Frantic end to New Hampshire primary race

BARACK Obama, the Democratic frontrunner told an overflow crowd: “You’re the wave and I’m riding it.”

Hillary Rodham Clinton, trying to revive her campaign, pledged: “Whatever happens tomorrow, we’re going on.” She suffered defeat in last week’s Iowa caucuses and is struggling to avoid a second loss. Polls show Mr Obama leading for the Democratic primary here.

Fighting back, Ms Clinton questioned the substance behind the Illinois senator’s soaring rhetoric. She said Mr Obama “is a very talented politician” but is not living up to his claim to be a new type of politician.

Interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America, Ms Clinton pointed out Mr Obama has portrayed himself as being outside the influence of special interests yet picked a New Hampshire lobbyist to co-chair his campaign in the state.

She also accused him of changing positions on issues, even though he criticises other candidates for the same thing.

“All of a sudden you start to ask yourself, wait a minute. I mean, what is the substance here?” she said. “What, as famously was said years ago, where’s the beef? You know, where is the reality?”

Asked on CBS’s The Early Show whether the Iowa defeat indicated voters were disenchanted with her and wanted to move on, Ms Clinton said: “I feel really good about this whole process and you know, whatever happens tomorrow, we’re going on.”

Mr Obama countered that he had been “entirely consistent” in his position, and also received a helping hand from fellow Democrat John Edwards.

“I didn’t hear these kind of attacks from Senator Clinton when she was ahead. Now that she’s not, we hear them,” he said. Mr Edwards who pushed Mrs Clinton into an unexpected third place in Iowa.

As for Mr Obama, he had an enviable logistical problem. Hundreds of people couldn’t get into his speech at the Lebanon Opera House, so he addressed them with a microphone from the steps. “You guys caught us a little by surprise,” he said. “You’re the wave and I’m riding it.”

Earlier in Claremont, the long days seemed to be taking a bit of a toll on him — he flipped one of his signature campaign lines during a rally saying: “The time for come has change.”

He also saw a doctor about losing his voice. The advice, Mr Obama wryly told the audience in Claremont, was “shut up”.

Ms Clinton had events scheduled at a gym and a high school and Mr Edwards, meanwhile, mounted an all-night bus tour of the state, with 10 more events planned throughout the day and evening.

“While everyone else goes to bed tonight,” he said at a rally in Nashua, “I’m going to be out working.”