Time's Up: It's Super Tuesday

This is Super Tuesday, and the stakes for the Democratic presidential candidates are as big as the nickname implies.

Ten states are holding primaries and caucuses Tuesday - a day that's likely to either unofficially seal the deal for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, or raise the hopes of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, as Democrats gear up to counter the Bush ad campaign that begins on Thursday.

The pressure is on as well for Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who'll be in their home states of Ohio and New York as the returns come in.

While neither has enough campaign cash or delegates to have a shot at their party's nomination, both have continued to campaign hard - for votes they hope will increase support for their ideas, and influence the direction of the Democratic party.

As the party's front-runner in the primaries, Kerry's last minute campaigning Monday focused less on Edwards - his closest rival - and more on criticism of President Bush.

"There's a better way to make America safe than this president has chosen," Kerry said in Baltimore before traveling to Ohio and Georgia, just two of the states he hopes to win in a Super Tuesday sweep. "This president has, in fact, created terrorists where they did not exist."

A spokesman for the Bush campaign, Steve Schmidt, responded: "After voting to cut the weapons systems and intelligence capabilities that are helping us win the war, Kerry made the reckless claim that America is at fault for 'creating terrorists' - this is an irresponsible charge totally unsubstantiated by the facts."

Edwards, for whom Super Tuesday is do or die, was forced to keep his own stump speeches aimed at persuading voters that he is the Democrat who would have the best chance to beat Mr. Bush.

Of the 10 contests scheduled on Tuesday, Edwards has virtually ceded the four New England states that are voting — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — to Kerry and stands little chance of victory in the biggest battlegrounds, New York and California, or in Maryland. That leaves Georgia, Ohio and Minnesota as his targets.

Edwards campaigned in Ohio and Georgia on Monday, but even his own supporters say the odds are long that he will win enough votes Tuesday to stay in the race until March 9 when four Southern states vote. With Kerry leading Edwards in all 10 Super Tuesday states, in many cases by commanding margins, the Edwards campaign seemed near its end.

Overall, Kerry was leading Edwards 61 percent to 19 among Super Tuesday voters, according to the latest CBS News poll.

"At some point I've got to start getting more delegates or I'm not going to be the nominee," Edwards told reporters. "There's no question that national momentum has an impact on these races." He declined to say how many states he would need to win Tuesday, instead promising to stay in the race until he is nominated.

In a speech to supporters at the University of Toledo, Edwards criticized "that crowd of insiders in Washington" and repeated that he is the candidate best able to defeat Mr. Bush in the general election.

"This is the guy who is actually beating Bush in polls all across right America right now," Edwards said, not mentioning that Kerry was doing even better in polls asking Americans for whom they would vote if the general election were held now.

Edwards told reporters on Friday that he's seen a surge in popularity at the last minute in states where he has spent a lot of time campaigning. He cited strong second place finishes in Iowa and Wisconsin.

But on Monday Edwards faced signs of political distress, drawing paltry crowds at rallies in three Ohio cities, and even a modest turnout Monday night at a free Hootie and the Blowfish rock concert in Macon.

Edwards seemed subdued and indifferent at some stops, stumbling over a signature line in his stump speech and not waving and pumping his arms as he usually does.

In an interview Monday with an Albany, Ga., television station, Kerry contrasted his experience as a 19-year Senate veteran with Edwards' short career. A millionaire trial lawyer, Edwards was elected to the Senate in 1998 after no previous political experience and is still in his first term.

"I have a stronger, longer, broader, deeper record than John Edwards," Kerry told WALB-TV.

In Ohio, two major newspapers were divided in their endorsements. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland said in a Monday editorial that Kerry's understanding of the nation's standing with other countries would make him a stronger nominee than Edwards, describing Edwards as "a work in progress" who "calls for bold solutions, but offers few."

The Cincinnati Enquirer picked Edwards, saying in an editorial published Sunday that Edwards' comments on the war with Iraq and the nation's military "do not dwell on the generally irrelevant issue of what he was doing in the 1960s."

On Tuesday, both senators were beginning the day in Atlanta, with Edwards of North Carolina visiting a polling place and Kerry of Massachusetts meeting with workers. Both were then returning to Washington late in the day for Senate votes on gun legislation.

After the Senate gun votes, Kerry was to remain in Washington for an election-night party while Edwards was to return to Atlanta to await returns.

Super Tuesday contests provide more than half the 2,162 delegates needed to win the nomination.

Kerry, who has won 18 of the first 20 contests, had 688 delegates going into Super Tuesday to Edwards' 207. Edwards has won only one state, South Carolina, and that was nearly a month ago.

Regardless of whether Kerry still faces a challenge after Tuesday, the general election begins in earnest this week. Mr. Bush's re-election steps up a notch with the premiere of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign on Thursday.

"I need your help," Kerry told several hundred people at Baltimore's Morgan State University. "Send him back to Texas."