More On Kerry: His Southern Exposure

More On Kerry: His Southern Exposure

Robert Novak: Kerry's Southern exposure

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Sen. John Kerry's extraordinary feat of winning seven out of the first nine tests in this year's race for the Democratic presidential nomination is mitigated by his one big loss. While the odds were stacked for Sen. John Edwards in Tuesday's South Carolina primary, the defeat still exposed a potentially fatal weakness in Kerry as President George W. Bush's opponent.

A native South Carolinian who lives in North Carolina, Edwards added to that advantage by spending much more time and money here than Kerry. Nevertheless, members of Kerry's high command hoped to clinch the nomination by sweeping all of Tuesday's elections -- including South Carolina's. That they did not come close here questions whether the South would be lost to Kerry in November.

Edwards, the only bona fide Southern politician seeking the nomination, in the flush of victory Tuesday night commented that no Democrat has been elected president without winning at least five states of the old Confederacy. Arkansan Bill Clinton won by carrying that minimum. To meet that standard, Kerry will have to do better with the white Southern voter than he showed here Tuesday.