Candidate Edwards faces enormous campaign task

Campaign issues vary from state to state.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
WASHINGTON -- John Edwards says he could overtake John Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination if voters take a good look at him. As Super Tuesday approaches, that may be asking for a miracle.
The sheer number of voters preparing to cast ballots March 2 makes any meaningful contact between potential constituents and candidates next to impossible.
Ten states with a combined population of nearly 100 million will choose delegates next week on a day that more closely resembles a national primary -- or the general election in November -- than any other during the campaign.
In all, 1,151 delegates are at stake March 2, more than 50 times the 22 delegates that were divvied up five weeks earlier in the New Hampshire primary.
From Atlanta to Albany to Akron to Alameda, candidates must find ways to address voter concerns in dozens of metropolitan areas on a staggering array of issues.
Varying issues
The economy and foreign policy are national concerns, yet Ohio is particularly abuzz about the loss of manufacturing jobs. In Georgia there is a fight over the Confederate flag. In New York, candidates are being asked to address racism in the police department.
And in California, where defeating Bush is the Democrats' No. 1 issue, the biggest news story of the week has been San Francisco's gay marriages.
"It is going to be very difficult to physically be in all those states, let alone to campaign with any significant impact," said Garry South, who served as a strategist for Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut senator who has dropped out of the race.
All of which gives front-runner Kerry an enormous advantage heading into the single biggest day of voting during the primary season. After five weeks of competing in places where candidates could linger at town hall meetings and learn about community issues in hopes of making a positive impression, the primary campaign has supercharged into a bicoastal affair, where a sharp message -- best delivered in 15 seconds for the local news -- is more important than a thoughtful dialogue.
Kerry's momentum
Kerry, the 60-year-old Massachusetts senator, has the momentum from winning 15 of the first 17 contests, and is well ahead in polls in California and New York, the two biggest March 2 states. Edwards, a 50-year-old senator from North Carolina, is pushing for more debates to give himself exposure. Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton are counting on the press to promote their causes.
"All we really need to do is get Edwards in front of people. That's what we saw in Wisconsin and Iowa," said spokesman Roger Salazar.
But the days of retail campaigning are gone. A candidate could address football stadium-sized crowds 50 times a day from now until next Tuesday, and still be seen by less than half the pool of eligible voters.
Critical contests
In contrast to most of the earlier primaries, several of the March 2 states are critical to the Democrats' chances in November. They account for 167 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. The results will give the nation clues about how the candidates stack up in Democratic strongholds such as California and New York, and in swing states such as Ohio, where the general election may be lost or won.
The campaigns say the basic issues remain the same from Syracuse to San Francisco. Yet Edwards' increasingly sharp attack on the North American Free Trade Agreement may play stronger in places like Ohio, where manufacturing jobs have disappeared, than in California, where entertainment and agricultural jobs depend on foreign trade.
Possible difficulty
Determining a winner on March 2 may be difficult if the voting is close. With 10 states and 1,151 delegates up for grabs, there are many combinations of wins that can be claimed by the candidates as victories.
Edwards is still looking for a second victory to add to his South Carolina win that came Feb. 3. And though Kerry expects to win the bulk of the delegates, he cannot win enough to push his total to 2,162 -- the number needed to clinch the nomination. That is something that is unlikely to happen before mid-March.