Search Engine Optimization, Blog Design, Movable Type Customization, and more.
My Sites:
As published by MSNBC.com:
Kerry rolls to 5 wins; success tied to Bush factor
Edwards, Clark focus on South after each winning one state
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 10:13 a.m. ET Feb. 04, 2004
BOSTON - Armed with a five-state win that cemented his front-runner status, John Kerry returned to his home base Wednesday, resting and expecting to earn his biggest union endorsement to date. The Massachusetts senator’s momentum grew by winning five of the seven Democratic primaries and caucuses in play Tuesday.
Exit polls showed that in nearly every state, the ability to defeat President Bush was the No. 1 quality voters were looking for, and Kerry was the clear favorite of these voters. In Missouri, he won 75 percent of their votes; in Delaware, 70 percent. In most states, Kerry also was the favorite among those who were looking for a candidate who has the right experience.
“It’s a huge night," Kerry said late Tuesday. "I’m stunned by it. ... It shows strength across the country and across demographics.”
“It’s a statement by Democrats across the country," he added, "that I am the candidate who can take on George Bush and beat him.”
Kerry arrived in Boston shortly after sunrise and planned to spend the day at his home. He also was expected to collect the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers’ union.
On Thursday, he was off to Maine and Michigan.
Edwards, Clark focus on South
Kerry's closest rivals, Sen. John Edwards and Wesley Clark, were campaigning Wednesday on the strength of their Southern roots, all but ceding Democratic presidential nomination contests in Michigan and Washington state in favor of a showdown closer to home.
Edwards had ensured that the Democratic campaign would not yet be a Kerry coronation by easily winning the South Carolina primary and almost overtaking Clark for first place in the Oklahoma primary, which the former general won by only a few hundred votes.
Clark, who has billed himself as an “old soldier from Arkansas,” had a full day of events in neighboring Tennessee, and aides said he was scaling back plans to campaign in Virginia. Those states vote Tuesday, after weekend contests in Michigan, Washington and Maine.
Edwards was competing in both Tennessee and Virginia. He set his sights on the Feb. 17 primary in Wisconsin to show he can win outside his region.
Meantime, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who was considered the front-runner for the nomination less than a month ago, essentially wrote off Tuesday’s voting to focus on Saturday’s contests in Michigan and Washington state.
“We are going to have a tough night tonight,” Dean acknowledged in Tacoma, Wash. “But you know what? ... We are going to pick up some delegates tonight, and this is all about who gets the most delegates in Boston in July.”
Another 'New England patriot' win
Kerry had watched Tuesday's results in Seattle, already looking ahead and underscoring his argument that his campaign is bigger than a single state. Washington state holds its caucuses on Saturday.
“Well, for the second time in a few days, a New England patriot has won on the road,” Kerry told supporters in Seattle. “We will take nothing for granted. We will compete everywhere, and in November, with your help, we will defeat George W. Bush.”
Kerry added significantly to the momentum he built in winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary last month, capturing the biggest prize of the night, Missouri, which offered 74 delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
Kerry lapped the field with 51 percent of the vote in Missouri, which became a major prize after home-state Rep. Dick Gephardt withdrew from the race last month. Edwards was far behind, at 25 percent.
Lieberman calls it a day
Political operators had predicted that poor showings would drive at least one of Kerry’s six rivals from the race.
And while Edwards and Clark managed to eke out wins to fight another day, Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was making his last stand in Delaware, was not so lucky, finishing in a three-way tie there for second, 40 points behind Kerry.
Afterwards, he withdrew from the race, congratulating Kerry and Edwards on their performances and promising his support to the eventual nominee.
Besides winning Arizona handily, with 43 percent of the vote, Kerry also won the caucuses in North Dakota, where he had half of the votes. In New Mexico, he was pulling about 42 percent, followed by Clark at 21 and Dean at 16 percent.
Edwards managed to blunt at least some of Kerry’s momentum with his powerful victory in South Carolina, where he defeated Kerry by 45 percent to 30 percent.
“You said that the politics of lifting people up beats the politics of bringing people down,” a pumped-up Edwards told cheering supporters at a victory party in Columbia, the state capital.
“If the American people give me a shot at George Bush next November, I will give them back the White House,” he said, his voice raspy from days of nonstop campaigning.
Kerry downplayed the result, saying he had expected it.
“I haven’t been down there as much,” he said. “Coming in second is enormous given where I’ve been.”
Clark, meanwhile, had hoped to stop Kerry’s surge in Oklahoma, concentrating his efforts there with an eye toward extending the race for at least a few weeks, and possibly into early March. He and Edwards each got about 30 percent, but Clark edged Edwards by an extremely thin 1,200 votes. Kerry ran a few percentage points behind, in third.
“The message [Democrats] sent couldn’t be clearer: America wants a higher standard of leadership in Washington,” Clark said at a late-night victory celebration in Oklahoma City.
The Rev. Al Sharpton was running third at about 10 percent in South Carolina, which would be by far his best showing of the campaign. But it was likely that he would fall well short of the 15 percent threshold he would need to be apportioned delegates at the Democratic National Convention.
Clark and Dean trailed far behind, at 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively, while Lieberman and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio barely registered in the results.
Tuesday’s contests were the first national test for the candidates, who spent almost all of January battling in Iowa and New Hampshire, two largely white and rural states that hosted the first two nominating tests.
Kerry was under pressure to prove that he could win on more unfamiliar terrain in the South and the West, in states with more moderate voters than Iowa and New Hampshire.
Dean, Edwards and Clark hoped to extend the race to March 2, when huge states like New York and California vote. But with his strong showing Tuesday, Kerry said, “the delegate count grows.”
| Replies | Last Reply at | Last Message |
|---|---|---|
| 0 |