Race Over Very Quickly?

“With Gore’s endorsement, if Dean wins New Hampshire and Iowa and comes down here with momentum, he could win South Carolina and the nomination fight would be over. I would not have thought that was possible a month ago,” said Joe Erwin, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

“Gore’s announcement helped Dean tremendously,” said Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Like Erwin, he is not yet committed to a candidate. “Nonetheless, this race is not over and the Dean camp better not take anything for granted,” he said.

“Voters have a funny way of sending a message, and the message this time might be, ‘Hey, boys. We haven’t voted yet,”’ Richardson said. “This is a race for second place — to be the alternative to Dean.”

Any one of the five anti-Dean candidates could claim that slot; thus they are staying in the race. It is a political paradox because the longer all five remain in the race, the harder it is to beat Dean.