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This feels good, says Obama
04/01/2008 22:24 - (SA)
Portsmouth, New Hampshire - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, whose win in Iowa caucuses dashed Hillary Rodham Clinton's front-runner status, returned to New Hampshire on Friday, hoping to repeat the win in this state's primary on Tuesday.
"This feels good. This feels just like I imagined when I was talking to my kindergarten teacher," Obama said to laughter in a cold, echoing airplane hangar.
The kindergarten line is a favourite for the Obama campaign, referring to an exchange with the Clinton campaign over the long time ambitions of their candidates.
A month ago, Obama took an apparent swipe at Clinton by saying he had not been planning to run for president for years like "some of the other candidates."
Ridicule
The Clinton campaign responded by citing media reports quoting Obama and friends talking about him running for the White House for years - and mentioning essays he had written even in the third grade and kindergarten. Obama has focused on the kindergarten mention, ridiculing the Clinton point.
Obama, 46, a first-term senator from Illinois, is trying to become the first black president of the United States. He garnered about 38% of the vote in Iowa, comfortably ahead of former North Carolina Sen John Edwards and Clinton, the former first lady, in the US's first test key race of the presidential elections season.
Obama remains in a tight race in New Hampshire with Clinton. The Iowa and New Hampshire contests are closely watched because they can make or break candidates in the kick-off to state-by-state voting that determines who will represent Republicans and Democrats in the November presidential election.
'High spirits'
"My throat's a little sore, but my spirits are high because last night the American people began down the road to change and four days from now, New Hampshire, you have the chance to change America," Obama told supporters at a morning rally.
Clinton was being joined in Nashua by her husband, hoping to become the family's newest "Comeback Kid" in a state that revived Bill Clinton's run for the Democratic nomination in 1992.
Without mentioning her by name, Obama criticised Clinton and her plea to "turn up the heat" in the campaign.
"We don't need more heat. We need more light," he said.
Obama said he would stick with his winning strategy in an abbreviated dash to the finish in New Hampshire's presidential primary campaign, despite facing a different political alignment.
Obama said he saw no reason to revamp his campaign: "No, it's not broken, why fix it?"
He returned to his message of unity and bipartisanship that won him favourable attention in a 2004 address at the Democratic National Convention.
"In four days, you can say we are choosing hope over fear, unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to Washington and change is a coming to America," he said.
- AP
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