Now, the Dean camp is talking like they are in the driver's seat, saying support from the former vice president from Tennessee will open doors across the Palmetto State.

"Our strategy in South Carolina? To win," said Dean's state director, Don Jones. "Our strategy is to end everything here. If everything goes as planned, this will probably be about three or four candidates' Alamo."

Still, as former state Democratic Party Chairman Don Fowler said this week: "It ain't over until it's over."

South Carolina's polls have been all over the map in determining who is leading ahead of the Feb. 3 primary -- more than six weeks away and seemingly a lifetime in politics. At various times, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, both Southerners, have been at the front, while those behind them have shuffled around in the pack.

A Zogby poll of 500 Democratic voters released last week put Dean in first place with an 11 percent following. There was no clear favorite, however, as the top five candidates -- Dean, Sen. Joe Lieberman, Clark, Edwards and the Rev. Al Sharpton -- fell within the survey's margin of error.

But Dean's good week caused the other candidates' camps to heighten their focus on stopping him cold in South Carolina, which some say is where Dean's strongest challenger to the nomination likely will emerge after others drop out.

Several of the campaigns noticeably notched up their attacks against Dean this week, contending his brand of Northeast liberalism won't play well here. Former Gov. Jim Hodges took the point for the Clark campaign, telling reporters that Southern Democrats want a candidate who can win against George Bush in November, not just run well for the short term.

"We haven't had success when we run candidates that appeal to the left of the party," Hodges said, warning that Democrats are forgetting the shutout in the South in 2000.

"South Carolina is an independent-minded, moderate state. It's my kind of state," Lieberman said.

"South Carolina will not vote for Dean," added John Moylan, state director for Edwards. "John Edwards will win South Carolina."

Edwards has spent the most money on televised political messages in South Carolina so far, $800,000 by some counts, though his TV target has been President Bush.

Sharpton, who has perhaps his best chance to make an impact in South Carolina because of its large black voter population, was particularly put out by the Gore-Dean announcement, which went public in Sharpton's back yard at the National Black Theatre on 125th Street in New York. Sharpton called the Dean-Gore appearance "drive-by campaigning in Harlem."

Dean's week of good fortune started in Columbia on Sunday when U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois endorsed him as Dean inaugurated his first campaign headquarters in the state. A day later, Dean went on TV in South Carolina with a significant advertising buy -- his first in a long time --that could stay on the air non-stop until the Feb. 3 primary. Shortly after that came the Gore endorsement.

Many pundits see Gore's backing as significant, given that he was the Democratic Party's leader in 2000 when he beat Bush in the popular vote for president, though losing the electoral count. But University of South Carolina political scientist Brad Gomez said Dean may not be as well-situated here as his campaign committee thinks, and that the fight won't end here.

For one thing, Gomez said the Gore endorsement won't travel nearly as far as the endorsement of presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. That's because Gore really didn't campaign here in 2000 and has no strong ties to South Carolina Democratic leaders, who already are committed elsewhere.

"I'm not sure that it carries much weight at all," Gomez said. "There aren't many people here who have these incredibly strong political ties to (Gore)."

College of Charleston political scientist Jamie McKown, who studies Democratic Party politics in South Carolina, said it's normal for all the campaigns to show some bravado against the leader now, but that it probably will be weeks before South Carolina comes into play and the battlefield may have changed by the time Feb. 3 rolls around.

"We will not see a full blitz by the candidates until sometime in January," McKown said. "They don't believe that South Carolina voters are paying attention right now. You see some requisite visits here and there, and there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff, getting ducks in a row and putting the people they want in their offices. But I don't think we've seen even close to what we're going to see."

Some of those active in the campaigns agreed.

If you look at the polls "the one thing that stays the same is the number of 'undecideds' in the state," said Scott Anderson, of the Clark campaign.

"Ninety percent of the doors we knock on, folks are undecided," noted James Dukes, state director for Sen. John Kerry's campaign.

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