[Boris]

Kerry Cements Nomination; Edwards Out
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By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

John Kerry (news - web sites) cemented the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, driving John Edwards (news - web sites) from the race with a string of Super Tuesday triumphs.

Edwards, the sole major challenger to Kerry, planned to step aside Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C., two Democratic officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Kerry rolled up huge victories in Ohio, Maryland, Connecticut and his home state of Massachusetts as he made Edwards' presidential effort a political impossibility. The four-term Massachusetts senator also was favored in the late-poll closing states of California, New York, Minnesota and Rhode Island.


The freshman senator from North Carolina struggled even in his lone Southern stronghold of Georgia, with exit polls showing Kerry leading among blacks, low-income voters and Democrats in a primary open to all voters.


Kerry was already pivoting toward a general-election fight.


"Boy, wait until you see the fire in my belly," he told a TV interviewer.


The White House dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) to TV studios to criticize the presumptive foe. "He very clearly has over the years adopted a series of positions that indicate a desire to cut the defense budget, cut the intelligence budget, to eliminate many major weapons programs," Cheney said of Kerry, a 19-year Senate veteran.


In the too-little-too-late category, Howard Dean (news - web sites) finally won a presidential election, two weeks after being run out of the race. It came in his home state of Vermont, as partisans gave their former governor a sentimental nod and a few delegates that he might leverage for a budding reform movement.


"I'm an ABB kind of fellow — anybody but Bush," said Dean voter Jeffrey Hughes of Shelburne, Vt.


Edwards, a 50-year-old senator who barely competed in half the states, targeted Georgia, Ohio and Minnesota for candidacy-saving victories.


In all, 10 states with a combined population of 94 million — one-third of the U.S. total — awarded 1,151 delegates, more than half of the 2,162 needed to seize the nomination.


Kerry, a 60-year-old senator, had 701 delegates to Edwards' 205, even before Tuesday's voting.


Winning nine of 10 states could give Kerry about 1,500 delegates — a virtually insurmountable lead.


As votes were being case, the lawmakers took a Super Tuesday time-out in the Senate to vote on extending the ban on military-style assault weapons. The extension failed, and they returned to campaign work after chit-chatting on the Senate floor.


The pair spent part of the day in Georgia, with Kerry looking ahead to November.


"President Clinton (news - web sites) was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second," Kerry told the American Urban Radio Network.


His unbridled optimism muted, Edwards shook hands outside a polling place in suburban Atlanta, then declined to take questions from reporters.





Answers came all day from 10 states with nearly 50 million registered voters, many of them torn between the two candidates.

"The issue that drove me is getting rid of Bush, and that led me to Kerry," said Ron Debry, 47, of suburban Cincinnati. "Maybe Edwards someday, but I don't think he's ready yet."

Ousting Bush was the top priority for voters in nearly every Super Tuesday state, with large majorities saying they are angry at the president, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and TV networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

The economy and jobs were the dominant issue in the states.

Kerry won 18 of the first 20 elections, many by routs, in a six-week campaign that drew attention to his decorated service in the Vietnam War and amplified Democratic criticism of Bush. However, with the White House gearing up for Bush's re-election, Democratic leaders grew increasingly eager to end the nomination fight.

"Edwards is a team player," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said. "He'll know what to do."

Edwards won a single state, his native South Carolina — and that was four weeks and 11 defeats ago. He has had eight second-place finishes, five third-places and six fourth-places.

Bush's re-election campaign begins a multimillion-dollar TV ad blitz Thursday designed to bolster the president's sagging political fortunes. Kerry is prepared to dip into Democratic Party coffers to pay for his own ads.

Democratic interest groups, required to act independently of the Kerry camp, laid plans to air ads critical of Bush.

Two other candidates, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (news - web sites) of Ohio and Al Sharpton (news - web sites) of New York, had no chance of winning the nomination.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... 6&ncid=536

[Vassili Zaitsev]

Kerry's going to get the nomination? Aw, man, now I'm going to have to vote for Raplh.

[glinert]

Could someone explain major events and peoples of this Amerikan election, summarize please.

[Celepro]

Could someone explain major events and peoples of this Amerikan election, summarize please.

There were nine democratic candidates running for the democratic nomination. Each state has a certain amount of delegates, the more votes you get from the state, the more delegates you get. At the democratic or republican convention, the delegates vote for the candidate they are supposed to and there are others called superdelegates who make their decision at the convention and whose votes don't need to reflect the opinion of their neighbors. Anyway, over the weeks of primaries all but two candidates(Kucinich and Sharpton don't count). These two are John Kerry and John Edwards. After this Tuesday's primaries, it's expected that John Edwards will drop out since John Kerry has more or less won the primary.

The presidential primary will have George W. Bush representing the Republican party and John Kerry representing the Democratic party. There are a few third parties that will be running, such as the Libertarian party and the Green party.

Hope that answers some of the questions you may have had.

[KurtFF8]

Kerry's going to get the nomination? Aw, man, now I'm going to have to vote for Raplh.

im sure that bush would thank you if he saw that

[Milorg]

The best thing nader could do has to be public support of Kerry policies. That way at least, he can try to prevent voters from going to Baby bush.

[Davea8]

Right, Milorg. Most everyone knows that except for Nader. Someone should tell him.

[clownboy]

No problem, keep the avatar handy for 08.

[Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu]

Fuck Ralph Nader.I hate that man.

[Boris]

Just for that, I am going to have to use the Nader icon now...

[Bricktop]

Im taking bets on Ficus 2004.. i wonder how many votes will go to plants this year??

Drummond

[Boondock Saint]

I am going to move this to political circus ...

[Comrade Ogilvy]

So what Nader does is to fuck up the democratic election, and steal votes from Kerry that so that Bush can win?

[Comrade Ogilvy]

Well maybe if Kerry could push a better agenda Nader wouldnt be stealing his votes now would he? So many ignorant people here talk about how fecked up the two party system in the US is but now are trying to convince others who actually want to vote by morals to sell-out just so bush doesnt get reelected. What dumb-asses. You're so blined by your ignorant hatred for one man that your willing to sell yourself short because of it. Change never happens when you push your beliefs under the rug and just play by the rules they expect you to. Its stupidity to no end to try to silence the probably one voice that isnt a lobbyist or corporate puppet in this election. American lefties should truly be ashamed of themselves for trying to thwart the democratic process for you own agenda.

[glinert]

thank you celepro

[STA]

Well maybe if Kerry could push a better agenda Nader wouldnt be stealing his votes now would he? So many ignorant people here talk about how fecked up the two party system in the US is but now are trying to convince others who actually want to vote by morals to sell-out just so bush doesnt get reelected. What dumb-asses. You're so blined by your ignorant hatred for one man that your willing to sell yourself short because of it. Change never happens when you push your beliefs under the rug and just play by the rules they expect you to. Its stupidity to no end to try to silence the probably one voice that isnt a lobbyist or corporate puppet in this election. American lefties should truly be ashamed of themselves for trying to thwart the democratic process for you own agenda.

I think the democrats are complaing because he is getting people to vote for him who would vote for kerry if he wasn;t running.

Which democrats are telling people to "sell-out" their moral belifs?

Up here in canada the conservativs were getting there asses kicked by the liberal party because they were in 2 seperate groups, the Tories and the Progressive Conservatives so they are forming 1 party, the New Conservitive party, also there is also a 2nd left-wing party too, the New Democratic party (NDP), if the population is split 50/50 bettwen left and right and there are 2 on one side and 1 on the other it is kind of obvious that the 1 party that has their whole side has an advantage over the 2 partys who have to split their side. So this is why democracys with more than 2 partys are kind of slippery.

How are democrats trying to thwart the democratic process?

[clownboy]

Which democrats are telling people to "sell-out" their moral belifs?

The majority of them - seriously, the ABB crowd (Anybody But Bush). Here you have them even supporting a guy that normally they'd be calling a "self-admitted war criminal and baby-killer". After spending the last four years griping about the "evil rich", now they're supporting one VERY rich fellow. Even worse, he's was born wealthy - on any other day that'd be a mortal sin.