It is really nice to live in a democratic country where the outcome of the presidential elections is not known to the very last moment. The events of the 2000 elections in Florida showed that in America, every vote is really important and every voter can really define the country's politics for years to come.

On Mar. 2, Democratic voters in ten states will take part in the primaries. Not long ago, it seemed that the result of the struggle for the Democratic nomination could be predicted and that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry would be President Bush's main rival. Still, the open primaries in Wisconsin, where Independent and Republican voters also had the right to participate, bolstered North Carolina Senator John Edward's chances to win – he was only four percentage points behind Kerry.

The toughest fights on Super Tuesday are expected to be in New York, California, Ohio (open primaries) and Georgia. Tens of thousands of Russian-speaking Democrats live in these states. Edwards tries to win their hearts by strongly criticizing the White House's trade agreements with Canada and Mexico, and promising to fight unemployment and outsourcing.

Of course, unemployment is one of the most pressing issues for the residents of big cities like New York, San Francisco, Cleveland and Atlanta. But John Kerry's 30 year-old political experience, his heroic war history, his victories in 16 states (Edwards won only in North Carolina), and the fact that he is being endorsed by the unions and the majority of Democratic politicians, has great influence on the voters. Many like Kerry's proposal to cancel tax subsidies to corporations that open branches and transfer their headquarters to India, Mexico and other foreign countries, threatening the American job market.

Russian-speaking Jews are interested not only in the candidates' economic proposals, but in their attitude towards Israel, the Jewish community, the problem of anti-Semitism and immigrants in general.

In the past few weeks, Republican strategists sent out e-mails, through anonymous sources, to mass media and pro-Israel organizations. The objective was to slander John Kerry by portraying him as Israel's worst enemy, as a supporter of one-sided concessions to Palestinians, and an admirer of Arafat.

The influential New York newspaper the Jewish Week disproved these accusations. Citing representatives of Israel's lobby in Washington D.C., the publication pointed out that during all his years in U.S. Senate, Kerry always voted for all pro-Israel resolutions and signed all the legislators' collective letters supporting Israel. He also co-sponsored the recently accepted bill about economic sanctions against Syria, and harshly criticized the Iran and Saudi Arabia regimes. It was Kerry who, together with Senator Joseph Lieberman, criticized Vermont's ex-Governor Howard Dean for referring to HAMAS terrorists as "soldiers.”

John Kerry voted for the Congressional resolution to give President Bush the right to launch a military campaign in Iraq, if diplomatic efforts were not sufficient. Now, he criticizes harshly the White House for the excessive casualties among American soldiers, for the lack of clarity in the post-war reconstruction plan for Iraq, for the failure of its intelligence, for ignoring the still-remaining threat from Al Qaeda.

Kerry, a former prosecutor, is a real fighter on the political battlefield. For example, he won the Senate race in 1996 in Massachusetts, defeating the popular liberal Republican William Weld, though skeptics predicted his defeat. Last December, journalists rushed to write the obituary to Kerry's political career. Now he is the frontrunner of the race, and the polls show him beating President Bush by 12 percentage points.

Senator John Edwards, the former lawyer and good speaker, is also more popular than Bush today.

But we can't be sure of anything. The presidential race has just begun; George Bush has $110 millions in his election fund and an experienced team of political strategists. The economy is slowl, but gaining, Saddam Hussein is in jail, and Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi volunteered to eliminate weapons of mass destruction in his country.

On March 2, Super Tuesday, Democrats will decide who the strongest candidate is. Unfortunately, the Kerry and Edwards campaigns did not pay much attention to the Russian-language mass media, community activists and political organizations. But, maybe, the active participation of Russian-speaking voters in the primaries will draw the candidates' attention to our community and make them more cooperative before November's general elections. We have enough votes to influence the future of America.