John Kerry vowed that he would not be another "wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed" Democrat, pledging Monday to wage a bare-knuckled campaign against President Bush as he sought a Super Tuesday sweep to lay claim to the party's nomination.
On the eve of their 10-state showdown, John Edwards faced signs of political distress as Kerry's last major Democratic rival — meager polling, paltry crowds and a growing realization inside his own ranks that the end may be near.
"At some point, I've got to start getting more delegates or I'm not going to be the nominee," E dwards said at a Toledo, Ohio, news conference.
Regardless of today's results, Bush plans to begin a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign this week to reverse his downward trend. Kerry's campaign is considering a modest response designed to put the White House on the defensive, said two senior advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Democratic allies may move sooner.
Edwards drew 300 people to his University of Toledo rally, three times fewer than a crowd that welcomed Kerry recently to the same venue. Drawing even smaller crowds in Dayton, Ohio, and Cleveland later Monday, the freshman senator seemed listless and indifferent, stumbling over signature lines in his stump speech.
It seemed prophetic when aides at the Cleveland rally played Fleetwood Mac's "You Can Go Your Own Way."
The North Carolina senator pledged to stay in the race "until I'm nominated," but he declined to predict victory in Ohio, virtually a must-win state for him, as he acknowledged Kerry's dominance.
"There's no question that national momentum has an impact on these races," Edwards said.
He held out hope for an election surprise, noting that he defied polls by finishing just 6 percentage points behind Kerry in New Hampshire and Wisconsin. But the senator had more time to court voters in those states than he did for Tuesday's races.
Edwards' only victory came in his birth state of South Carolina, but that was four weeks and 11 defeats ago.
Kerry has won 18 of 20 primaries or caucuses and led in pre-election polls in every competitive Super Tuesday venue. Ten states with nearly 50 million registered voters award 1,151 delegates on the biggest day of the nomination fight.
A sweep today could give Kerry more than 1,500 delegates — a virtually insurmountable lead, though still short of the 2,162 needed to claim the nomination.
Edwards, with just 205 delegates as of Monday, will come under pressure to quit the race unless he wins two or more contests today, said strategists in both campaigns as well as several party leaders.
"I think it's wrapped up already," said Democratic strategist James Carville, who helped Bill Clinton become president.
Edwards virtually ceded four New England states holding Super Tuesday elections: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and the front-runner's home state of Massachusetts.
He has campaigned in New York and California, the day's biggest prizes with a combined 606 delegates, but polls show Edwards trailing badly. One survey showed the race close in Maryland, but even Edwards' advisers discounted the survey.
His advisers privately held out hope for victories in Georgia and Minnesota's hard-to-predict caucuses, but they said Ohio looked out of reach, with long-shot candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio cutting into Edwards' base.
If he loses that battleground state, Edwards would be hard-pressed to argue that his economic populism can stop Kerry outside the South.
Kerry's own polls showed him ahead in all 10 states, with Edwards closing. Still, Kerry only looked vulnerable in Georgia, his advisers said.
As both Democrats visited Ohio and Georgia, Kerry pledged to run a general election race that is "different from campaigns of the past."
"This isn't going to be some kind of we're-like-them, they're-like-us-kind, wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed, you can't tell the difference deal," Kerry said. Aides said he was referring to Democrats being voiceless on foreign policy, but comparisons to former candidate Howard Dean's antiestablishment message were inescapable.
"We're giving America a real choice," Kerry said, promising to fight Bush policies on taxes, education, health care and terrorism.
Kerry's advisers are mulling ways to counter Bush, including airing TV ads in northern Virginia or elsewhere to show Bush that the Democrat will compete in even traditionally GOP states, advisers said.
Kerry's response would not come immediately, aides said, because Bush's first ads won't criticize the Democrat.
Democratic interests groups, acting independently of the campaign, plan to counter Bush's ads with spots of their own soon.
Contributing: Tom Raum, Nedra Pickler, Genaro Armas.