Although John Kerry narrowly won Wisconsin's primary last night, the big story is his poor showing among mainstream voters, a disastrous trend for him in the general election in November.
The talking heads were abuzz about this on the cable news shows last night, and the Associated Press noted today: "Edwards finished far better than pre-primary polls suggested he
would, his surge fueled by the highest Republican turnout of the
primary season and voters who made up their minds in the last week. His deepest support was in the GOP suburbs of Milwaukee."
Edwards won pluralities of independents and Republicans.
An exit poll conducted by Fox News Channel showed that a 58 percent majority of Wisconsin’s voters said they decided their vote within the last week, and Edwards won 45 percent of these "late deciders," compared to 30 percent for Kerry.
Edwards has strength among voters concerned about American jobs killed by Bill Clinton's controversial North American Free Trade Agreement, which Kerry voted for but is now flip-flopping on.
Edwards said: "That's been happening in other primaries too. Republicans who would consider voting Democratic and independents are the people we have to win over to win the
general election. That's why I'm the best candidate to take on
George Bush."
Dean Ready to Scream
By the way, AP proclaimed today that the race for the Democrats' presidential nomination was "down to two" and annointed Edwards "the only Democrat with a glimmer of hope to beat Kerry." True, but did anyone bother to tell poor Howard Dean?
In P.C. Madison, a dour Dean told his dwindling supporters after his latest defeat, "You all made me so happy I could just scream."
Wire services today said Dean would publicly admit this afternoon what everyone else already knows: that his campaign is dead.
Editor's note:
Get the 2004 Bush vs. Kerry Poll Numbers before the White House! Click Here
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Sen John Kerry
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