While this weekend boasts three Democratic contests — in Michigan, Washington, and Maine — political and media attention remains focused on Tuesday’s Southern primaries in Virginia and Tennessee because, well, they are competitive and thus interesting. This is the downside of being a frontrunner: Kerry might well crush everyone today but that’s not enough “news” to chew on for hours on end. So a couple of quick updates.

First, Wesley Clark is reportedly focusing virtually all of his efforts, money, and time through Tuesday in Tennessee, thus abandoning Virginia to a Kerry-Edwards two-way. A new poll for the Richmond Times Dispatch and other Va. media has Edwards (25 percent) drawing closer to Kerry (34 percent) compared with previous polls. Clark is far behind, thus explaining his Hail Mary in the Volunteer State.

In the expectations game, however, the Edwards camp has had a stumble. For days they’ve been trying to get the media to buy the idea that Edwards need only beat Clark in each state to “succeed” on Tuesday, even if Kerry came in first, as that would make it a two-person race. But Edwards’ pollster, Harrison Hickman, apparently didn’t make himself clear enough in a conference call with reporters. Some papers having him restating the campaign line about second place being enough, but others are quoting him as saying that “losing” the two primaries would be “a problem.”