Kerry focuses on picking up enough delegates in the March 2 "Super Tuesday"

WASHINGTON, February 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. Democrats’ front-runner Senator John Kerry is looking Sunday, February 15, for voters in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin to deliver a knockout blow to his Democratic rivals so he could focus on challenging President George W. Bush in November.

The 60-year-old four-term senator from Massachusetts cruised to easy wins Saturday, February 14, in the western state of Nevada and the U.S. capital, extending his lead in the race to become the party's nominee in the November Presidential vote, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He won 47 percent of the vote in Washington and 63 percent in Nevada, the gambling hub where he was the only candidate to make campaign appearances.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton finished second in Washington with 20 percent of the vote, followed by former Vermont governor Howard Dean with 17 percent and North Carolina Senator John Edwards with 10 percent.

Former frontrunner Dean, who is staking his dwindling hopes on Wisconsin, finished second in Nevada with 17 percent followed by Edwards with 10 percent.

Earlier in the month, Kerry continued to shake up all speculations by gained five huge steps towards winning the Democratic presidential nomination winning contests in Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota and Delaware.

‘Politics Of Smear’

Speaking at the annual Jefferson Jackson gala in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kerry accused Bush of playing the “politics of fear and smear” in response to a Bush’s ad accusing Kerry as having ties to “special interests, a reference to powerful Washington lobbyists.

A link to the video message was put on an e-mail sent to six million Americans.

"Given the record of this administration, and their stunning lack of vision, the Republican attack machine may have no choice but to resort to the politics of fear and smear,” said Kerry.

The Kerry campaign also responded by preparing an ad of its own, attacking the President.

“The ad outlines the huge contributions Bush has taken from big oil and gas companies, big banks and investment firms and even Enron and reveals the favors he gave these powerful special interests in return,” the Kerry campaign said.

“It is the height of hypocrisy for George W. Bush, the undisputed king of special interests, to attack John Kerry on this issue,” said Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter.

Kerry, who has won 14 of 16 nominating contests so far, is heavily favored to win in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary.

He is hoping to pick up enough delegates in the March 2 "Super Tuesday" primaries to pass the 2,162 needed to secure the nomination at the July 26-29 Democratic national convention in Boston.

Vietnam War

Kerry, who enlisted in the navy in 1965, has made Vietnam a central campaign issue, vexing Republican efforts to portray the Bush administration as the sole guardian of national security.

The wounded Vietnam war veteran, who later became a prominent antiwar activist, has tried to rally voters by contrasting his service record with that of Bush.

Kerry won the Silver Star and Bronze Star for valor in Vietnam and received three Purple Hearts for wounds.

Bush, who never went to Vietnam, is beleaguered by Democratic accusations he shirked his duty while serving in the National Guard.

On Friday, February 13, ordered the release of hundreds of pages of his military record.

But the move was unlikely to quell charges from Democrats that he shirked his duties for parts of 1972 and 1973.

His enrollment in the Texas National Guard as a fighter pilot was also seen by war veteran as copout from serving on the battlefield.

But the Republicans questioned Kerry’s military leadership after he took part in a popular 1970 anti-war rally. 

The Washington Times ran on its front page a 1970 anti-war demonstration photograph of actress Jane Fonda, nicknamed "Hanoi Jane" for her volatile visit to the North Vietnamese capital at the height of the war.

Behind her in the picture is a slighty blurred but unmistakable John Kerry.

But Bobby Mueller, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, accused the Republicans of “freaking out”.

“The Republicans are freaking out because it's being publicly recognized that Bush, who defines himself as a war-time president, a hero of the war against terrorism, playing macho man, is in fact a chicken-hawk,” said Mueller.

For Bush, Mueller told AFP, "the National Guard was a way to escape serving" in Vietnam."

Vietnam veterans, he said, “are absolutely outraged about this administration getting us into another Vietnam-type of war, in Iraq, a war that we are losing, a war that we have no way out of, a war that's being continued for political purposes.”

A U.S.A Today/CNN/Gallup survey on February 2 showed Bush's popularity down 11 points in a month to below 50 percent for the first time in his presidency.

Coming under strong pressure from Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Bush announced a probe into apparent flaws in Iraq prewar intelligence.

The move came days after the resignation of his top weapons expert in Iraq David Kay and the stunning acknowledgment made by his close aid and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that were flaws in the Iraq intelligence.