John Kerry moved closer to formally clinching the US Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday with easy victories in four Southern states, including the crucial November battleground of Florida.
The Massachusetts senator, looking to challenge US President George W. Bush in a region that has not been friendly to Democrats in recent elections, swept to unusually easy wins in Florida, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana.
Kerry effectively locked up the right to face Bush last week when he drove his last major rival from the race and the victories put him on the verge of making it official by capturing a majority of the delegates to July's nominating convention.
"This nation is demanding more than ever before leadership that takes us in a new direction," Kerry told supporters in Chicago, Illinois, which holds the primary next week that could put him over the top.
"George Bush will not take us in that direction," he said. "I will."
Kerry rolled up more than 75 percent of the votes in Florida and Mississippi over rivals who have dropped out of the race but remained on the ballots and over two remaining minor challengers, civil rights activist Al Sharpton and Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich.
Kerry, already locked in an escalating general election struggle with Bush, slammed the president's economic and foreign policies and ridiculed Bush's claim to "steady leadership," describing him as a "stubborn" leader.
"After four years of the same old failed policies, what we've seen is stubborn leadership," Kerry said.
Earlier in the day Bush, without mentioning Kerry by name, decried "economic isolationists" who would weaken the US economy.
"There are economic isolationists in our country who believe we should separate ourselves from the rest of the world by raising up barriers and closing off markets. They're wrong," Bush said in a clear jab at Kerry.
Kerry has called for a review of US trade pacts and enforcement of labor and environmental standards in the agreements.
In his victory speech in Chicago, Kerry said Bush cannot run on "any of the issues that really define the quality of life in America. This president doesn't have a record to run on, he has a record to run away from."
At stake on Tuesday were 435 delegates to the Democratic convention, enough to put Kerry within about 100 delegates of the 2,162 needed to mathematically wrap up the nomination.
Kerry won the vast majority of the delegates on Tuesday, and CBS News said he already had passed the mark to clinch the nomination. But Kerry said he expected to hit it next week in Illinois, which has 156 delegates at stake.
"Next week Illinois has the opportunity to give me the delegates that actually make me the nominee," Kerry said.
The strong showing in the South was crucial to Kerry. He hopes to improve in November on the Southern showing by Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore in 2000, who was shut out in the region by Bush despite hailing from Tennessee.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS