WRAPUP 2-Clinton targets women voters, rivals bicker

(Adds Iowa campaigning)

By Jason Szep

MANCHESTER, N.H., Dec 22 (Reuters) - Flanked by her mother and daughter, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton sought on Saturday to shore up her support among women in the tightening U.S. presidential race.

Less than two weeks before voting begins in the state-by-state process to select party candidates, the New York senator who would be the nation's first female president touted her plans to expand paid family leave and boost child-care funding to help working mothers.

"We can do a better job in America in supporting families," Clinton told about 120 voters in the lobby of the Young Women's Christian Association offices in Manchester, New Hampshire, as her 27-year-old daughter, Chelsea, and her 88-year-old mother, Dorothy Rodham, sat in chairs beside her.

In Iowa, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Clinton's rival, criticized her and candidate John Edwards for failing to stand up to corporate interests or improve how government works while they served in the U.S. Senate.

"I find it interesting when people say 'vote for me because I know how to work the system in Washington,'" the first-term senator told voters in Indianola. "We don't need somebody who can play the game better, we need somebody who will put an end to the game playing."

Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, said in a statement that Obama's attacks "seem to increase as momentum for our campaign grows."

'EVERY LITTLE THING MATTERS'

The race in both early primary states has become a statistical dead heat between Clinton and Obama while Edwards is trailing not far behind in Iowa ahead of the Nov. 4, 2008, presidential election.

In a sign of just how tight the race is, Clinton dispatched her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, to once again campaign for her in Iowa, and she planned to return to the state on Sunday for more campaigning just before the Christmas holiday.

"For Hillary Clinton every little thing matters from here on," said Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire. "She wants to keep her core voters of working-class Democrats energized, but the more upscale Democrats with professional jobs, especially women, are going to be key for her."

Clinton's national advantage over Obama shrank slightly in December to eight points from 11 points last month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released this week.

Plenty of voters seem to be undecided with just weeks to go before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary.

Tom Gillenwater, a construction worker from Indianola, said he initially liked Democratic long-shots New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd.

But he said that Obama may have changed his mind because of his plan to make health care insurance coverage negotiations public.

"I was undecided ... but I really liked what he had to say," Gillenwater said. "I pay for my own health care and it's just hard, it keeps going up each year."

IOWA PAPER BACKS ROMNEY

On the Republican campaign trail, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won a key Iowa endorsement and crisscrossed New Hampshire in a bid to fend off a mounting threat from Arizona Sen. John McCain's surging campaign.

Romney lost the Des Moines Register newspaper endorsement to McCain, but on Saturday he won the backing of the Sioux City Journal.

"Romney combines an outsider's new face with a proven track record of success in both the private and public sectors," the newspaper said in an editorial.

McCain, a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war who gave George W. Bush a run for his money in the 2000 election, is climbing in polls following a flurry of endorsements.

One New Hampshire survey this week by American Research Group shows him tied with Romney, who has already lost a big lead in Iowa to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"For Romney right now, the certainty he had about being a front-runner is gone," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of politics at Princeton University. "If Romney loses New Hampshire, his status could fall very quickly. There's a lot at stake right now." (Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Indianola, Iowa; Editing by Xavier Briand)