By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, victor and vanquished in the battle of Iowa, moved into New Hampshire, with one seeking to capitalise on his win and the other hoping to regain her front-runner status.
So did the other US presidential hopefuls, second placed Democrat John Edwards and underdog Republican Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher who scored an upset win over well-heeled Mitt Romney, for the second of the state-by-state battles next Tuesday.
In polls taken before Thursday’s Iowa caucuses – or meetings of party supporters – Clinton and Republican John McCain led the field in New Hampshire, a tiny western state that traditionally holds the first primary – where voters directly pick party nominees.
The former first lady also takes hope from the fact that her husband Bill Clinton, who garnered a measly three percent in Iowa, came second with 25 percent in New Hampshire and went on to win the presidency in 1992.
With husband Bill and daughter Chelsea by her side, the New York senator launched her campaign in New Hampshire Friday to consolidate her lead in the polls and avoid another Iowa, where Obama pushed her to a disappointing third place.
Obama, who is seeking to become the first black American president, too rallied supporters in New Hampshire to maintain his winning streak while keeping former 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, running third in polls, too at bay.
Asserting that he is the candidate of change and one who can rally support across the political spectrum, Obama told supporters: “At this defining moment, you can come together as Democrats and Republicans and independents and stand up and say that we are one nation, we are one people, and that our time for change has come.”
Touting his underdog status, Edwards compared himself to Seabiscuit, the initially unheralded racehorse who became a legendary champion and a symbol of hope during the Great Depression.
“I’m not the candidate of money, I’m not the candidate of glitz, I’m not the candidate of glamour,” he said at a Friday rally. “Nor do I claim to be.” Instead, he said, he is “the people’s candidate”.
On the Republican side, Iowa victor, Huckabee too likened himself to the same horse.
“I feel like Seabiscuit,” he told a TV channel acknowledging he may not be able to overtake McCain and Romney, the leaders in pre-primary polls in New Hampshire.
But the former Arkansas governor, whom polls show currently running a distant third or fourth there, predicted that he would again lead the pack by the end of the month after primaries in South Carolina and Florida.
With the momentum gained with the Iowa victory, “…what I predict is by the end of January, leading up to Feb 5 and Super Tuesday, we’re not only going to be on our feet, we’re going to be ahead of the pack.”
As many as 22 states, including delegate-rich California, New York and Illinois hold their primaries and caucuses Feb 5.
Romney too changed tack in New Hampshire and instead of Huckabee trained his guns once more on McCain.
“It will be a different race here,” he said. “There’s no way McCain can come to New Hampshire and say he can be the candidate to change Washington. He is Washington.”
McCain hit back with a new Web ad charging that Romney would “rather call lawyers and bureaucrats” when problems come up. “When it comes to leadership, John McCain doesn’t have to call anyone,” an announcer says in the ad.
Although Republican national frontrunner, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is also in the field, the Republican showdown in New Hampshire is essentially between Romney and McCain, who has focused most of his efforts in the state where he upset George W. Bush in 2000.
Giuliani has largely bypassed Iowa and New Hampshire in a strategy that places greater emphasis on the Jan 29 Florida primary and Feb 5 “Tsunami Tuesday”.
But the biggest question for Democrats and Republicans alike in New Hampshire is which candidate will win over its independent voters, who can vote in either party’s primary. And making up about a quarter of the primary voters, it’s they who hold the balance in the Granite State.