January 07, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 27, 1428

MANCHESTER (New Hamp-shire), Jan 6: Democratic contender Hillary Clinton on Sunday battled to fend off her surging rival Barack Obama, as polls put her at risk of a second stinging defeat on the road to the White House.

On the heels of his stunning win in Iowa, a McClatchy-MSNBC poll showed Obama with the support of 33 per cent of New Hampshire voters, against 31 per cent for Clinton.

Another poll, by the Concord Monitor newspaper, had Obama with a slender one-point lead over Clinton, 34 to 33 per cent, and had him leading among independent and female voters.

In the face those surveys, the former first lady went door to door Sunday to drum up votes in freezing weather ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries, and portrayed her charismatic rival as all words and no action.

“There is a big difference between talking and acting, between promising and delivering,” Senator Clinton, who would make history by becoming the first woman president, told a rally of canvassers.

She vied to harness Obama’s narrative that change is coming to America in November’s election, but stressed that experience also counts.

“We have got to pick a president that will be ready on day one to deliver results.” Clinton on Saturday had used a tense televised debate to argue that her party rival was inconsistent, inexperienced, and more fond of high-flown oratory than executing change.

But her attacks on Obama’s comparative inexperience fell flat in Thursday’s Iowa caucuses, where the Illinois senator hoping to be America’s first black president won a surprisingly comfortable victory over John Edwards and Clinton.

Obama, his stature enhanced by his Iowa triumph, avoided serious gaffes in Saturday’s debate, appeared unruffled by Clinton’s attacks, and smoothly deflected them with his own political message of hope.

Attracting huge crowds despite the frigid New Hampshire temperatures, Obama said on Sunday that “in two days’ time, it will be your time to stand up, you will have a chance to change America.”

“We are now on the cusp of electing a new majority, a majority that will help us win the nomination, and win the election, but most importantly a majority that will allow us to have the power to reform,” he said.

On the Republican side, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney scored a morale-boosting victory in Saturday’s Wyoming nominating caucus, winning eight of the 12 delegates up for grabs in the sparsely populated state.

Despite his own vast personal wealth and a vaunted organisation in Iowa, Romney went down to defeat on Thursday to Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher.

In the Republicans’ televised debate on Saturday, Romney came under repeated, scornful attack from his rivals including Huckabee and Senator John McCain, who leads in most New Hampshire polls.

No love is lost between the Republicans, with Romney under withering fire for running as a comparatively liberal Republican in Massachusetts before changing his mind about abortion, gay rights and immigration.

“He has changed his position on almost every major issue, that is a fact,” McCain told NBC on Sunday.

“But that doesn’t mean that he isn’t a good person. I want to debate this campaign on issues, not on personalities,” he said, as his and Romney’s campaigns traded blistering attack ads in New Hampshire.

For his part, the man bidding to be America’s first Mormon president said McCain had staked out heretical positions on tax cuts and immigration reform that put him out of step with mainstream Republicans.

“He talks about changing Washington. But he’s been there so long, he’s got so many lobbyists at each elbow, he’s worked so long in many cases, he’s a maverick against his own party,” Romney said on Fox News Sunday.

Meanwhile Edwards, who teamed up with Obama in Saturday’s caustic debate to depict Clinton as the “status quo” guardian, said he would stay in the Democratic race even after his loss in Iowa.

Asked on ABC if would fight on even if he also loses in New Hampshire and forthcoming battles, the former vice presidential nominee said: “I am in this through the convention and to the White House.”—AFP