2nd Place or Close Wins Are No Longer Edwards's Options

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and GLEN JUSTICE

Published: February 19, 2004


ut simply, second place will no longer do.

After Senator John Edwards's closer-than-expected showing in the Wisconsin primary Tuesday, the big question in American politics was whether he could overcome significant financial and political obstacles and actually deprive the front-runner, Senator John Kerry, of the Democratic presidential nomination.

In a series of interviews, strategists, party leaders and even Mr. Edwards's backers said the senator needed to defy not just conventional wisdom but history. Since the rise of state primaries in the early 1970's, no candidate has come back from so far behind in the delegate count to win the nomination.

"It's a tall mountain," said Steve Jarding, a former head of Mr. Edwards's political action committee who is now a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard. "But the other guys have fallen off that mountain and he's still moving up. The reality is that John is not going to raise $10 million in the next 14 days. But he'll raise enough to keep moving on."

While the Edwards campaign has been frugal with its resources, campaign finance experts say the operation will have to work extremely hard to keep money coming in to compete aggressively in the next contests. Mr. Edwards has raised about $3.3 million since the Iowa caucuses, aides said, but the Kerry campaign has much more money available.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/19/politics/campaign/19EDWA.html?ex=1077771600&en=4614a0d434738194&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

and Edwards couldn't even come in third.