Another reason Edwards, not Dean is in second place: total votes.

[AP]

Many more people have voted for JRE than Dean:

Kerry, John F. 1,085,925 42.3%
Edwards, John 606,633 23.6%
Clark, Wesley K. 377,839 14.7%
Dean, Howard 254,644 9.9%

[jmoss]

1. so then Dean is helping Kerry by staying in.

......he's pulling a Ross Perot on us Edwards hopefuls!! :-(

[sadiesworld]

2. Of course Dean's candidacy is hurting Edwards/helping Kerry

that is why the media tell Dean to get out every 5 minutes,

[WI_DEM]

3. of course

we don't know what the exact votes in caucus states like Maine, Washington, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, New Mexico were and these are states where Dean came in second and Edwards third or lower. Also turnouts in these caucus states espcially Maine and Washington were pretty high.

I might add that it is way to early to access total votes since the contests in primaries have basically been in areas where Edwards is expected to do well: south/border: South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia for example. Outside of the south/border states up to now (with the exception of Iowa) Edwards hasn't done all that well in the Blue states.

[lurk_no_more]

4. After today it'll be all about dean

As long as the #2 guy splits the vote with dean he'll go nowhere but second place.

dean was hoping for a Kerry implode but after today if he stays in it's no longer his fight for #1, it'll be for his ego of not dropping out knowing he can't win.

As a Kerry supporter.....Thank You howard dean....we owe you one!



And then there were none!
” JAFO”