Hillary Clinton launched a searing attack on surging rival Barack Obama, as polls showed Sunday he could inflict a second body blow to her White House hopes in the upcoming New Hampshire primary.
Clinton on Saturday used a tense face-to-face debate, three days before the next crucial 2008 test to argue her rival was inconsistent, inexperienced, and more fond of words than action.
"He could have a pretty good debate with himself," a steely Clinton said, trying to pin the damaging 'flip-flop' label on Obama on hot-button issues like healthcare, national security and Iraq.
Clinton came out swinging after a humiliating third place in Thursday's leadoff Iowa caucuses, which validated Obama's soaring message of hope, change and cleansing America's poisoned politics.
"You have changed positions within three years on a range of issues that you put forth when you ran for the Senate and have changed," she said.
"You said that records matter."
She also argued his powerful rhetoric did not mean he would be effective in driving reform, and said her quest to be the first woman president showed she was an agent of change.
"Words are not actions. And as beautifully presented and passionately felt as they are, they are not action."
Obama, stature enhanced by his Iowa triumph, avoided serious gaffes, appeared unruffled by Clinton's attacks, and smoothly deflected them with his own political message.
"What I think is important that we don't do is try to distort each other's records as election day approaches here in New Hampshire," Obama said.
New polls meanwhile showed the effect of Obama's Iowa momentum.
In a CNN/WMUR survey, one of the first since the Iowa caucuses, Obama and Clinton were locked up on 33 percent of likely primary voters. Obama was up four points from a similar poll in late December and Clinton was down one.
Another poll, by the Concord Monitor newspaper, had Obama with a slender one point lead over Clinton, 34 to 33 percent.
The Clinton campaign rejected the idea Obama was vaulting from victory in Iowa, to a win in New Hampshire on Tuesday, saying his poll 'bounce' was negligible.
In a rare moment of levity, Clinton was asked why people appeared to like Obama more.
"Well that hurts my feelings," Clinton said, sparking laughter from the audience, ... "But I'll try to go on."
"He's very likable. I agree with that. ... I don't think I'm that bad," said Clinton, showing the softer side her campaign has tried to highlight to head off claims that she has a polarizing character.
Obama, adding bite to a sugary exchange, joked "You're likeable enough, Hillary," before she went back on the attack.
"In 2000, we, unfortunately, ended up with a president who people said they wanted to have a beer with, who said he wanted to be a uniter, not a divider."
"I'm offering 35 years of experience making change."
On the Republican side, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney scored a morale-boosting victory in the Wyoming nominating caucus, winning eight of the 12 delegates up for grabs in the sparsely populated state.
Meanwhile, the Republican debate was the more bruising. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who won the Republican Iowa caucuses, had to defend his remark that President George W. Bush's foreign policy had been arrogant.
Arizona Senator John McCain, who tied for third in Iowa but leads polls in New Hampshire, said he was the one Republican consistently right on Iraq.
"I know how to lead, I have been involved in these issues and I know how to solve them," said McCain.
Romney was on the receiving end of countless attacks: at one point he accused Huckabee of distorting his position and Huckabee shot back, "which one?"
McCain accused Romney of distorting his views on illegal immigrants.
"My friend, you can spend your whole fortune on these attack ads. But it still won't be true," McCain said.
Republicans also offered Obama a taste of what he will face if he wins the nomination, a development which suggested he was now seen by them as the Democratic front-runner.
"Senator Obama does not have the national security experience and background to lead this nation," McCain said.
I'm not going to comment much about this now, but what I will say America is,We have to come together to get out of this mess, Bush put us in. We don't need a rookie, we need someone who's knows, what they are doing....... To make a long story short, don't vote for people for all the wrong reasons, being nationality, gender etc, but vote for the one whom you will feel comfortable withing, putting our life in their hands.
By Andrew GoldmanPhotographed by Gilles BensimonStyled by Joe Zee“I'm reading this dumb book, and it's getting in my head,” Jessica Alba says, as she digs through her giant studded Gerard Darel bag and pulls out a white hardcover buried among the bottles of acidophilus and chlorella supplements that have been rattling around in there for about a month, since she embarked on a new no caffeine or booze, endless glasses of water, truckloads of fruits and vegetables regimen. “I was so nauseous reading this while I was on the bike today,” she says. What emerges is Skinny Bitch, the pro-vegan diatribe masquerading as a chick-lit diet book that became an instant best-seller when Victoria Beckham was photographed carrying it. As Alba reads from the chapter concerning slaughterhouses, it's clear why seared loins haven't quite tasted so succulent since her trainer Ramona gave her the book. “Stunned or not,” she reads, “cows and hogs are then 'strung up' from the ceiling by a chain attached to their legs. In theory, while they dangle there, they are supposed to be unconscious. But often they are fully conscious, struggling, screaming, and fearfully staring at the workers while they have their throats stabbed open.” Alba peers up at me, mouth agape, then buries her nose in the book and describes the work of the wretched souls whose résumés include the words head skinner.
