US: A day after promising supporters he would keep "going and going and going and going," Howard Dean decided yesterday to quit the race if he does not score a victory in the next fortnight, writes Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
In an overnight e-mail to his supporters, Mr Dean said he would make his last stand in the relatively liberal midwestern state of Wisconsin on February 17th. "The entire race has come down to this: we must win Wisconsin," the e-mail said. "Anything less will put us out of this race."
With no victories to date, Mr Dean has come under pressure from donors and the service unions, which endorsed his candidacy, to find an honourable way out.
Senator John Kerry has won seven of the nine primaries and caucuses so far, and appears well placed in Saturday's contests in Maine, Michigan and Washington state, making Mr Dean's candidacy appear increasingly untenable.
Exit strategies were under review for the other Democratic candidates yesterday. John Edwards, the North Carolina senator, has basically ceded the weekend races to Mr Kerry and is already focusing on the next round of contests in the south.
Former general Wesley Clark is also keeping his eyes on the south. He reportedly contemplated dropping out of the race after winning only in Oklahoma on Tuesday night.
But neither man has had such a wild ride as Mr Dean. After raising a record $41 million last year, his campaign is in dire need of funds, and faces embarrassing questions about how it spent so much money to so little effect.
The largest single expenditure in the final three months of 2003 was $7.2 million for television advertising, paid to Trippi McMahon Squier Media, the firm associated with the departed campaign manager, Joe Trippi.
In Michigan, polls show Mr Kerry leading Mr Edwards and Mr Dean by more than 40 per cent.
But with the front-runner label comes more scrutiny for Mr Kerry, who has campaigned on a platform of opposing so-called "special interests".
But a review of documents by the Associated Press found that insurance group American International Group paid Mr Kerry's way on a trip to Vermont.
The insurer also donated at least $16,000 to a tax-exempt group Mr Kerry used to set up his presidential campaign.
Company executives donated nearly $10,000 to his Senate and presidential campaigns.
Mr Kerry denies the payments were related to legislation he once blocked in Massachusetts, thus favouring the insurer in a construction project deal.- (Guardian Service, Reuters)