Kerry dominates in Dixie

WASHINGTON — John Kerry, all but unstoppable in his march toward the Democratic nomination, racked up massive victories in Tennessee and Virginia on Tuesday night and sent another rival packing. Triumphant in Dixie, Kerry has now won in every region.

"Americans are voting for change — East and West, North and now in the South," the Massachusetts Brahmin declared to the roar of supporters chanting, "Kerry! Kerry!" in Fairfax, Va.

John Edwards and Howard Dean clung quixotically to the hope that Kerry would stumble on his own or by scandal, but party leaders began pressing for the nomination fight to end.

Kerry pocketed half the vote in Virginia — with Edwards of North Carolina a poor second and Wesley Clark of Arkansas a far-distant third. Kerry crushed Edwards and Clark in Tennessee.

With two third-place finishes Tuesday — and a lone win in Oklahoma last week — Clark dropped out of the race.

The retired Army general will return to Little Rock, Ark., today to announce his departure from the race, said campaign spokesman Matt Bennett. Clark will pledge to work closely with the Democratic Party to support the presidential nominee and other candidates across the country.

He is the fifth Democrat to drop out of the race. Five remain: Front-runner John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton.

Dean, the fallen front-runner, finished in single digits in Virginia and Tennessee, the latter the home state of political benefactor Al Gore. Dean had already retreated with his staggering campaign to Wisconsin, site of a Feb. 17 primary.

Edwards tells voters at every stop that he is the only candidate who could beat Texas-reared President Bush in his own backyard, the South, yet he lost to Kerry in Dixie. The freshman senator will remain in the race, aides said, pointing his troubled campaign to Wisconsin and March 2, when 10 delegate-rich states hold elections.

"We're going to have an election, not a coronation," Edwards told cheering supporters in Milwaukee.

With some Southern comfort, Kerry has won 12 of 14 contests — seven by nearly half the vote — on the East and West coasts, in the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Southwest.

Awash in confidence, Kerry planned to take Wednesday and Thursday off to nurse a cough and make telephone calls from home in Washington. He focused on Bush, not his party foes.