Presidential rivals in both parties took aim at Democrat Barack Obama's experience and health care proposals on Saturday, hours ahead of back-to-back debates that could reshape tight nominating races in New Hampshire.
Obama, whose message of change propelled him to an easy win in Iowa's opening presidential nominating contest, was criticised by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney three days before New Hampshire's primary. But Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black US president, told an overflow crowd in Nashua, "this is our time."
"We started something on Thursday, but it was just the start," Obama said, referring to his win in Iowa. More than 2,800 enthusiastic supporters began to line up hours before the event to see Obama. "If we cast aside our fear and cast aside our cynicism and we stand up for what we genuinely believe, this is our moment, this is our time, you can feel it, you can see it," he said.
New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday is the next battleground in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to replace President George W. Bush.
The state is crucial to efforts by Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, to revitalise their campaigns after disappointing showings in Iowa.
A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll on Saturday showed Clinton's lead over Obama in New Hampshire shrunk slightly to 4 points, 32 percent to 28 percent. John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who finished second in Iowa, was in third place with 20 percent.Among Republicans, Arizona Senator John McCain's lead over Romney fell by 2 points to 32 percent against 30 percent. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor who won the Republican contest in Iowa, gained 2 points to 12 percent.
Most of the polling in the four-day tracking survey was done before the Iowa caucuses on Thursday. "We cannot afford Barack Obama as the next president. He's a nice fella and a very well-spoken fella, but he's never done it," Romney said in Derry, challenging Obama's experience while adopting a version of the change message that worked for Obama and Huckabee in Iowa. Romney cast himself as a can-do outsider and successful venture capitalist who could successfully fix Washington's problems.
WASHINGTON BROKEN: "Is there anyone here that agrees with me that Washington is badly broken?" he asked to cheers. "Washington is fundamentally broken and incapable of dealing with the challenges we have." Clinton told 300 people in Penacook, New Hampshire, that she had the experience to tackle problems on day one, including health care. She criticised Obama's health-care plan, which some analysts say could leave up to 15 million Americans uninsured.
"It's wrong of us not to start out by trying to insure every single American," she said, to applause from the crowd. Clinton, who just a few months ago was the dominant Democratic front-runner and presumed nominee, finished third in Iowa behind Obama and Edwards.
Romney led polls in Iowa for months before falling victim to Huckabee's late surge. He also led New Hampshire polls before the recent charge of McCain, an Arizona senator who won the state during his failed 2000 presidential bid.
Romney also took a swipe at McCain, questioning his support for an immigration bill that would have given illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and his opposition to President George W. Bush's tax cut packages in 2001 and 2003.
"We need the Bush tax cuts," he said. All of the candidates will get a chance to make their case later on Saturday when they face off in back-to-back televised debates on ABC that have a reduced field.
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