Edwards clenches S.C., keeps eyes on the South

By Dana Hull and Tim Funk Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)JACKSON, Tenn. Energized by solo victories Tuesday in culturally conservative states even as Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts rolled up five wins elsewhere, Sen. John Edwards and retired Gen. Wesley Clark roared into Tennessee on Wednesday looking for a little more help from their Southern neighbors. While Kerry and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean are squaring off in weekend contests in Michigan, Washington state and Maine, Clark and Edwards will spend the week in Tennessee and Virginia. Both states hold primaries next Tuesday. Kerry hasn’t actively campaigned in Tennessee and has appeared little in Virginia, but as the front-runner nationally he’s formidable in both states, while Dean is weak in both. Clark and Edwards each hope to emerge next Tuesday as the South’s proven favorite and the last credible alternative to Kerry. “I’m thrilled to be here in Tennessee,” said Clark, a former NATO commander who calls next-door Arkansas home, as he climbed atop the counter at the Arcade Diner in Memphis. “We got in the race late. We bypassed Iowa. We won the non-New Englander New Hampshire primary. We won Oklahoma. And we are on the move!” Clark finished tied for a distant third in New Hampshire’s primary Jan. 27 behind Kerry and Dean, but his close win in Oklahoma kept his campaign alive. In a clear sign that Clark’s campaign is going for broke next Tuesday, his headquarters staff of 250 in Little Rock, Ark., chose Wednesday to forgo pay for a week to free up $250,000 extra for media ads primarily in Tennessee. Edwards, of neighboring North Carolina, fresh from his strong win in South Carolina, also campaigned in Tennessee on Wednesday; in fact, the Clark and Edwards campaigns stayed at the same Memphis hotel Tuesday night. Clark, who for months refused to attack his Democratic opponents by name, opened up a double-barreled assault on his “two opponents” in Tennessee: Kerry and Edwards. He didn’t mention Dean. He blasted them for voting for the No Child Left Behind Act, the USA Patriot Act and the Oct. 11, 2002, resolution authorizing military force against Iraq. “I don’t understand how John Kerry and John Edwards can claim to be so upset about the Patriot Act and the threat to our civil liberties when they voted for it,” Clark said to workers at a tractor shop in Jackson, in western Tennessee. Edwards sounded dismissive of Clark and eager to cast the race as a two-man contest between Kerry and himself. “It looks like it’s narrowed down to two or maybe three candidates,” Edwards said in Memphis. “It’s clear that if it’s two, it’s myself and Senator Kerry. And I’ll let General Clark argue whether he should be in that group.” Capt. Elton Hyman, 55, is a native of Memphis and has been on the city’s police force for 30 years. He likes Edwards as a potential vice president but doesn’t think he’s seasoned enough for the top job. After seeing Clark speak, he’s still torn between Kerry and Clark. “Both have military experience, but Kerry has political experience,” Hyman said. “In one sense, being an outsider might mean that you don’t know how to get things done on the inside.” Tennesseans welcome all the attention. “Until yesterday, it was uncertain if Tennessee would be contested at all,” said Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University. “But now it’s a three-way contest between Clark, Kerry and Edwards. Clark has the most to lose: He’s spent a lot of money on TV here, and you can’t turn on the TV without seeing Clark. This is a do-or-die situation for him.”