US: The top Democratic presidential contenders, fresh from an Iowa contest that has dramatically reshaped the race for their party's nomination, charged into New Hampshire yesterday for a week-long sprint to the state's crucial primary on January 27th.
Senators John Kerry, who surged from behind to win Iowa, and John Edwards, who finished a surprise second - beating favourite Mr Howard Dean into third place and knocking Congressman Richard Gephardt out of the race - flew in to enthusiastic welcomes in New Hampshire, known as the Granite State.
"The whole world will be watching what you do here, as they were watching in Iowa," said Mr Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who dubbed himself the "comeback Kerry" after his 38 per cent win in Iowa. Just weeks ago, the millionaire war hero was lagging in the polls and his campaign was given up for dead by many analysts.
Also getting a big boost from Iowa was Mr Edwards, who won 32 per cent of the vote. The boyish former lawyer from North Carolina had long been mired in single digits in the polls but, like Mr Kerry, appeared to get a second look from Democrats fixated on finding a candidate with the national appeal to beat President Bush in November.
"Can you feel it?" Mr Edwards asked a crowd in Concord. "This movement is sweeping the country. And the people of New Hampshire are going to feel it." The Iowa result was a major blow for Mr Dean, the former Vermont governor who had long set the pace in the Democratic race and now needs a strong finish in New Hampshire to reinvigorate his campaign.
"I used to be the front-runner when I went out to Iowa but I'm not the front-runner anymore," he told an airport rally in Portsmouth. "New Hampshire has a great tradition of supporting the underdog." Mr Dean, whose clever use of the Internet to raise a record-breaking $40 million and drum up grass-roots support helped propel him to the top of the polls late last year, finished with just 18 per cent of the Iowa vote.
Speaking later to supporters in Manchester, Mr Dean was subdued. "Today, I am going to give a different kind of speech," he said. "Those of you who came here intending to be lifted by . . . a lot of red meat rhetoric are going to be a little disappointed." He also cancelled plans to fly home to Burlington, Vermont, today, choosing to remain in New Hampshire.
The Iowa winners face a new rival in retired general Mr Wesley Clark, who entered the race late and has focused his energies on the state. He has stumped hard in recent weeks, drawing big crowds, some big-name endorsements and rising to second place in some polls. But Mr Kerry's comeback poses problems for Clark, with his record as a Vietnam war veteran and foreign policy expert cutting directly into the former NATO commander's strengths.
"This was poised to be a Dean versus Clark race, but now Kerry has jumped in," said pollster Rich Killion of Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire. "Clark filled a vacuum for people looking for an anti-Dean alternative, but he really might have just been a place holder for whoever came screaming in out of Iowa with all the momentum," he said.
The race has already tightened considerably in New Hampshire in the last month, with Mr Clark first closing the gap on Mr Dean, and Mr Kerry then staging a surge last week to challenge for second place.
The latest tracking poll from American Research Group, taken before the Iowa caucuses, had Mr Dean ahead with 28 per cent support, Mr Kerry with 20 per cent and Mr Clark with 19 per cent.
After New Hampshire, the race turns national, with seven contests scheduled across the country on February 3rd and caucuses set for February 7th in Michigan and Washington state. - (Reuters)