The Democratic presidential race has narrowed to a two-man struggle between front-runner Mr John Kerry and challenger Mr John Edward after Mr Howard Dean ended his bid after another poor showing.
Mr Kerry sparred with Mr Edwards over trade as the two candidates began a two-week dash to a potentially decisive "Super Tuesday" round of 10 contests on March 2nd in big states such as New York, Ohio and California that provide more than half of the delegates needed to win the nomination.
Mr Dean, the former front-runner whose high-flying campaign collapsed in Iowa and never righted itself, dropped his White House bid but promised supporters that "our campaign for change is not over."
Mr Dean finished a distant third place in Wisconsin behind Mr Kerry and Mr Edwards, the North Carolina senator whose surprisingly strong showing pumped new life into the race to find a Democratic challenger to President George W. Bush.
"The voters in Wisconsin and the voters around the country are looking for a debate," Mr Edwards, who had been hoping for weeks to manoeuvre into a one-on-one showdown with Mr Kerry, told reporters last night.
Mr Kerry, still the prohibitive favourite in the race after winning 15 of the first 17 contests, brushed off suggestions that Mr Edwards was making inroads in the race by pointing out their differences on trade.
"We have the same policy on trade. Exactly the same policy," said Mr Kerry, who has been criticised by Mr Edwards for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement. "We both voted for the China trade agreement."
The Massachusetts senator also rejected suggestions that Mr Edwards's working class roots gave him a better understanding of what it was like to lose a job.
"If where you come from was a qualification for president, we'd never have had Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy," he said.
Mr Kerry, on a visit to Ohio to push his plan for jobs creation, kept up his criticism of Mr Bush's economic leadership.
"Apparently George Bush is the only person left in the country who actually believes the far-fetched promises he's peddling," Mr Kerry said at a town hall meeting, ridiculing claims by the Bush administration that 2.6 million jobs will be created this year.