Although U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich and political activist Al Sharpton are campaigning to be the Democratic Party?s next presidential nominee, the focus now is on two U.S. Senators: John Kerry of Massachusetts and his closest challenger, John Edwards of North Carolina. But observers also are watching independent candidate Ralph Nader who many Democrats fear could be a spoiler in the November election.
Joining me to assess the U.S. political scene are: VOA?s Senior Political Analyst and Director of VOA English Programs, Neal Lavon; and our National Correspondent, Jim Malone.
Jim, let me begin with you. What?s the number one story in U.S. politics this week?
I think the ?Super Tuesday? slate of primaries coming up on Tuesday, March 2nd, will dominate the political debate, at least as far as the Democrats running for president are concerned. Although technically there are four candidates left, it has really come down to a race between John Kerry and John Edwards. Senator Kerry has a very big lead and unless there is some sort of major collapse on his part, it looks as though he?s on track to win the Democratic nomination. But Senator Edwards is plugging away and you have to reserve the possibility of some surprises.
Jim, they call it ?Super Tuesday.? Why is that?
Victor, ten states will be choosing delegates on March 2nd -- nine primaries and one caucus. Not only that, many of them are large states. You have New York and California, Ohio -- which could be a very important battleground state in the November election -- and Georgia. So it?s really kind of a ?national primary? or the closest thing we have to it.
Neal, John Edwards certainly has been coming up in the polls and is doing quite well out there, relatively speaking, is there any chance that he might do well on ?Super Tuesday
I think that with this number of primaries and this number of delegates at stake, he certainly can pick and choose among them and do well in certain segments, at least enough to continue with his campaign. So with this many delegates at stake, yes, he can do well and then claim that his candidacy is still viable, given the results he gets.
And, of course, the problem there is that he does have to cherry pick a bit because he doesn?t have the money or the organization that Senator Kerry has in order to compete in all of the states. And by the way, the polls indicate that Senator Kerry has the lead in all of the states. So Senator Edwards probably will focus on Georgia, the only southern state competing on March 2nd, and maybe Ohio, which has been hit by the job losses we?ve talked about in the past. This seems to be a driving issue in the Democratic campaign.
There?s also talk that John Edwards might wind up being the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket. How do you see that?
I think that?s a very strong possibility. It hasn?t been uncommon before for the front runner to at some point anoint the second place finisher as a vice presidential candidate. Ronald Reagan did that in 1980 with President Bush?s father, George Herbert Walker Bush. And I think that in this case, many people in the Democratic Party are suggesting that this could be their strongest ticket.
That?s where this is coming from, Victor. I remember talking to voters in New Hampshire and a number of them wrote in John Edwards as the vice presidential selection, even though they voted for John Kerry for president. So that could be a real driving force. It?s always tricky though when you have former rivals trying to come together on a ticket. Sometimes there can be tensions, but I think a lot of Democrats are talking up this possibility.
Is there a feeling among Democrats that they better come out with a single candidate early in this campaign in order to defeat President Bush in November?
Yes, I think that has been the whole message. And I think that Jim will agree that from when the Democrats first voted back in the Iowa Caucuses, they were looking for someone -- anyone -- who would be a good candidate to defeat President Bush. John Kerry seems to be that person and that seems to be the overriding issue among Democrats according to exit polls.
Yes, I think that so far the script was sort of written in Iowa -- the very first contest -- and it has changed very little. The Democrats want to settle on someone who they think has the best chance of beating President Bush out of a second term.