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2000 White House race

comes at turning point

SAN DIEGO: This year's unprecedented rush of state US presidential races produced record turnouts and vicious personal attacks, but the thrilling chapter may end with Super Tuesday's nation-wide primary sweeps.

"There's something in the air here!" crows Republican front-runner George W. Bush at every stop in California, where the motherlode of delegates is expected to clinch the nomination for the Texas governor.

Bush aides were heaving collective sighs of relief as polls showed their man comfortably ahead of insurgent John McCain in most of the 13 Republican primaries that will tap more than half the delegates needed for the nomination.

"February was a difficult month," said Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes. "We had to spend a lot of our resources up front but I'm proud our team stood steady in the roller coaster of victories and defeats."

Since McCain's astonishing win in the first primary on February 1, it has been a state-by-state tug-or-war fuelled by an extraordinary grounds well of support for the Maverick McCain from Independents and Democrats who cross over.

This year's rapid-fire primary schedule hobbled Bush's efforts to cut short McCain's rise, while the open rules and virtual absence of Democratic races prompted renegade voters to join in the fun.

The Arizona senator's compelling history as a prisoner of war, campaign finance reform crusade and blunt talk also caught fire with an electorate weary of both scandal-ridden President Bill Clinton and the Republican establishment's drive to impeach him.

Though mathematically McCan appears to be losing the official Republican delegate race, he still hopes to win the popular vote in states like California to prevent a knockout by Bush on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Clinton's handpicked successor, Vice President Al Gore, has fought back his only rival Bill Bradley's early surge and polls showed him ready to deliver a coup degrace Tuesday.

Gore has emerged relatively unscathed thanks to the Democrats' five-week primary hiatus, and is now preparing for what appears to be a tighter race than expected against an increasingly divided Republican party.

The bitterness of the Bush-McCain battle has raised alarms in the party anxious to worst the White House back after eight years.

Some point to McCain's popular appeal as a sign Bush is not electable in November, While others worry the infighting will leave the conservatives in tatters.

"Bush is not ready for prime time," said McCain supporter and California voter Jenny Magro.

Though both Republican candidates compared each other to the president, a McCain ad painting Bush as Clintonesque was blamed for his pivotal defeat in Virginia and Washington state last month.

Some Republicans Ñ threatened by McCain's campaign finance and anti-tobacco stands Ñ also question his conservative credentials. Bush supporter Matthew Frant complained that McCain's support came mostly from Democrats and Independents looking to "upset the apple cart" in the primaries and then return to their parties come November.

Both candidates have accused each other of "hijacking" the elections with dirty tricks and accused each other of racism and religious intolerance.

Voters in 16 states go to the polls across the country on Tuesday to pick delegates for the Republican and Democratic conventions in August.

Bush now has a total of 170 delegates, compared with 105 for McCain and five for the third Republican candidate, former ambassador Alan Keyes. Bradley has failed to win any of the Democratic primaries of caucuses this year and is trailing Gore in all of Tuesday's races.ÑAFP