Subject: Edwards Gets the Race He Wanted From: MITCH FRANK [TIME reporter] Sent: Wednesday, Feb. 04, 2004

All across the country on primary night there was good news for John Kerry, and yet John Edwards was glowing. Kerry won five of the seven states up for grabs in this new, sorta-super Tuesday, further evidence that he is the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination. But Edwards made it clear he is the last obstacle in Kerry’s way and he’s not going home anytime soon. After a week of answering questions about whether he would drop out of the race if he lost South Carolina, or if he would be happy with the #2 slot on the ticket, Edwards got to bask in the glow of a solid win in Carolina, winning by 16% over Kerry. His second top target, Oklahoma, turned into a dead heat between him and Wes Clark, with Clark just pulling ahead at the end of the night.

Clark’s night was dreadful. He had spent more money than any other candidate in almost every state in a desperate ploy to break through after his disappointing third in New Hampshire. All the major candidates had hoped to emerge as the alternative to Kerry, but Edwards was the one who could claim it. Coming out of New Hampshire, he wanted to win South Carolina, come in first or second in Oklahoma, win some delegates in Missouri and compete in New Mexico. The latter was his one disappointment. By 8pm, an hour after the South Carolina polls closed, he took the stage with the big smile we haven’t seen since Iowa.

With Clark badly wounded and Howard Dean still in freefall, Edwards is close to getting what he wants—a two-man race with Kerry. He can solidify that matchup by winning Virginia and Tennessee next Tuesday and competing well in Michigan Saturday. But he’s not running a truly national campaign yet—he has no plans to fight for Washington State. That can wait. Two hours after his victory speech, he boarded a private jet to Memphis. He will also hit Nashville and in Virginia, Norfolk, Roanoke and Blacksburg in the next two days. He also flies to New York on Wednesday for a fundraiser, which should provide a well-needed financial boost.

As Edwards becomes the only alternative to Kerry, the differences between them are crystalizing as well. Edwards began the process in mid-week, when he wasn’t sure of victory in the state he was born in, by arguing that he and Kerry have different approaches to trade, a sensitive issue in job-starved South Carolina. Exit polls reported that half of Carolina voters cast their ballot for the candidate who would do the best job with the economy. More than half of those voters said Edwards was their choice. Kerry did better with voters most concerned about experience. So the battle is becoming: It’s the economy, stupid vs. it’s national security, dummy.

Edwards’ lack of experience after one Senate term, particularly in national security, is still his biggest problem. It’s why people see him as a potential veep, something the Kerry campaign has reportedly been subtly encouraging. Edwards is in a corner on this—he can’t dye his hair gray or serve in the military to raise his stature. He can only stick to his focus on the economy, health care and education, and hope that continued exposure to the public will convince enough voters that he can be commander-in-chief. But he’s got the one-on-one fight he wanted.

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