Demos make cross-country push

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Democratic presidential rivals worked across several time zones Sunday to sway undecided voters in states with contests early this week. Howard Dean conceded making an "enormous gamble" by spending so much in Iowa and New Hampshire only to lose both states. "It didn't work," he said.

Sen. John Kerry pressed his front-runner's advantage in North Dakota and Sen. John Edwards concentrated on South Carolina, a state he says he must win. Edwards trails Kerry in six of the seven states holding primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, except in his native South Carolina.

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark borrowed a page from Kerry's campaign playbook, reuniting with a soldier credited with saving his life in Vietnam, while Sen. Joe Lieberman welcomed a new round of newspaper endorsements.

It was a day of morning television appearances and evening Super Bowl parties for the candidates.

Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina hold primaries Tuesday, along with caucuses in New Mexico and North Dakota. At stake are a total of 269 pledged delegates to the Democratic convention, more than 12 percent of the 2,162 needed to win the party's presidential nomination.

While polls show Kerry with comfortable leads in all the states except South Carolina and Oklahoma, as many as one in five voters remain undecided two days before the contests, according to the surveys.

In New Mexico, a new Albuquerque Journal poll showed Kerry ahead with 31 percent support, but with 27 percent of likely voters undecided.

Dean told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he regretted burning through most of the $41 million his campaign raised last year. "We spent a lot of money in Iowa and New Hampshire trying to win," said Dean, the third-place finisher in Iowa and runner-up to Kerry in New Hampshire. Kerry also won in Iowa.

Dean and Kerry of Massachusetts both opted to skip public financing, meaning they are not subject to spending limits — but are not getting the federal matching money that is flowing to rival campaigns.

"We took an enormous gamble and it didn't work," Dean said.

Dean said he wasn't ready to leave the race and was focused on winning delegates, of which he has more at this point than Kerry. Dean has 114 delegates, to Kerry's 103, according to an Associated Press tally.