Politics

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (CBS) ― With no break after the Iowa caucuses, the presidential candidates are on the move Friday night. The New Hampshire primary is just four days away and every minute counts.

As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports from New Hampshire, it was an extraordinary showcase for several presidential candidates attracting the largest crowd in the history of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Three thousand people flocked to the New Hampshire Dome, but with Iowa's second place finisher, John Edwards, skipping the event the dramatic tension was supplied by senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The junior senator from Illinois, Obama won the longest and loudest ovation of the evening when he first appeared on stage. He had the coveted final speaking position and the crowd that had at one point loudly booed Clinton as she attacked Obama responded with cheers and applause throughout his speech.

Friday night's event was a warm-up for Saturday night's final pre-primary debate in the Granite State.

Clinton's campaign has distributed talking points to its foot soldiers urging them to contrast her decades of national political experience with Obama's mere three years in the U.S. Senate.

Before campaigning in New Hampshire, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was walking on air as he boarded the plane from Iowa.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery was the only Chicago TV reporter on the flight with Obama. As CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports, Obama spoke for about four minutes with reporters on the overnight flight.

"What I was so pleased with was not just the fact that we won, or the raw numbers, but what it showed about the country," Obama said.

It was only hours after he was declared a winner in Iowa that Obama was reflecting on the victory that makes him the front runner.

"We were seeing the crowds, and so regardless of how the numbers played out exactly, we were really confident about us having changed how politics operated in this caucus. And it makes me very optimistic about the country. I think we can do it for the country as a whole," Obama said in flight.

Obama only had time for a few hours of sleep Friday morning, before he was called upon to address a crowd waiting for him at a hangar in Portsmouth, N.H.

"New Hampshire, in four days, you have the chance to change America," he said.

Obama spoke of hope and bringing much-needed change to the political establishment in Washington. Once again, he stressed the importance of a nation united.

"At this defining moment, you have can come together as Democrats and Republicans and Independents and stand up and say that we are one nation; we are one people," Obama said.

A who's who of politicians and civic leaders in Illinois celebrated Thursday night at Obama's downtown Chicago campaign headquarters.

"There were some around the country who were doubting Thomases," said State Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago). "So he proved he can win Iowa. That'll bring them on board."

"To think that an African American man can actually run for president and actually win the Iowa caucuses shows that America has changed," added Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. "This country has recognized that we don't look at race as the only factor."

On Friday morning in New Hampshire, Obama also spoke about his early days in Chicago as an organizer in the Altgeld Gardens housing development the Far South Side in the 1980s. He said the experience prepared him to work out compromises and reach across the aisle.

Many Chicagoans supporting Obama and who helped him in Iowa are now headed to New Hampshire to focus on next Tuesday's primary vote there. 
 

CBS 2's Rafael Romo and Political Editor Mike Flannery contributed to this report.

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