US: Mr Howard Dean moved a step closer to the Democratic Party nomination for president yesterday when the former Vermont governor picked up the important endorsement of former Democratic Senator Bill Bradley, a leading party contender in 2000.
The announcement, expected today, confirms Mr Dean's status not just as the party's leading and best-funded candidate, but as the choice of a growing number of senior party figures.
Last month he secured the endorsement of former Vice-President Al Gore, who beat Mr Bradley for the 2000 nomination.
A Time magazine poll yesterday showed Mr Dean only five points behind US President George Bush at 51-46 in a hypothetical match-up, indicating that the seemingly impregnable Republican president could yet be defeated by the anti-war candidate in November 2004.
However, with the first real test of support coming in the Iowa caucus in two weeks, the Democratic nomination is not yet locked up, a point underlined yesterday by Democratic Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
"This is when the undecided voters start making decisions: the race is not over," said Governor Richardson, who will chair the Democratic Party convention in Boston in June.
Gen Wesley Clark has also attracted the support of many Democratic Party figures as a political insurance policy on national security. The retired general hopes to catch up with Mr Dean in the February primaries in the more conservative southern states.
Gen Clark yesterday attemp- ted to improve his chances of a good showing in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, which takes place a week after Iowa, by promoting an initiative to cut taxes for 31 million poorer Americans and raising taxes on the "one tenth of 1 per cent" who make more than $1 million a year.
One of the general's top aides said privately yesterday: "If we come second in New Hampshire we believe we can win the nomination." Gen Clark is not campaigning in Iowa, where the other candidates ganged up on Mr Dean at a debate in the capital, Des Moines, on Sunday evening. In boxing terms, they hardly laid a glove on the front-runner, who portrayed his rivals as part of a failed political establishment.
When asked to question each other, most chose to attack Mr Dean on his credibility. He responded: "What we need is a Democrat who is going to stand up to George Bush."
Mr Dean cleverly got his opponents - in particular his chief tormentor Senator Joseph Lieberman - to agree to support the winning party candidate.
Senator Lieberman accused Mr Dean of undercutting the Democrats's moral advantage over Mr Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney by not making public all his records as governor.
Mr Dean retorted that he had turned that issue over to a judge to decide, to which Mr Lieberman interrupted to say: "You're ducking the question. The people of Vermont have a right to know, the people of America who are judging your candidacy have a right to know."
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry accused him of often flip-flopping and shooting from the hip, raising questions "about your ability to stand up to George Bush". He criticised incredulously Mr Dean's earlier comment that he did not want to prejudge Osama bin Laden's guilt on war crimes, to which his rival replied: "I want to see Osama get what he deserves, but as a potential president of the nation that might try him I have to stand for the rule of law."
The stakes in the January 19th Iowa caucus are high as a win by Mr Dean could trigger a landslide of support, whereas local favourite, pro-union Congress- man Dick Gephardt, will likely drop out if he does not show well.
It was reported yesterday that as Vermont governor, at a time when the northeastern state's banking system was having problems, Mr Dean sold $15,000 in stock in five Vermont banks.
He did this, he said, after getting what he called an "inside report" from the state banking regulator in 1991. He sold the stock because "it became clear to me that information I might receive in the future as governor could present a possible conflict of interest".
Mr Dean disclosed his stock sale in a 1994 interview with the Vermont Business Magazine in which he said: "The banking regulator came over one day and said, 'Here's the inside report on all the banks', and I went 'Yikes'."
A spokesman said yesterday Mr Dean's thinking at the time was "I didn't know I had access to this type of information. Now that I do, I need to sell these stocks to avoid even the appearance of impropriety."
The issue is unlikely to become a Whitewater-type scandal. The value of the stocks later increased substantially.