COLUMBIA, S.C. On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Joe Biden went to church in Barack Obama country.

Sitting in the front, Biden was a newcomer here at Bethlehem Baptist Church. But Rev. Anthony McCallum, an early endorser of Obamas in 2007, had already called him family. On Sunday he told his congregation that he sees in Biden what he saw in Obama, to roaring cheers.

I saw the same thing about 15 years ago, and then all of a sudden he walked into the office, McCallum said in his sermon. This young man by the name of Barack Obama said, Yes we can. Im here to say we will.

The roads around Bethlehem Baptist Church are lined with signs promoting Obamacare. The gas station around the corner from the church is named Obama Gas, its sign emblazoned with a portrait of the 44th president.

In his speech at the church, Biden told a story he would repeat throughout the holiday weekend: that not too long ago a Black man picked him up at the train station in Wilmington, Delaware, and took him to the steps of the Capitol in Washington to be inaugurated as the vice president of the United States. That man, of course, was Barack Obama.