Washington ? The day that dropped the curtain on the 2004 presidential race raised one for the 2008 contest, with Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards jockeying for advantage among Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist the first on the stage for Republicans.

It’s only four more years to go — minus a day. Who’s counting? A lot of folks.

“You can be disappointed, but you cannot walk away. This fight has just begun,” Edwards told Democratic loyalists in Boston in a concession speech that also could qualify as the leadoff stump speech of the next presidential campaign.

The Democratic decks are cleared with John Kerry’s defeat, and Edwards and Clinton start off as early favorites within their party for 2008. Not that they — or Kerry — are talking about any plans so soon.

Since Bush cannot run again, the race is wide open on the Republican side as well, even more so than it would normally be. Usually the outgoing incumbent’s vice president is the automatic favorite for the nomination. But Vice President Dick Cheney, who is 63 and has a history of heart disease, has ruled out a run on his own for president.

That leaves a potentially crowded field — including Sens. Frist of Tennessee, John McCain of Arizona, George Allen of Virginia, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — with no early favorite.

Frist put himself into play, beginning a “victory tour” of the South on Wednesday that included stops in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina with victorious GOP Senate candidates.

“Last night was a monumental victory” for the GOP-led Senate, Frist said. Wins included a five-state sweep of the South and the defeat of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota. Frist’s expanded GOP majority gives him a high-profile platform at least for the next two years. Frist said he would stick with a pledge to resign from the chamber when his second term came up in 2006.

Clinton, who would have been sidelined in 2008 with a Kerry-Edwards victory, is now front and center among would-be Democratic contenders.

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