Obama looks to build on Iowa triumph

BARACK OBAMA, flush from his stunning victory in the Iowa caucuses, charged to New Hampshire yesterday fired up for the second leg of his fight to be America’s first black president.

The young Illinois senator, with only two years of experience in Congress, defeated Hillary Clinton in Thursday’s nominating contests in Iowa, winning the backing of 38% of Democratic Iowa delegates.

As he rushed to New Hampshire for Tuesday’s first primary votes of the 2008 White House race, he was hoping to deal another blow to Clinton, who was beaten into third place after rival John Edwards.

Without directly naming her, Obama again attacked Clinton as a tired symbol of the establishment who was betting on getting “the same old folks to play the same Washington game over and over again”.

Clinton aides insisted the New York senator would bounce back. “This is one of 27 contests,” Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told reporters.

An average of New Hampshire polls had Clinton leading with 34% to Obama’s 27% and Edwards’ 18.

On the Republican side, conservative Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, who pulled off a major upset to defeat Mitt Romney in Iowa, could find it hard to repeat that triumph in more liberal New Hampshire.

Polls had Vietnam war veteran John McCain leading the Republican field in New Hampshire at 31.3%, with Romney at 28.8%, ex-New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani at 10% and Huckabee trailing at 9.5%.