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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Edwards (news - web sites) and Wesley Clark (news - web sites) are on the scoreboard in the Democratic nominating fight, but John Kerry (news - web sites)'s wave of momentum could quickly bury them unless one emerges as a clear alternative in next week's Southern showdown.


Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, scored a win on Tuesday in neighboring South Carolina, and Clark, a native of Arkansas, squeezed out a narrow victory in neighboring Oklahoma, keeping the door open for one of the Southerners to make a real race of the Democratic nomination fight.


But the longer both stay in the race, slicing up the anti-Kerry vote, the easier it will be for the front-running Kerry to continue to roll up key wins and huge delegate counts.


"They each have a victory now, and the question is who is the alternative to John Kerry," said Doug Schoen, a Democratic consultant and former pollster to President Bill Clinton (news - web sites). "The longer that question isn't answered, the better it is for Kerry."

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