A resurgent John Kerry hit the hustings in New Hampshire on Tuesday, hoping to deploy his resounding victory in Iowa against a formidable opponent in the retired general Wesley Clark.
Kerry took 38% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses on Monday night, staring down the threat of political oblivion to stage a dramatic last-minute comeback.
He returns to a wide open contest. The erstwhile frontrunner in New Hampshire as well as Iowa, Howard Dean, took a drubbing in the caucuses, coming in a distant third at 18%.
With the next phase of the election now just one week away in the New Hampshire primary, Kerry will try to use his comeback in Iowa as yet another example of his fabled toughness.
Although Clark spent a lifetime in uniform, Kerry is a decorated Vietnam war hero and was unwilling on Monday night to relinquish his own claim to military expertise in a general election campaign that is likely to be centred on national security.
At several points in his victory speech Kerry reminded supporters that he was a fighter, and would not be daunted by taking on George Bush.
”Not so long ago, this campaign was written off,” he said. ”Now you are sending me on to New Hampshire and the other contests in this country and I make you this pledge, I have only begun to fight.”
Clark remains Kerry’s main enemy in New Hampshire, although strategists for the Massachusetts senator believe that both he and Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut made a mistake in skipping the Iowa caucuses. They lost the limelight, and now in Kerry and Edwards face the two rival candidates with new buoyancy.
Despite the direct threat from Clark, Kerry will also be looking over his shoulder at John Edwards. The Senator from North Carolina with the inspiring stump speech won 32% of the vote in Iowa with a positive populist message. Kerry’s aides believe much of that support was siphoned off from Dean, and if Edwards is the candidate who picks up votes from fellow candidates, his support will grow in New Hampshire with a similar transfer of votes from the Lieberman camp.
Dean, once the frontrunner in both contests, has been losing ground to Clark in New Hampshire’s opinion polls. After being weakened in Iowa he needs to soften his image to stage a comeback of his own. But, while dented, the candidacy of Dean lives on.
That is not an option for Dick Gephardt, who suffered a dispiriting fourth place finish, carrying just 11% of the vote. Gephardt returned home to Missouri overnight, his run for the presidency over, and his political career at an end after 33 years in Congress.
”Today my pursuit of the presidency has reached its end,” he told a press conference yesterday. ”I am withdrawing as a candidate and returning to private life.”
Kerry now hopes to turn Gephardt’s defeat to his advantage, including a gracious reference to the Missouri congressman in his victory speech in the hope of picking up his industrial union supporters.
Edwards also made a play for Gephardt’s base.
Results from the Iowa caucuses do not necessarily dictate what is to come in New Hampshire. However, the switch in allegiance from Dean, frontrunner for much of the Iowa race, to Kerry was seen on Tuesday as an indicator for issues of importance to Democrats.
In Iowa Democrats went to caucus primarily with the aim of defeating George Bush, doubling the turnout figures from the 2000 elections. They were not won over by Dean’s stance against the war — although happy with Kerry’s attacks on Bush’s ”arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy”.
Iowa Democrats also did not appear won over by Gephardt’s visions for health care, and his calls for scrapping free trade agreements.
However, some of the populist tenor of the Iowa campaign looked set to transfer to New Hampshire. On Monday Kerry shifted slightly towards Edwards’ populist agenda of the two Americas.
One thing Kerry does not want to borrow, however, is the buzz surrounding a frontrunner.
”I am going into New Hampshire still the underdog,” he said at his victory party. ”I am going to go in and fight as hard as I know how.” – Guardian Unlimited Â