Presidential Candidates

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters -- her first direct attack on the Illinois senator since his Democratic victory in Iowa. The mailer says that seven times during his tenure in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, whereas Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

As presidential candidates battle in New Hampshire and beyond, an older generation of prominent politicians is bemoaning the whole polarized scene -- grousing that could encourage New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to jump into the race and transform the political landscape. On Monday, a bipartisan group of these elders is meeting at the University of Oklahoma to urge candidates to set a less divisive tone and stop catering to their narrow political bases.

Their critiques crackling with animosity, Republican presidential candidates took turns Saturday upbraiding one another -- and, much of the time, former New Hampshire front-runner Mitt Romney -- in a debate whose tension illustrated the grave stakes in Tuesday's primary for many of the men on the stage. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, came under sequential fire from Arizona Sen. John McCain on his campaign ads, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on immigration, former Arkansas Gov.

Excerpts from the victory speech by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to his supporters in Des Moines after the Iowa caucuses: I'm amazed, but I'm encouraged, because tonight what we have seen is a new day in American politics. A new day is needed in American politics, just like a new day is needed in American government. And tonight it starts here in Iowa. But it doesn't end here. It goes all the way through the other states and ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. one year from now.

Excerpts from Sen. Barack Obama's victory speech to his supporters in Des Moines after the Iowa caucuses: You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do. . . .

Not so long ago, it would have been unimaginable that full-throated support for the larger troop presence in Iraq could be considered a political asset in New Hampshire, where discontent with the war's course fueled sweeping Democratic gains in the 2006 midterm election. But Sen. John McCain clearly believes the significant drop in U.S. casualties has altered political dynamics.

Barack Obama is Kennedyesque. Mike Huckabee is Reaganesque. And those observations mean merely this: Both are upbeat candidates who radiate optimism and conviction. They don't reflect the dark side of politics. They exude hope. These attributes have always had a special appeal for California voters, who -- because of what Iowans did Thursday -- are likely to be offered a bigger role in the presidential nominating process Feb. 5 than many pundits had predicted.

A few minutes after 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, dozens of volunteers filtered into a storefront campaign headquarters where a massive photograph of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton smiled out from a window beneath a dingy Whirlpool appliance sign. The plan for the day was to get boots on the ground for a door-to-door canvass of Nashua, about 15 miles down the Merrimack River from Manchester. The Clinton organizers were eager to get started on the crucial last Sunday before Tuesday's primary.

He was wonky, folksy and occasionally self-deprecating. And though Bill Clinton never alluded to his wife's defeat in Thursday's Iowa caucuses, he said he was baffled by the way her years of public service had been perceived as a liability. Still, the former president said Sunday he believed that his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, demonstrated in Saturday night's Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire that she was the best candidate.

Here's the billion-dollar question about this city's billionaire mayor: Is he going to run for president, or what? The discussion is playing out on tabloid pages, on radio and television talk shows, and in cafes and bookstores across New York, where everyone seems to have an opinion about the presidential election. And if Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg jumps into the race, they say it will get even more interesting. "The conversation is, 'Oh, my God, is he going to do this?'