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 Iowa winners face new challenges
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire is where Iowa's Democratic caucus victors get ratified and where its Republican winners get stung.
Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee headed into the Granite State on Friday as Iowa's presidential champions, one hoping to ride history's trend and the other eager to break it.
Neither can expect it to be easy.
Obama is neck and neck in New Hampshire polls with Hillary Rodham Clinton, who finished third in Iowa but has the resources to confront him head on. Will Obama, like Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, use his Iowa victory to catapult himself to victory in New Hampshire? Or will Clinton manufacture a turnaround like her husband did in 1992 and be the new Comeback Kid?
Huckabee faces even bigger questions. He has hardly campaigned in New Hampshire, where a Republican contest is already in a dead heat between Mitt Romney and John McCain. He enters the state with little money and little time to mount an adequate come-from-behind surge. And tradition pulls against him. George H. W. Bush in 1980, Bob Dole in 1988 and 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000
-- all are Iowa caucus winners who lost their New Hampshire primaries.
Iowa's results tightened the Democratic field -- Sens. Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd dropped out shortly after the outcome was clear Thursday night. John Edwards mounted an energetic, populist campaign only to see himself repeat his 2004 second place finish in Iowa. He vowed to continue, but he trails Obama and Clinton in polls and in money.
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Romney seeks rebound in New Hampshire
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) -- Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney reached into the sports metaphor closet Friday as he sought to give perspective to an Iowa caucus loss that put added pressure on him to win next week's New Hampshire primary.
"This is still a nice, long process here," he told about 150 campaign workers who defied frigid temperatures and the 3 a.m. hour to greet his plane as it returned from the Midwest. "We've had, if you will, the first inning of a game that has, let's say, 50 innings in it."
The businessman-turned-politician promised to rebound by selling voters on his outsider image and pledged to replace partisan bickering in Washington with government productivity.
He made several veiled jabs at Sen. John McCain, a congressional veteran who is challenging Romney's long-standing lead in New Hampshire.
"I want to go to Washington to bring the kind of can-do, change experience that I've had everywhere I've been," he said. "I changed a business. I helped change the Olympics. I helped change a state, and I'm going to change Washington. We're going to take it apart, put it back together again, this time smarter, smaller and simpler."
The former Massachusetts governor, who spent more time and money in Iowa than his rivals, was upset by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a late-blooming challenger who ultimately became a target of Romney's negative advertising.
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Huckabee pins New Hampshire hopes on tax plan
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Mike Huckabee said he hopes to follow his victory in Iowa's caucus with a win in New Hampshire by appealing to the state's famous fervor for low taxes.
The former Arkansas governor supports a "Fair Tax," a proposal to eliminate federal income taxes in favor of a 23 percent national sales tax.
"My tax plan, which would completely overhaul the tax system, is connecting with voters in New Hampshire," Huckabee said in an interview Friday on CBS's "Early Show." "We only have a few days to close the sale, but I think the momentum coming out of Iowa is going to be good for us, then we're on to South Carolina and Florida, where we're running first in the polls. We're going to have a great month."
Huckabee was boosted in Iowa by conservative evangelical voters, who are sparse in New Hampshire. He also lags behind rivals Mitt Romney and John McCain in polls of likely GOP primary voters in the Granite State.
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Next up: New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
At stake: 12 GOP delegates; 22 Democratic delegates.
Polls show: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tied among Democrats; Mitt Romney and John McCain in a close race among Republicans.
2004: John Kerry won the state with 50 percent in the presidential election.
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Weather forecast for Concord, N.H., on Friday:
Conditions: Cloudy in the morning, partly sunny by afternoon.
Temperature: Highs in the mid-20s.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson campaign Friday in New Hampshire.
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THE REPUBLICANS
Mitt Romney, John McCain and Mike Huckabee campaign Friday in New Hampshire.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"New Hampshire is the last chance for someone who loses Iowa. You lose in Iowa and you lose New Hampshire, it's done. You go home."
-- Andrew Smith, polling director for the University of New Hampshire.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Seventy-two percent of New Hampshire citizens voted in the 2004 presidential election, according to the Census Bureau.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Joan Lowy.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
