As New Hampshire voters prepare to go to the polls, surging poll numbers and crowd counts in the state today boosted Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to the top of the Democratic charts.
Ignoring a doctor's advice to rest his raspy voice, Obama told an overflowing rally in Lebanon, N.H., that "ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they are given a chance."
Voters started lining up early in the morning to hear Obama, who also spoke to the more than 400 who waited outside to see him because they could not get in.
New Hampshire profile: A graphic accompanying an article in Tuesday's Section A about the candidates' final push for votes in New Hampshire reversed the percentages in showing results of the 2004 general election in that state. John F. Kerry got 50% of the vote, and George W. Bush got 49%.
Appearing in front of banners that said, "Change We Can Believe In," Obama said: "You're the wave and I'm riding it."
In a direct jab at rival Hillary Clinton, Obama said, "We don't want someone who plays the game better, but someone who will stop the game-playing." Meanwhile, the New York senator, battling former Sen. John Edwards for second place in New Hampshire, continued to hammer on her ability to make change, not just talk about it.
Blasting Obama for hiring a New Hampshire lobbyist to head his campaign there while portraying himself as the outside agent of change, Clinton said on ABC's "Good Morning America": "All of a sudden you start to ask yourself, Wait a minute. I mean, what is the substance here?"
And Clinton, once considered the front-runner in the Democratic race, vowed to continue the battle even if she loses to Obama in Tuesday's election. "Whatever happens tomorrow, we're going on," Clinton told CBS' "Early Show." "And we're going to keep going until the end of the process on Feb. 5." In fact, although 22 states hold primaries on Feb. 5 -- including big-delegate prizes such as California and New York -- nearly two dozen others hold their primary elections later in the year.
With Edwards and his wife Elizabeth kicking off a 36-hour campaign trail marathon, the latest Marist New Hampshire Poll, taken over the weekend, shows Obama widening his lead to 36% and Clinton, at 28%, losing ground to Edwards, now at 22%.
On the Republican side, the same poll showed Arizona Sen. John McCain at 35% and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was aggressive in rebutting his GOP colleagues on taxes and immigration during weekend debates, gaining ground, to 31%. The poll had former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa Caucus, at 13%.
Actor Chuck Norris, whose early endorsement helped catapult the former Arkansas governor to national status, is with Huckabee on the campaign trail today. Bristling at attacks on Huckabee for being a minister, Norris said on "Fox & Friends" this morning: "Why can't they give him credit where credit's due as the governor of Arkansas, who took over the governorship with a deficit of $200 million and when he left the governorship it was $850 million in the black? Give him a break. I mean, you know, Mitt Romney's a bishop, so why don't they call him Bishop Romney?"
McCain, who Sunday predicted that he would win the GOP primary in New Hampshire, is on a seven-city bus tour today, quipping to supporters to "vote early and often."
johanna.neuman@latimes.com
