Dem-leaning blog called the LaurinLine. Though open about her partisan allegiances, Manning has a wide readership across party lines thanks to her fairness and shrewd observations about the state’s always-lively political scene. She was for some time leaning toward former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, but has been on the market since Warner’s withdrawal in October.

She’s not been in contact yet with those in Obama’s inner circle (are you paying attention Robert Gibbs?), but has independently created a South Carolinians for Obama ’08 Facebook site in an effort to nudge the Illinoisan into the race.