(Ebru News/AP) The most wide-open presidential race in a half century pushed unpredictably into a decisive new phase, the rhetoric a bit more pointed and the appeals a tad more urgent in the final run-up to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
The Democratic race over the next eight days shapes up as a three-way fight for Iowa among Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee.
It's unlikely that Edwards, in particular, could sustain a loss in the first contest, particularly since he's been campaigning there virtually since the last election.
However, he campaigned in New Hampshire and stopped at his state headquarters in Manchester to give his supporters a pep talk.
John Edwards, Democratic presidential candidate said:
"There is a huge momentum behind what we're doing right now, and I can feel it. It's not my imagination. It's very, very real," he said in Manchester.
Obama was first among the leading contenders into the state after the holiday, renewing a campaign-long attempt to cast himself as an agent of change.
The former first lady campaigned with her husband and daughter by her side, opening a final-week sprint with remarks designed to blunt Obama and Edwards.
She blamed President Bush for a myriad of international problems the United States faces abroad.
Senator Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate said:
"We've got problems as far as the eye can see. You just take a globe out and whip it around, put your finger down, and we've got a problem thanks to George Bush," Clinton said in Iowa.
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