Kerry cements Democratic nomination

John Kerry cemented the Democratic presidential nomination, driving John Edwards from the race with a string of triumphs on what has been dubbed “Super Tuesday”.

Mr Edwards, the sole major challenger to Mr Kerry, planned to step aside today in Raleigh, North Carolina, two Democratic officials said.

Mr Edwards, 50, is a politician in the Bill Clinton mould, a youthful moderate of modest background whose charisma and looks gained more attention than his policies at first. He came to politics in mid-life, running for the US Senate from North Carolina in 1998 after earning millions of dollars as a trial lawyer.

Mr Edwards’s upbringing was a central theme to his populist message.

He announced his candidacy on September 16 in front of the empty textile mill in Robbins, North Carolina, where his father had been employed for 36 years and where Mr Edwards himself had earned money for college by sweeping floors and working as a night watchman.

President George W Bush telephoned Mr Kerry to congratulate him on wrapping up the Democratic presidential nomination, and said he looked forward to a ``spirited contest''.

Mr Bush was quoted as saying: “I’m thinking about you.”

Ken Mehlman, campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said the pair talked by telephone shortly before 1am GMT. He quoted Mr Bush as saying: “You had an important victory tonight.”

Mr Mehlman said the President told Mr Kerry that he looked forward to a ”spirited contest”.

According to the Republican campaign manager, the senator told Mr Bush he hoped to keep the campaign “on the issues”.

Mr Kerry said he and Mr Bush had a “very nice conversation”.

He told reporters at his election-night party in Washington: “He called to congratulate me. I said I hope we have a great debate about the issues before the country.”

Triumphant by historic margins, Mr Kerry won 24 of 27 elections in every region of the nation - from Mr Edwards's Southern strongholds to the jobs-poor Midwest states of Ohio and Michigan to the growing Southwest battleground of Arizona and to his own New England base.

In state after state, Democrats said their top priority was a candidate who could defeat Mr Bush, a wartime president with a 100 million dollars-plus campaign treasury. Mr Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, won an overwhelming number of their votes, and now leads a relatively united party against Mr Bush.

Calling Mr Kerry “my friend”, Senator Edwards told supporters: “He’s run a strong, powerful campaign. He’s been an extraordinary advocate for causes that all of us believe in.” But Mr Edwards stopped just short of conceding.

Mr Kerry rolled up huge victories in New York, Ohio, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island and his home state of Massachusetts. The four-term senator also was favoured in the late-poll closing states of California and Minnesota. Georgia was too close to call, and Vermont went to Howard Dean, the state’s former governor who dropped out of the race last month.