EEUU

Edwards trabaja por una carrera de dos hombres

Autor: Edward Epstein

Fecha: 17/2/2004

Traductor: Celeste Murillo, especial para P.I.

Fuente: San Francisco Chronicle

Edwards works toward 2-man race

With front-runner Sen. John Kerry expected to romp to an easy victory today in Wisconsin's primary and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's campaign falling apart around him, the third man in the field began Monday to highlight his policy differences with Kerry.

Sen. John Edwards has long wanted a one-on-one race against Kerry, and there is a chance he will get it in time for Super Tuesday, the epic series of primaries in 10 states, including California, on March 2.

But just how viable Edwards will be politically and financially to take on Kerry depends, in part, on how well he does in Wisconsin. The latest poll here puts him in third place, bunched up with Dean -- but both are more than 20 points behind the high-flying Massachusetts senator, who so far has won 14 of 16 primaries and caucuses.

"As the race narrows, it will become clear what the substantive policy differences are'' between himself and Kerry, Edwards said Monday morning in a community center in the working-class suburb of South Milwaukee, his first stop on a whirlwind last day of campaigning in Wisconsin, where 72 delegates will be chosen today.

Edwards, a first-term senator who was elected in 1998, pointedly told his South Milwaukee audience that he opposed NAFTA, the free-trade accord with Mexico and Canada, which Kerry voted for a decade ago and which Dean, then serving as Vermont governor, also supported.
"We cannot have this trade policy that sends jobs overseas,'' he told the audience in a state that has lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs since
President Bush took office.

Although his position wasn't new, the fact that the usually relentlessly upbeat Edwards mentioned it in public underscored his new focus. In fact, Dean, Kerry and Edwards have similar positions on trade. All three say trade accords should include labor and environmental standards, and Kerry says if elected, he will order a review of all trade treaties within his first 120 days in office.

Edwards, bolstered by the last-minute endorsement of Wisconsin's largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, took his more aggressive tone as Dean's top campaign leadership fell apart. Campaign chairman Steve Grossman, an old Massachusetts political friend of Kerry, quit his post amid indications he will reach out to the front-runner's campaign to offer his support.

He and Dean came to a parting of the ways after Grossman said Dean should quit if he lost Wisconsin.

"I think it's fair to assume my public statements and actions as tantamount to a resignation," Grossman told the Associated Press. "For the record, it didn't happen quite that way. I tried to make it clear I would do nothing prior to the end of the Wisconsin primary."

Asked when Grossman left the campaign, Dean told reporters in La Crosse, Wis., "I'm not going to get into that."

But he said he and Grossman had parted on friendly terms.
Roy Neel, the Dean campaign manager brought in two weeks ago to replace Joe Trippi after Dean lost in Iowa and New Hampshire, took to the Dean campaign's Web blog to try to reassure Dean's devoted followers that their candidate won't quit the race. If anything, though, his attempt muddied the waters further.

"I can tell you unequivocally that no decision has been made about the nature of our campaign after Wisconsin, that he (Dean) is determined to go forward and keep fighting to advance the message of his movement all the way," Neel wrote.

Neel's words apparently reflect the view of some withing the Dean campaign that the former Vermont governor should push his agenda before the Democratic National Convention in July, even if he quits active campaigning.

Edwards' push to continue on to Super Tuesday could become more iffy if he doesn't do well in Wisconsin. The final pre-election poll, done by the Zogby Group, showed Kerry with 47 percent, Dean at 23 percent and Edwards at 20 percent.

A CBS poll released Monday showed that only Kerry does well in a matchup with Bush. Kerry had a lead of 48 percent to 43 percent over Bush, but the president led Edwards, 50-41 percent, and Dean, 54-37 percent.

Whereas Dean staked everything on Wisconsin -- saying at one point that he would withdraw if he didn't win the state -- Edwards probably needs a credibly close second-place finish to mount more than a token challenge to Kerry in coming states.

He will need a bushel of new contributions to pay for a campaign that will involve California, New York, Ohio, Georgia, Connecticut, Maryland, Kerry's home state of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota and Dean's state, Vermont.

"It's a last-gasp, just-possible strategy, a Hail Mary,'' said John McAdams, a political analyst at Marquette University in Milwaukee. "Edwards has been positive all along that a two-person race would be to his advantage. He figures he can appeal to moderates and economic populists.''

But given Kerry's almost flawless performance so far, Edwards' strategy relies on bringing the front-runner down, perhaps through a mistake or scandal.

One potential pitfall for Kerry has been talk radio and Web-based rumors that he had an extramarital affair. The woman who had been named in the rumors issued a statement Monday flatly denying the story.

Breaking her silence four days after the allegations surfaced, Alexandra Polier issued a statement to the Associated Press, saying, "I have never had a relationship with Sen. Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false. " "Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me," Polier said, adding that she had gone public because people continued spreading rumors.

For his part, Kerry continued his effort to keep the focus on Bush and appear above the jockeying of his remaining Democratic rivals.

At his first appearance of the day in Wausau, Wis., Kerry criticized the president for going to the Daytona 500 NASCAR race on Sunday to serve as the ceremonial starter.

"We don't need a president who just says, 'Gentlemen, start your engines, ' " Kerry said. "We need a president who says, 'America, let's start our economy and put people back to work.' "

Among those who came out to see Edwards in South Milwaukee was Heather Liban, who had her 2 1/2-month-old son, Trevor, wrapped in a blanket on her lap as he snoozed. She came to the event still undecided about the race.

"I want to know more about health care,'' she said, saying that $250 is deducted for medical insurance from her paycheck every two weeks.

Afterward, Liban said she was impressed by Edwards. But she remains a tough sell for all the candidates. Asked whether she was prepared to support Edwards after seeing the senator and his wife, Elizabeth, Liban said, "Probably.''