The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> A CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT br> New polling numbers coming out of South Carolina indicate that Sen. John Edwards ' plan for making that state his do-or-die locale might be a winning strategy. That can only spell bad news for Edwards' competitors, especially Rep. Dick Gephardt . Almost certainly Edwards' new numbers helped push Sen. Bob Graham to announce on Monday that he was cutting short his presidential bid. /p>

The latest poll numbers for the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary show Edwards at the front of the pack, with an eight point lead over Howie Dean and double digit lead over Sen. Joe Lieberman and retired Gen. Wesley Clark. The six other competitors are far back, and Graham barely made it onto the radar screen.

"We've been saying for months that South Carolina was our baby," says an Edwards staffer in North Carolina. "This is the latest to show we're on the right track."

Edwards has continued to campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire, but after initially splurging in the Iowa in hopes of finishing in the top three there, he pulled back several months ago to focus on his so-called "Southern strategy." That would entail winning South Carolina, the biggest primary after New Hampshire, knocking a few competitors out of the race and surviving deep into the Democratic primary season so that he has a shot at winning at least the vice presidential nomination.

Key to Edwards' plan was taking out fellow southerner Graham, who when he entered the race appeared to have an edge on the younger Senate colleague, but turned out to be an utter failure on the campaign trail.

"Graham made us all nervous, sure," says the Edwards operative. "But man were we wrong. Our overestimation of him was on a scale of overestimating the threat of Iraq."

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