Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry looks more and more like the Democratic nominee that will face President Bush in the upcoming November presidential election, capturing five out of seven states on "mini-Super Tuesday," with 200-plus delegates up for grabs.
Kerry won in North Dakota, Arizona, Delaware, Missouri and New Mexico.
With 74 delegates at stake, Missouri was Kerry's biggest victory of the day.
By mid-evening, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman had withdrawn from the presidential race, saying his bid was no longer realistic. Lieberman failed to draw over 10 percentage points in all but one of the contests, and after a hard loss in New Hampshire, where he had resided for much of January, his candidacy was dying quickly.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean also lost big on "mini-Super Tuesday," as he failed to come close to winning any of the contests.
Continuing to face the aftermath of his much-maligned Iowa "scream" speech and poor returns since that contest, the former front-runner reiterated his optimism that he would win a state sometime before the March 2 "Super Tuesday" elections, which he admitted was his next critical determinant in his candidacy.
If Dean fails to win a state by the March contests, he too is likely to rescind his candidacy, experts have predicted.
Dean has recently admitted that he spent far too much of his impressive campaign finances in early contests, resulting in insufficient funds to provide him the momentum Kerry now enjoys.
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former four-star Gen. Wesley Clark also won on Tuesday. Edwards took South Carolina, defeating second-place Kerry by 15 percentage points.
With his decisive victory in South Carolina, Edwards' candidacy is guaranteed for at least some weeks to come.
However, pundits believe that in order to have a realistic chance at winning the nomination, Edwards must win a primary in western or northern state, proving his candidacy attracts beyond the South.
In Oklahoma, Clark narrowly defeated second-place Edwards by less than 1,300 votes. Clark and Edwards were in a statistical dead heat in Oklahoma throughout most of the day.
Political analysts predicted that Clark would have faced intensified pressure from party leaders and donors to withdraw from the race had he not carry the state.
Considered an afterthought at this stage in the primary season, the Rev. Al Sharpton nevertheless capture an impressive 10 percent of the South Carolina vote, by far his best showing to date. Sharpton beat Gen. Wesley Clark by 3 percent in the state, where 50 percent of the Democratic bloc is African American.
Tuesday's contests provided the first national test for the candidates, who spent nearly all of January campaigning in states with limited delegates and overwhelmingly white and rural states not representative of the nation as a whole.
"I am ready for this mission," Kerry said in a victory speech Tuesday.
"From standing up to Richard M. Nixon to stopping George Bush and the big oil companies from drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge, I know how to take on those powerful interests. I've done it all my life."
The next primaries will take place in Tennessee and Virginia on Feb. 10.
