Today on the presidential campaign trail

IN THE HEADLINES

Clinton and Obama offer different paths to White House ... Huckabee tells N.H. voters he takes the presidency seriously ... McCain tells N.H. voters to ignore money, negative ads ... Hoping to rebound, Clinton urges New Hampshire voters to vet and question candidates ... Obama reaches out to N.H. independents ... Kucinich, Hunter, Gravel cut from ABC News presidential debates set for Saturday ... Edwards puts Clinton back into the mix ... Loss behind him, Romney seeks rebound

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MILFORD, N.H. (AP) — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama drew two distinct paths to the White House for raucous New Hampshire Democratic Party activists Friday night: She's tested and ready to stand her ground against Republicans while he's prepared to build a new majority that will put Democrats in power.

The two messages, delivered a day after the Iowa caucuses that gave Obama a victory and Clinton a stunning third-place finish, received boisterous receptions at the state party's annual fundraising dinner. They also featured the contrasting visions the candidates have not only for political success but for governing as well.

"There are two big questions for voters in New Hampshire," Clinton said. "One is, who will be ready to be president on day one? Second, who can we nominate who will go the distance against the Republicans? I have been on the receiving end of all their incoming fire that they train on Democrats. I'm still here, I'm still standing."

Obama countered with a call for a broader political base founded on progressive values.

"If you know who you are, if you know what you believe in, if you know what you are fighting for, then you can afford to listen to folks who don't agree with you, you can afford to reach across the aisle every once in a while," Obama said. "It won't hurt you. You won't be compromised and you will be able to form the majorities that will defeat the special interests and ... win elections."

Clinton, Obama, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich all made their presidential pitches to the 3,000 hardy partisans assembled Friday night for the New Hampshire Democratic Party's fundraising dinner, the largest in its history.

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Huckabee rallies in N.H. after Iowa win

HENNIKER, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee spun his common-man theme into a message of patriotism in his first rally in New Hampshire since winning the Iowa caucuses.

He gets criticized for kidding around, Huckabee acknowledged, but he takes the presidency seriously.

"I think this is a serious job. Being president is a serious job. Running this country is serious business. The issues we face are serious," he told about 175 people in a college gymnasium here. "The reason I have fun is because I love America."

Without naming rival Mitt Romney, he referred to attack ads Romney is running against fellow Republican John McCain in New Hampshire and aired against Huckabee in Iowa. Huckabee said he is running for something, not against his rivals.

"There are some things we could do better," Huckabee said. "I'm a person who loves his country, because I understand how good it is. But I'm running for office because I know it could do better."

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McCain touts Iraq vision

HOLLIS, N.H. (AP) — Seizing on the buzz word of the campaign, Sen. John McCain told voters Friday if they're looking for change, they should remember how he helped turn things around in Iraq.

"I'm most proud of the change I brought about in Iraq that saved American lives," McCain said. "No one else was ready to make that kind of reform. I'm proud to stand here as a person who has reformed and reformed and reformed."

McCain was an early critic of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and called early on to increase the number of troops in Iraq. He spoke during a brief afternoon stop at the Hollis Pharmacy, where he was mobbed by supporters and the media.

"I know you are examining these candidates, and you can't buy an election in the state of New Hampshire. You have to earn it," McCain said. "Tell the candidates you want positive ads.

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Clinton retools campaign for N.H.

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Fighting back from a devastating loss in Iowa, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to recalibrate her campaign in New Hampshire Friday by promising to answer as many voter questions as possible.

With a new urgency in her voice, the former first lady dispensed with much of her lengthy campaign stump speech and took her case directly to New Hampshire voters, whose state primary is Tuesday.

New Hampshire could make or break Clinton's candidacy. Voters resoundingly rejected her message of experience in favor of a charismatic newcomer, Barack Obama in Thursday night's Iowa caucuses.

At a rally in a freezing cold airport hangar, the New York senator urged supporters to cut through all the "static in the air" to learn what they could about her candidacy and that of Obama and John Edwards, who also edged her in Iowa.

Campaigning for his wife in Durham, N.H., Bill Clinton didn't mention Iowa, its caucuses or his wife's devastating loss there. Instead, the former president and took questions from audiences — a practice New Hampshire voters demand and he has recently shunned.

He also took a shot at reframing the argument for a second Clinton White House, given voters in Iowa decided they favored Obama and his message of change over her 35-year record.

"You need to hire a president who is a doer, who executes. ... Do you want the feeling or the fact of change? What is it that you want? What is it that you need?" Bill Clinton said at the University of New Hampshire.

Bill Clinton, who made several stops in the early voting state, spoke to rooms with empty seats — something new to his wife's campaign.

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Obama appeals to N.H. independents

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama appealed to New Hampshire's famously unaligned voters, embracing all political persuasions and borrowing language from Republican John McCain, a favorite of New Hampshire's independent voters eight years ago.

"If you know who you are, if you know what you believe in, if you know your principles, if you know what you are fighting for, then you can reach out those you don't agree with," he told a crowd of more than 1,500, including students, assembled in a Concord high school.

He said he would demand sacrifice from Americans when necessary and be frank about his goals and his approach to governing.

Then, lifting McCain's catch phrase, he added: "We need someone who exercises straight talk instead of spin."

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ABC cuts 3 from presidential debates

NEW YORK (AP) — ABC News is eliminating Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter and Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from its prime-time presidential debates Saturday night because they did not meet benchmarks for their support.

The Republican debate three days before the New Hampshire primary will include Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. It starts at 7 p.m. EST.

Shortly after that 90-minute forum, Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Bill Richardson will take the stage at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.

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Edwards makes his case to NH voters

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Despite earlier signs he would ignore Hillary Rodham Clinton in their mutual chase of Barack Obama, John Edwards on Friday lumped his two presidential opponents together as "corporate Democrats" who would not fight hard enough for working Americans.

"Nothing will change if we trade a crowd of corporate Republicans for corporate Democrats," Edwards told more than 200 supporters and union activists in Nashua, N.H. The state's presidential primary is Tuesday.

Edwards did not mention Clinton or Obama by name, but later made it clear to reporters he was referring to both of them.

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Romney seeks rebound in New Hampshire

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney reached into the sports metaphor closet Friday as he sought to give perspective to an Iowa caucus loss that put added pressure on him to win next week's New Hampshire primary.

"This is still a nice, long process here," he told about 150 campaign workers who defied frigid temperatures and the 3 a.m. hour to greet his plane as it returned from the Midwest. "We've had, if you will, the first inning of a game that has, let's say, 50 innings in it."

He made several veiled jabs at Sen. John McCain, a congressional veteran who is challenging Romney's long-standing lead in New Hampshire.

"I want to go to Washington to bring the kind of can-do, change experience that I've had everywhere I've been," he said.

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Wilder endorses Obama

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Barack Obama won the endorsement Friday of another black Democrat who scored a political first.

L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, endorsed Obama's bid to become the nation's first black president.

Wilder, Virginia's governor from 1990 to 1994 and now mayor of Richmond, praised Obama as "a leader who can move beyond the parochialisms of the past."

"Sen. Barack Obama brings forth all of these qualities. I am tremendously impressed with him and have said many favorable things about him in the past," Wilder wrote in a three-paragraph statement issued as an official city news release.

Virginia holds its primaries on Feb. 12.

The grandson of slaves, Wilder, 76, campaigned briefly for a 1992 presidential run but quit the race before the primaries that year. ___

THE DEMOCRATS

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson campaign in New Hampshire.

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THE REPUBLICANS

Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul talk to voters in New Hampshire.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"This feels good. This feels just like I imagined when I was talking to my kindergarten teacher." — Democrat Barack Obama, referring to an exchange with the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign over the longtime ambitions of their candidates, at an airplane hangar in Portsmouth, N.H.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

Seventy-two percent of New Hampshire citizens voted in the 2004 presidential election, according to the Census Bureau.

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Compiled by Ann Sanner