US: Barring some improbable big victories by North Carolina senator John Edwards, Massachusetts senator John Kerry is likely to wrap up his party's nomination for president in the 10 Democratic primaries being held across the United States today, writes Conor O'Clery in Washington
In the closing hours Mr Edwards has embarked on a high-risk strategy of attacking Mr Kerry to present himself as a clear alternative. This, however, has undermined the image he has cultivated of himself as a positive campaigner, and could give Mr Kerry second thoughts about considering him as a running mate.
The Massachusetts senator was noticeably cool towards his opponent after a debate in New York on Sunday when Mr Edwards described him as a Washington insider who had supported bad trade agreements.
Mr Kerry has won 18 of the 20 Democratic contests so far, and polls show him leading in the most important states voting today, which include New York, California and Ohio. More than half of the 2,162 delegates needed for the nomination will be decided by this evening.
Mr Edwards's best chance of a win is in Georgia, the southern state where candidate Bill Clinton triumphed in 1992 as a prelude to victories in the Deep South and eventually the nomination. However, Mr Edwards, who has won only one primary - and that in South Carolina, where he was born - is trailing the front-runner in what he himself calls his own "backyard".
Mr Edwards has done unexpectedly well in a number of states where he won late endorsements from major newspapers. But at the weekend the Times Union in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Daily News and Newsday, both big-circulation New York papers, came out for Mr Kerry.
In New York Mr Edwards needs at least a strong second place to gain some of the 285 delegates at stake - they are distributed proportionately - and maintain his viability. He is hoping to get the support of the "Deaniacs" who had made the Big Apple a strong base for former anti-war candidate Howard Dean.
Mr Kerry, who is far ahead in New York polls, made a strong pitch on Sunday for the important Jewish vote in the city, telling Jewish leaders at a meeting that he would continue the Bush policy of vetoing any UN Security Council resolutions seen as weighted against Israel.
Having earlier criticised the wall being built by Israel as a "barrier to peace", he said that he saw it as a fence, not a wall. He also pointed out that if elected he would be the first president with a Jewish heritage. Mr Kerry's grandparents were Jews who converted to Catholicism when emigrating from Europe. The Massachusetts senator is sure to win the New England states competing today, including his home state of Massachusetts. Mr Edwards is not even on the ballot in Vermont.
In the New York Times yesterday, the two leading candidates described the personal experiences that had shaped their character and led to their quest for the White House. Senator Kerry wrote about fighting in Vietnam and "the anger I felt toward body-counting, face-saving leaders, sitting safely in Washington sending to the killing fields troops who were often poor, black or brown". Senator Edwards wrote about how in his first court case as an impoverished trial lawyer fighting a big company - when his wife was still wearing a $11 wedding ring - he turned down a $750,000 settlement for a paralysed patient and got him $3.7 million instead.
Mr Kerry is using his Vietnam combat to burnish his national security credentials and Mr Edwards is portraying himself as the candidate who fights for the "little guy". But on major issues - the Iraq war, trade and the economy - there is little difference in their platforms. It is the perception that he is best equipped to beat Mr Bush in November which has made Mr Kerry the front runner, and this is likely to decide voting patterns again today among Democrats.