COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Win everywhere?

That, suddenly, is an ambitious but not altogether impossible scenario this Tuesday for Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat whose presidential candidacy was all but written off only months ago.

Two hundred sixty-nine delegates are at stake in the first multi-state round of primaries and caucuses and Kerry appears certain to win the lion's share of them. The most recent polls have depicted him with wide leads in the two states with the largest stores of delegates at stake Tuesday -- Missouri and Arizona.

That leaves South Carolina and Oklahoma as the largest hurdles to Kerry's chances of finishing first across the board. He is competitive in both, according to analysts and the most recent polls.

North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was running ahead in South Carolina, the state of his birth, and retired Gen. Wesley Clark held a narrow lead over Kerry and Edwards in the Sooner State.

But in both, as in others voting Tuesday, Kerry has been the candidate on the move. His support has leapt upward in the days since his twin victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.

That front-runner status was recognized in attacks from Kerry's rivals.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, piggybacking on a Washington Post story that pointed out that Kerry, despite his frequent denunciations of lobbyists and Washington insiders, had been a large recipient of lobbyists campaign contributions. Pointing to those receipts, Dean dismissed Kerry as "yet another special interest clone.''

Paradoxically, however, the Dean campaign hopes that Kerry has a very good day Tuesday. After stinging disappointments in the first two Democratic contests, the suddenly cash-strapped Dean forces are looking beyond the horizon of the states voting Tuesday and hoping to rejoin Kerry farther down the primary road in a one-on-one "war of attrition,'' that could go on well into the Democratic primary calendar.

For that scenario to develop, Kerry would have to first deliver knock-out blows to other rivals such as Edwards and Clark in the next few contests while Dean waits for more favorable political terrain in later states.

Seeking to deflate any irrational exuberance about her candidates, Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry's campaign manager told the Associated Press, "It has never happened, somebody winning everything. There is no precedent for that so I think it's extremely unlikely.''

Roy Neel, the campaign manager who replaced Joe Trippi this week, outlined this unique strategy in an e-mail to supporters over the weekend.

"Conventional wisdom has been consistently wrong about this race,'' Neel wrote. "So when conventional wisdom says a candidate must win somewhere on February 3, or that John Kerry will have wrapped up the nomination after fewer than 10% of the delegates have been chosen, we disagree.''

Terry McAullife, the Democratic National chairman, has said that candidates who haven't won a state by the time Tuesday's polls close should take a hard look at their candidacies.

Implicitly rejecting that counsel, Neel said that the campaign had decided not to advertise in any of the Feb. 3 states, instead saving resources for later contests.

That is because, he wrote of the Tuesday balloting, "We believe that one of more of our major opponents will be eliminated that day, and that the others will fall by the wayside as our strength grows in the following days.''

Neel would draw one card to this political inside straight if Edwards if were to fall on his native ground here Tuesday. The first-term senator has long acknowledged that a victory in South Carolina was indispensable if his campaign is to sustain itself until the Boston convention.

After a western swing yesterday, Edwards planned to campaign in the state all day today, starting with attendance at services in a predominantly black church in Columbia.

The latest tracking poll by Zogby Research showed Edwards maintaining a slim lead over Kerry here. In that survey, he had the support of 26 percent of likely primary voters compared to Kerry's 22 percent, with another 22 percent undecided.

Two other polls over the weekend depicted Edwards with a more comfortable lead. A CNN-Los Angeles Times survey released yesterday said Edwards had the support of 32 percent of the South Carolina primary voters, while Kerry had 20 percent.

A CBC survey showed Edwards with a similar double-digit lead. No other candidate broke into double digits in any of the recent surveys, despite that fact that Dean, Clark and Lieberman campaigned and advertised here for months.

One challenge to polling here, however, is that South Carolina has no party registration so that any voter will be permitted to cast a ballot in the primary, which is being conducted by the Democratic Party rather than by the South Carolina government.

Edwards constantly reminds audiences here of his birth in the northern mill town of Seneca. Jack Bass, an expert on southern politics on the faculty of the College of Charleston, said of the approach, "That's an appeal that may resonate with working class whites, and its goes with the kind of things he's been saying about issues like trade.''

The Zogby survey found, in fact, that Edwards' strongest geographic area is the textile belt, along the North Carolina border, an area that has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in recent years.

Bass notes, however, that "The Democratic Party is very much a bi-racial party in South Carolina.''

African-Americana are expected to cast anywhere from 40 percent to half of the votes here Tuesday. Kerry, despite a late organizational effort, captured the most prominent African-American politician in the state with an endorsement from Rep. James Clyburn. Clyburn helped to give Kerry covering fire when opponents took shots at him this week over statements about affirmative action from the early 1990s, which seemed to suggest that Kerry had reservations about the policy.

Long before Clyburn's announcement last week, Edwards had been building his organization in the black community. One his key supporters is Ike Williams, a longtime associate of Clyburn's who, like his political ally, had backed Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., before he dropped from the presidential race.

"I know there's a lot of talk about momentum, but I really do not know how Sen. Kerry will play in the South,'' said Williams, who still passes out business cards with a Gephardt campaign logo, as he discussed his decision to migrate to the Edwards camp.

"He can relate to the people of this state,'' Williams said of Edwards.

"Most of the Democrats have the same platform, what's different in him is his passion.''

"Edwards, in terms of advertising and staff is invested as much here as Gephardt was in Iowa,'' said Joe Erwin, the state Democratic chairman. "I expect him to do well, but there's no question, as everyone's been saying, that Kerry has quite a bit of momentum.'

Clark also had high hopes for South Carolina, a state with eight major military installations and an estimated 400,000 veterans. Polls suggest, however, that this extensive organizational and advertising presence may win him scattered delegates, but not vault him into contention for the lead.

The former NATO commander appears to have a shot at Oklahoma, which will send 40 delegates to Boston compared to South Carolina's 45. Missouri and Arizona, states where Kerry appears comfortably ahead, will send, respectively, 74 and 55 delegates. According to the Zogby tracking survey, Clark was in the lead in Oklahoma, with the support of 25 percent of likely voters. He was followed closely by Kerry, with 22 percent and Edwards, at 16 percent.

But in that state as well, Kerry's support has been climbing while Clark has held steady. Clark, Kerry and Edwards were all campaigning in Oklahoma yesterday. Clark also visited Arizona, and New Mexico. Kerry also visited Missouri, as did Edwards, who Laos stopped in New Mexico before heading back to South Carolina.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., was campaigning in Delaware yesterday, hoping to find a win somewhere after his disappointing fifth place finish in New Hampshire. Sharpton was also in Delaware, but planned to return to South Carolina, where he has campaigned more than in any other state.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, was campaigning in the West. North Dakota will also select Democratic delegates Tuesday. Neel, Dean's new strategist, insisted improbably that whatever happened Tuesday, the campaign would eventually transform itself into a confrontation between the former and current front-runners.

"Has such a strategy ever worked before?'' Neel asked rhetorically his message to supporters. "No. It's never been tried.''