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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Onward and out
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
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Kerry gestures to the audience while campaigning in Ohio yesterday.
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| ON CNN TV | 
Stay with CNN-USA for ongoing reports and analysis on the impact of the Super Tuesday primaries and caucus. CNN's correspondents and analysts review the votes, weigh the consequences and chart what's next in the 2004 political season.
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VIDEO
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CNN's Bill Hemmer talks with John Kerry about Super Tuesday.
CNN's Kelly Wallace on the pressure facing John Edwards.
CNN's Candy Crowley on John Kerry's focus on the fall election.
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| A QUICK OVERVIEW: 'SUPER TUESDAY' |
• Total delegates at stake: 1,151 of 2,162 needed to win the Democratic presidential nomination
• How many states have primary events: 10
• States involved: Primaries are held in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont; a caucus is held in Minnesota
• Earliest poll closing: 7 p.m. ET -- Georgia, Vermont
• Latest poll closing: 11 p.m. ET -- California
Compiled by Robert Yoon and Mark Rodeffer
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SPECIAL REPORT
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John Kerry has been looking forward to this evening for a long time, the night he'll likely become the apparent '04 Dem presidential nominee, unofficially at least.
It's a milestone, no two ways about it, sure to put a skip in anyone's step.
Still, Kerry finds himself today competing with at least two rivals for the political spotlight. And neither one is John Edwards. (Polls open in Super Tuesday states; Special Report: America Votes 2004)
Kerry's first challenge today is to overcome coverage of the Senate gun vote, which incidentally brings both Johns back to Capitol Hill for the first time since the Medicare reform vote last fall. Kerry is scheduled to arrive at the Senate at 11 a.m. ET. (Full story)
Late yesterday, his aides were working with Minority Leader Tom Daschle's office to arrange floor speaking time before the votes begin at 11:30 a.m. (After a little last-minute juggling, Kerry's campaign moved his Super Tuesday post-voting party to the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington. The fun starts there at 8 p.m. ET).
But even more compelling, we think, is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's decision to schedule a major policy speech for Wednesday morning, also in Washington, on trade and manufacturing.
In other words, on the very morning Kerry will presumably be basking in the glow of his new place in history, he'll have to share the spotlight with Clinton as she speaks on what's essentially the premiere economic issue of Kerry's '04 campaign.
The event, which starts at 8:45 a.m. ET at the Mayflower Hotel in Farragut North, is being hosted by the Center for American Progress.
For his part, Kerry probably won't catch Clinton's speech, focusing instead on March 9 primary/caucus states and making his first stop a trip to Orlando.
Edwards, who spends today in Atlanta and has said he'll stick it out through next Tuesday to see if he still can draw heavily among Southern Dems, Monday said he'll travel on Wednesday to San Antonio, Texas, Dallas, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. He'll be in Jackson and Gulfport, Mississippi, and Tampa, Florida, on Thursday and finish off the week in Orlando.
But Kerry, not surprisingly, appears to have the upper hand over Edwards in these Southern states, where he has laid out a list of major endorsements.
In Louisiana, Kerry has backing from Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, Sens. John Breaux and Mary Landrieu, as well as Reps. Chris John and William Jefferson, among others. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state's most prominent African-American Democratic pol, endorsed him, as did Rep. Kendrick Meek of Florida and Ciro Rodriguez of Texas.
Pondering a poll
Meanwhile, as he contemplates the end of his '04 presidential ambitions, Edwards should take solace from a new poll conducted by Case Western Reserve University, which is hosting the vice presidential debate October 5 in Cleveland. The poll, which the university is releasing this morning, indicated that among those surveyed Edwards leads everyone -- even Hillary Rodham Clinton -- as the Democrat that voters most want Kerry to choose as his running mate.
On the Democratic side, Edwards made the strongest showing among respondents aged 65 or older (30 percent). Only 12 percent of respondents aged 18 to 24 said he was their choice for vice president.
By contrast, Clinton enjoyed the strongest support from the youngest survey respondents. Nearly a quarter of respondents aged 18 to 24 named her as their pick for Kerry's running mate while only 7 percent of those aged 65 and older did so.
Support for Edwards was split evenly between men and women surveyed while Clinton had the support of 21 percent of women and only 8 percent of men responding.
On the Republican side, Secretary of State Colin Powell was the overall favorite among the Republicans listed and most decisively among voters 18 to 24. Forty percent of that group said they would prefer to see him on the ticket with Bush -- that's twice as many as named Dick Cheney. Powell led in all age groups of respondents, though the margins were smaller than in the youngest group.
Powell led Cheney among both male and female respondents, with 36 percent of men and 28 percent of women, compared with 28 percent and 20 percent for Cheney, respectively. Among female respondents, 12 percent favored Liddy Dole and 9 percent Condoleezza Rice.
