The US Democratic Party's presidential front-runner John Kerry has dashed across three states in a last-minute attempt to beat his rival John Edwards on "Super Tuesday", tomorrow's nominating contests in ten states.
The Massachusetts senator, who hopes to put an end to his opponent's candidacy with coast-to-coast wins tomorrow, publicly ignored Edwards and looked ahead instead to the Novembers election where he hopes to face President George W. Bush.
"This isn't going to be one of those mealy-mouthed campaigns where we just walk around the country and people can't tell the difference," Kerry told a rally at Morgan State University.
Senator John Kerry
The decorated Vietnam War veteran vowed to take on Bush over the economy and national security, daring the president to stand up to defend his tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
Ratcheting up his attacks on Bush over Iraq, Kerry said the president had created terrorists "where there were none" and declared "there is a better way to make America safe than this president has chosen."
"George Bush ought to come here to Morgan State University," Kerry said. "If he came here he could straighten out his fuzzy math. The numbers don't add up, he's not multiplying the jobs, he's trying to divide America."
Edwards , who has put his plans to create more opportunities for American workers and stem the flow of US jobs to foreign countries at the centerpiece of his campaign, planned three rallies in Ohio before finishing the day in Georgia, two of the states he has targeted on Tuesday along with Minnesota.
In Toledo, Ohio, the senator from North Carolina pushed his job-creation message and plans to lift millions of Americans out of poverty, telling voters "you give me a chance at George Bush and I'll get you back the White House."
Edwards has turned his attention elsewhere after early campaign appearances in New York, California and Maryland as he hunts for more fertile ground against Kerry. He has focused on Ohio because of the state's heavy job losses under Bush and Georgia because of his Southern roots.
He shrugged off repeated questions about the future of his campaign.
"I think we'll do well tomorrow," he said. "We have always been going up and surging at the end. We'll have to wait and see what happens."
"At some point I've got to get more delegates or I'm not going to be the nominee," conceded Edwards , who trails Kerry by more than 3-to-1 in the current delegate count. The bottom line, he said, was to "compete well" and win "substantial delegates."