White House race marked by voters' call for change

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - The race for the White House moved to New Hampshire on Friday marked by a clear call for change delivered by voters in Iowa's caucuses who backed newcomers Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee.

The battle for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations got a jolt from Thursday's first nominating contests, sending candidates scurrying to portray themselves as the best equipped to deliver change in Washington.

Former frontrunner Hillary Clinton was forced to adjust her campaign message after appeals based mainly on her experience in power fell flat in a disappointing third-place finish in Iowa behind Obama and former senator John Edwards.

In choosing contenders challenging those favored by the political establishment in both parties, voters in Iowa expressed their preference for change over experience, according to polls of caucusgoers.

A US senator with only two years under his belt -- after seven years as a state lawmaker -- Obama, 46, is one of the least experienced of the Democratic field.

Huckabee meanwhile emerged as a serious contender for the Republican nomination despite a shortage of money, organization or foreign policy experience.

Huckabee, 52, a Christian conservative, is less assured of repeating his feat in four days in New Hampshire, where the next nomination battle takes place. Vietnam war veteran and senator John McCain hopes to puncture Huckabee's momentum after bouncing back in the polls in the New England state.

Finishing in second place in Iowa and trailing McCain in the polls in New Hampshire, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney called the result Thursday "a very clear call that people want change in Washington, not in the White House, in Washington."

Huckabee interpreted his victory and Obama's as a rejection of the prevailing political establishment.

"That's why I think if you look at both the Democrat and Republican side, Obama and me, we both represent, frankly, a generational change, but change, nonetheless," Huckabee said.

Obama said it signaled a shift in the political landscape.

"We are choosing hope over fear. We're choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America," Obama told his supporters after his Iowa victory.

Record turnout on Thursday suggested voters' desire for change. Experts had said before the contest that Obama would need to mobilize young supporters and those who had never participated to secure victory.

About 232,000 Democrats braved the winter cold in the small, rural state in the Midwest to back their favored candidate, said the Iowa Democratic party, compared to 125,000 in the last caucuses in 2004.

According to polls of Iowa voters at the caucuses, Democrats viewed Obama as the best representative of change. The need for change, the polls showed, was the top priority for voters, rather than experience or other factors.

During her campaign in Iowa, Clinton had argued she was the best qualified and the most seasoned compared to her rivals, a clear reference to the younger Obama.

In the first concrete fallout from Iowa, two senators with years of experience in Congress dropped out of the Democratic race -- Joe Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chris Dodd, head of the senate's powerful banking Committee.

Obama's victory was based on wooing independents, first-time voters as well outpacing Clinton among younger voters and women, analysts said.

"Obama won by attracting new caucusgoers including a lot of independents who re-registered as Democrats to participate," said David Yepsen, political editor at the Des Moines Register.

The two demographic groups -- women and younger voters -- will play a crucial role in whether the Democrats are able to take back the White House, Yepsen said.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080104/pl_afp/usvote2008change [link]