(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-05 15:20

MILFORD, N.H. - Senators of the United States 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.

US Presidential candidate Barack Obama waves to supporters as he leaves an election rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, January 4, 2008. Obama, campaigning for the January 8 New Hampshire Primary, won the Iowa Caucus January 3. [Xinhua]

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.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton campaigns during a rally in Nashua, New Hampshire, January 4, 2008. Voters in New Hampshire go to the polls January 8 in the US presidential primary elections. [Xinhua]

"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.

After a day of making their cases to New Hampshire voters, including the state's unpredictable independents, the four offered some sharper partisan rhetoric for the appreciative crowd.

Former Sen. John Edwards, who edged Clinton for second place in Iowa, skipped the dinner in favor of campaigning at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth. But his wife, Elizabeth, attended and made herself available to reporters during the event's preliminary speeches.

President Bush was a popular target for the Democrats.

"There are many reasons history will judge George W. Bush harshly," Clinton said at one point. "But among the top two is how he has used fear to divide us. The other is because we have been infected by a sense of fatalism."

Richardson, who has made ending the war in Iraq a central theme of his campaign, scolded Bush for continuing "the drum beat that the surge is working." He repeated his vow to get all troops out of Iraq in one year, arguing that divisions over the war make solutions to other problems impossible.

"Until we end the war in Iraq, we cannot have universal health care," he said. "Until we end the war in Iraq, America cannot become the clean energy nation. Until we end the war in Iraq, we cannot have America No. 1 in education."

Clinton received a rousing cheer at the end of her 18-minute address, but Obama, the last speaker of the night, had the audience on its feet, waving placards during an earsplitting ovation.

Clinton conceded Obama's call for bipartisanship but stressed her allegiance to the party.

"We've got to bring people together across the divide that too often separates us," she said. "But we also have to stand for Democratic principles. I am proud to be a Democrat."

Obama, without mentioning her name, rejected Clinton's argument that she is better prepared for the presidency than he is and signaled that he is prepared for the critique.

"Lately people have been saying, 'Well, Obama, he may talk good, he may have good ideas,'" he said. "But they will say, 'Obama hasn't been in Washington long enough, he needs to be seasoned and stewed and we need to boil all the hope out of him. You know, that argument did not work in Iowa and it's not going to work in New Hampshire."