John Kerry vanquished his Southern-bred rivals in Virginia and Tennessee, all but unstoppable in his march toward the Democratic nomination with a Southern sweep that extended his dominance to every region of the country.
"Americans are voting for change -- East and West, North and now in the South," Kerry declared Tuesday to the roar of supporters in Fairfax, Virginia, chanting, "Kerry! Kerry!"
John Edwards, Wesley Clark and Howard Dean clung to the hope that Kerry would stumble on his own or by scandal, but party leaders began pressing for the nomination fight to end.
The fourth-term Massachusetts senator pocketed half the vote in Virginia -- with Edwards of North Carolina a poor second and Clark of Arkansas a far-distant third. Kerry crushed Edwards and Clark in Tennessee.
With two third-place finishes, Clark dropped out of the race.
Dean, the fallen front-runner, finished in single digits in Virginia and Tennessee, the latter the home state of political benefactor Al Gore. Dean had already retreated with his staggering campaign to Wisconsin, site of a Feb. 17 primary.
Edwards tells voters at every stop that he is the only candidate who could beat Texas-reared President George W. Bush in his own backyard, the South, yet he lost to a Massachusetts Brahmin. The freshman senator will remain in the race, aides said, pointing his troubled campaign to Wisconsin and March 2, when 10 delegate-rich states hold elections.
"We're going to have an election, not a coronation," Edwards told cheering supporters in Milwaukee.
With some Southern comfort, Kerry has won 12 of 14 contests -- seven by nearly half the vote -- on the East and West coasts, in the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Southwest.
Awash in confidence, Kerry planned to take yesterday and today off to nurse a cough and make telephone calls from home in Washington. He focused on Bush, not his party foes.
"The wreckage of the Bush economy is all around us," Kerry told supporters as some party elders said it was about time to rally behind a nominee.
"My hope is that the winnowing process begins right after tonight," said New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson.
Voters in the two states, like those in most of the first dozen contests, said the ability to defeat Bush was the top quality they sought in a candidate -- and they sided 6-to-1 with Kerry, according to exit polls.
"Anybody but Bush," said Charles Edwards, 50, of Falls Church, Virginia, who decided to vote for Kerry as he entered his voting booth. "I'd vote for the devil."
Bush's poll ratings have dropped amid questions about his use of US intelligence in deciding to go to war in Iraq.
"For more than three years, this administration has failed to tell the truth about their economic record," Kerry told supporters.
He said it's not up to him to decide whether his foes should stay in the race. Still, his every strategy was designed to dispatch his rivals with Tuesday's triumphs, victory next week in Wisconsin or a nail-in-the-coffin showing March 2.
"What we showed today is the mainstream values that I've been talking about, fairness and hope and hard work and love of country, are more important than boundaries and birthplace," the Massachusetts senator said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft