Obama says hopes and change resonate with voters

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama, dismissing rival Hillary Clinton's superior Washington resume, declared on Friday the last thing he needed was to become like establishment politicians with all hope "boiled out" of them.

The Illinois senator, bidding to become the first black U.S. president, said his upbeat campaign appealed to young people and had attracted the record numbers that propelled him past New York Sen. Hillary Clinton on Thursday to make him Iowa's choice for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Far from downplaying his relative youth and inexperience. Obama highlighted his newcomer status, saying he was different from the others seeking the presidency.

"They insist I still need a little more time in Washington and I need to be seasoned and stewed so they can boil all the hope out of me, and then, finally when I sound the same as everybody else and do the same old things, that I will be ready," he told a rally of 1,000 supporters.

"It is time for us to create the sort of America we can believe in again. That is what we can do in four days," he said, referring to Tuesday's primary, which will help pick who represent the Democrats in November's election to succeed U.S. President George W. Bush.

By casting himself as the outsider untainted by the ways of Washington, Obama is seeking to differentiate himself from his two main Democratic rivals.

Clinton, seeking to become America's first female president, spent eight years in the White House from 1993 to 2001 as first lady when her husband Bill Clinton was president. She was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 and worked earlier in her career as a congressional legal counsel and a lawyer.

The second-place Democrat in Iowa, John Edwards, is a successful lawyer and former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. He then ran as the vice presidential candidate with U.S. Sen. John Kerry in their failed 2004 bid to unseat Bush.

Obama, 46, was largely unknown by most Americans until he delivered a major address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Previously, he served seven years in the Illinois state senate.

Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod said Thursday's results showed that Iowans believed Obama was more likely to engender change in Washington than Clinton.

"I think it's a pro-change vote and she's not a change candidate," Axelrod said.

Obama said that record Iowa turnout -- about 239,000 Democrats voted, up from 124,000 in 2004 -- and strong support among women and young people helped push him to victory.

Obama drew huge, enthusiastic crowds at campaign events in Iowa and that continued in New Hampshire.

His voice still hoarse after four and five rallies a day, Obama said he thought the victory in Iowa would give him momentum going forward in the rest of the primary process to pick a Democratic presidential nominee.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles, editing by Alan Elsner)

(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)