Kerry Captures The Crown

John Kerry all but wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, driving John Edwards from the race with a string of triumphs on the biggest night of the campaign season.

Edwards will travel to Raleigh, N.C., tonight instead of going to a campaign stop in Texas as planned, CBS News reports. He is expected to announce his departure tomorrow afternoon.

Appearing before supporters in Atlanta, Edwards did not address his own status in the race, but his remarks sounded like a campaign valedictory.

He congratulated Kerry, saying, "He's run a strong, powerful campaign. He's been an extraordinary advocate for causes that all of us believe in: more jobs, better health care, a cleaner environment, a safer world.

"These are the causes of our party. These are the causes of our country, and these are the causes we will prevail on come November," said a smiling Edwards.

Kerry appeared headed to wins in all the Super Tuesday states but one. CBS News estimates he will win the contests in New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and Ohio. He also leads in Georgia, which was considered a must-win state Edwards.

In Vermont, native son Howard Dean is projected as the winner, although he's officially dropped out of the race.

Still to be heard from: Minnesota, where caucuses are underway, and the biggest prize of them all, California.

Kerry received a congratulatory phone call from President Bush who said he looked forward to a "spirited contest" in the general election.

Ken Mehlman, campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said the pair talked by telephone shortly before 8 p.m. ET. He quoted the president as saying, "You had an important victory tonight."

Edwards had pledged to stay in the race "until I'm nominated," but said in Ohio on Monday that he recognized that, "At some point, I've got to start getting more delegates or I'm not going to be the nominee."

For Dean, the win in his home state gives him his only victory of the primary campaign, two weeks after he withdrew from a race he once appeared destined to dominate.

Super Tuesday contests in ten states provide 1,151 delegates, more than half the total needed to win the party's nomination. Coming into Tuesday's contests, Kerry had 764 delegates to Edwards' 241, according to an upated CBS News tally. Edwards has won only one state, his native South Carolina, and that was nearly a month ago.

The Super Tuesday primary electorate looks similar to the electorates the Democratic contenders have faced all year, according to CBS News exit polls. The economy continues to be the dominant issue (over one-third select it as the most important issue in their vote), and over half say their own personal financial situations have not improved, or have even worsened, over the past four years.

As in previous primaries, primary voters are angry with Bush and his administration – over half of today's voters describe themselves this way – and they remain focused on finding a candidate to beat him.

The CBS News exit polls are conducted by Edison / Mitofsky for the National Election Pool. Results are based on 7,145 voters leaving the polls in nine states (California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont), and have an overall margin of sampling error of + 2 percentage points.

In spite of polls showing him ahead of Edwards in every state, Kerry would not predict victory or suggest that Edwards should leave the race if he fails to win any states Tuesday. The Massachusetts senator also would not say whether anyone, including his colleague from North Carolina, is under consideration by his campaign for the No. 2 spot on the ticket.

Kerry disputed a New York Times report Tuesday that he and Edwards were not friendly and that their relationship has become strained during the campaign. Kerry insisted he respects and admires Edwards.

Kerry said there should be no doubt that he has the "fire in the belly" to spend the next nine months trying to oust Mr. Bush.

"Boy, wait 'til you see the fire in my belly. I didn't win 18 out of 20 caucuses and primaries so far because I don't have the fire in the belly," Kerry told the CBS News Early Show. "And people who know me well know that fire is raging, and on behalf of the working people of America I intend to make sure that we restore fairness in our country again."

Regardless of Tuesday's results, President Bush plans to begin a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign Thursday to reverse his downward trend in public opinion polls.

On Tuesday, the White House dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney 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.

Mr. Bush's approval ratings have dropped steeply — down into the low 40s in some polls — after months of criticism by Democrats out to take his job.

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

Two other candidates, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Al Sharpton of New York, continued campaigning with no chance of winning the nomination.