EEUU

Mantener las primarias en camino

Autor: Editorial

Fecha: 4/2/2004

Traductor: Diego Dalay, especial para PI

Fuente: New York Times

Keep the Primaries Going

Editorial

Published: February 4, 2004

Now that John Kerry has scored such a strong showing in yesterday's primaries, party leaders are going to become less than subtle in their hints that everyone else call it a day. But a few more weeks of campaigning for the nomination would give Senator Kerry useful preparation for the rigors of the race against George Bush. And Democrats will be able to watch his progress far more comfortably if they know there are still other options available.

Mr. Kerry's performance has been impressive, and Democrats must be relieved that he has begun to loosen up a bit on the stump. While it's true that the senator has not proved that he can win in the South, so far no other candidate has shown much evidence that he can win anywhere else. The voters' attachment to Mr. Kerry seems pragmatic. His selling point — and it's a powerful one — is that he seems like a winner. If he should lose that aura, many of his supporters could move effortlessly to someone else.

The most logical alternative at this point appears to be Senator John Edwards, who won the South Carolina primary last night and had a strong finish in Oklahoma. Mr. Edwards is an attractive candidate, heir to the old tradition of turn-of-the-century Southern populism before it became infected with racism. If he has any chance of pushing Mr. Kerry into a stumble, however, Mr. Edwards is going to have to drop his sunny positiveness — and perhaps secret vice-presidential hopes — and go on the attack.

Wesley Clark, the retired general, spent vast amounts of money on this round and was able to declare victory in Oklahoma. That's not a lot to pin a presidential campaign on. But it's more than the foundering Howard Dean got yesterday.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who threw all his energies into South Carolina, wound up with only a sliver of the black vote there. He seems to have lost his argument that he has a right to a prominent role at the Democratic convention. When the Rev. Jesse Jackson ran for president, African-Americans voted for him because they wanted him to serve as their proxy, even though he had no chance of winning. Mr. Sharpton is not in that league, and black voters may no longer be as interested in sending a message as in making their ballots count.

It is important that future debates be limited to only two or three people. The time for inviting hopeless hopefuls is over. Voters have had a long and weary experience with crowded pseudodebates featuring seven, eight or nine candidates. If the point now is to see whether Senator Kerry can stand up under assault, he should be asked to go head to head with a serious candidate, beginning with Senator Edwards.