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February 10, 2004
Kerry (Yawn) Wins Again
The pre-election polls in Virginia and Tennessee suggested neither race would be close and they weren't. Kerry won both easily, though his margin was wider in Virginia (25 points) than Tennessee (15 points).
Edwards placed second in both races with about the same percent of the vote (26-27 percent). Clark placed third in each (a close third in Tennessee and a weak one in Virginia) and is apparently going to withdraw from the race.
The exit polls can be found here on the CNN site, but they aren't really of much interest. You've seen it all before: Kerry is viewed as most electable by a wide margin and rolls up huge margins among the large segment of voters concerned with electability; Edwards on the other hand, does better among voters concerned with qualities like "cares about people" and "having a positive message". In fact, Edwards actually beat Kerry among voters who said these qualities were important in both states.
But is that enough for Edwards to mount a real challenge to Kerry, even with Clark dropping out? Nah. This very interesting Democratic primary battle is drawing to a close. And the really big battle is coming up. Whoever your horse was in the primaries, it's just about time to let that go and concentrate on helping John Kerry beat Bush.
Can Kerry do it? Sure he can--but only if the party unites behind him. Let's try to make that happen and we can argue later about whether he was or was not the ideal nominee.
Posted by Ruy Teixeira at 11:59 PM | link
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