ELECTION 2008; Obama Rides Wave in N.H.; Huge Crowd Greets Him; Clinton Counterpunches, but Edwards

Jan 06, 02:33 PM

Nashua, N.H. - The crowd that greeted Barack Obama here was so big, the overflow room contained almost 1,000 people.

Whatever match was lighted in the Iowa caucuses Thursday, the fire could be felt Saturday in New Hampshire, where Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards must figure out by Tuesday how to slow their rival's momentum.

"You can feel it. You can see it. That's why you're here," Obama told a packed gymnasium. "It is your turn to bring about change in America. You have the chance to turn the page and create a different kind of politics. In three days, you can do what the cynics say can't be done - what Iowa did Thursday night."

Hours later, in a sometimes contentious debate, Clinton stepped up her criticism of Obama, accusing him of shifting his positions on some issues, deriding his health care plan, and implicitly comparing his combination of hopeful rhetoric and governmental inexperience with George Bush the candidate of 2000.

"In 2000 we, unfortunately, ended up with a president who people said they wanted to have a beer with; who said he wanted to be a uniter, not a divider; who said that he had his intuition and he was going to, you know, really come into the White House and transform the country. And, you know, at least I think there are the majority of Americans who think that was not the right choice," she said.

But in an odd twist reflecting the shift in the political landscape from Iowa to New Hampshire, Edwards leaped to Obama's defense and accused Clinton of representing "the forces of status quo." Though he is not expected to win here, Edwards is apparently aiming at displacing Clinton in the top two.

"He believes deeply in change and I believe deeply in change," Edwards said of Obama. "I didn't hear these kinds of attacks from Senator Clinton when she was ahead."

The challenge facing Obama's opponents was underscored by the rally he held earlier Saturday in a high school gym. Even at a time of mounting enthusiasm in the party's grass roots, it was an event of unusual energy and drawing power. Lines to get inside stretched for hundreds of yards. One woman who lives 15 minutes away said it took her an hour and a half to drive to the rally because of the crush. Traffic was at a standstill coming and going. About 1,500 people got inside before the fire marshals closed the doors; the rest went to an adjoining gym, where they could hear but not see the Illinois senator. He stopped by afterward to make brief remarks.

"Go after those friends of yours who have been cynical all these years and tell them this time it's different," Obama told the overflow crowd.

The first New Hampshire polls taken after the Iowa caucuses ranged from a dead heat to a double-digit lead by Obama over the New York senator, with the former North Carolina senator in third, offering mixed evidence about the size of the bounce Obama is getting in New Hampshire from his Iowa victory. (The Clinton campaign issued a press release Saturday asking, "Where is the bounce?")

As she campaigned Saturday, Clinton loosened up her events to take more questions from voters. In the debate, she pressed her argument that she is a more authentic "change" candidate than her rivals, because of her career in public service.

"I embody change. I think having the first woman president is a huge change. I believe I am more prepared and ready to actually deliver change," she said at one point.

Former President Bill Clinton, speaking to a big crowd Saturday at another school in southern New Hampshire, echoed that argument when he offered an implicit contrast between his wife and her younger rival.

"Do you want a feeling of change? (Or) do you want the fact of change?" asked Clinton.

Quick turnaround

Just how aggressively Sen. Clinton will go after Obama between now and Tuesday is unclear. The shortened window between Iowa and New Hampshire (five instead of eight days) complicates such decisions. Her aides have said that for now there are no plans to air TV ads that directly attack the Illinois senator. The Clinton campaign sent out a mailer here attacking Obama for voting "present" on several abortion bills as a state lawmaker in Illinois, The Associated Press reported. It was a criticism that the Clinton campaign also aimed at Obama during the run-up to Iowa.

Edwards, meanwhile, has sought to portray the contest for the nomination as a two-person competition between him and Obama as champions of change, though he has also argued that his own confrontational style would be more effective than Obama's conciliatory one.

"Both of us are powerful voices for change and, I might add, we finished first and second in the Iowa caucuses in part as a result of that," Edwards said.

Responding to Clinton's suggestion at the debate that his talent for words exceeded his record for action, Obama said, "The truth is actually words do inspire, words do help people get involved, words do help members of Congress get into power so they can deliver. Don't discount that power."

Of those who flocked to hear Obama at his rally Saturday, many described his surprisingly decisive victory in Iowa, with a record- breaking turnout (about twice the roughly 120,000 who voted in 2004) boosted by young and first-time caucus-goers, as a kind of political watershed for them.

"You start hearing these numbers coming from Iowa, that more than 150,000, then 175,000 Democrats (were voting), then 200,000, then 240,000, then you went, 'Oh my gosh, this is a real thing happening here!'" said Regina Kinney, a registered independent, attending the Nashua rally with her husband and 17-year-old daughter.

Richard Grigg drove two-and-a-half hours from Connecticut with his 17-year-old daughter to see Obama, even donning the "Hawkeyes" jacket he got as a student at the University of Iowa so he could show some Iowa pride in Obama's victory.

"It's like, 'Hey, I'm part of the surge!'" said Grigg, who said Thursday's results sent a signal about Obama's candidacy.

"I think the fact he's a black man and all these white people voted for him in a state like Iowa suggests to people he really could be a unifier," said Grigg, who is white.

Hard to derail

A longtime supporter of one of Obama's rivals confided Friday that it will be especially difficult to derail an Obama candidacy the more Democrats believe he's in a position to win the nomination, saying, "Who wants to be the state where the dream died?"

Obama seemed to play to that argument Saturday, asking New Hampshire, in effect, not to stop what Iowa started.

Obama's new status in the race was reflected in the fact that at Saturday's GOP debate that preceded the Democrats' forum, Republican candidates were asked how they stack would up against Obama in November.

They mixed criticism of his stands on issues with expressions of political respect.

"What Senator Obama has done is to touch at the core of something Americans want," said Republican Mike Huckabee. "They are so tired of everything being horizontal - left, right, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican. They're looking for vertical leadership that leads up, not down."

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