Obama in spotlight in New Hampshire

By Mark Egan

NASHUA, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Presidential rivals in both parties took aim at Democrat Barack Obama's experience and health-care proposals on Saturday, hours ahead of back-to-back debates that could shape tight nominating races in New Hampshire.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney adjusted their campaign pitches three days before New Hampshire's primary and criticized Obama, whose message of change propelled him to an easy win in Iowa's opening presidential nominating contest.

Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president, told an overflow crowd in Nashua, "This is our time."

"We started something on Thursday, but it was just the start," Obama said, referring to his win in Iowa. More than 2,800 enthusiastic supporters began to line up hours before the event to see Obama.

"If we cast aside our fear and cast aside our cynicism and we stand up for what we genuinely believe, this is our moment, this is our time, you can feel it, you can see it," he said.

New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday is the next battleground in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to replace President George W. Bush.

The state is crucial to efforts by Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, to revitalize their campaigns after disappointing showings in Iowa.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll on Saturday showed Clinton's lead over Obama in New Hampshire shrunk to 4 points, 32 percent to 28 percent. John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who finished second in Iowa, was in third place with 20 percent.

Among Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain's lead over Romney fell by 2 points to 32 percent against 30 percent. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor who won the Republican contest in Iowa, gained 2 points to 12 percent.

Most of the polling in the four-day tracking survey was done before the Iowa caucuses on Thursday. A Rasmussen poll taken after Iowa's results had Obama moving past Clinton, 37 percent to 27 percent.

"We cannot afford Barack Obama as the next president. He's a nice fella and a very well-spoken fella, but he's never done it," Romney said in Derry, challenging Obama's experience while adopting a new version of the change message that worked for Obama and Huckabee in Iowa.

Romney cast himself as a can-do outsider and successful venture capitalist who could successfully fix Washington's problems.

WASHINGTON BROKEN

"Is there anyone here that agrees with me that Washington is badly broken?" he asked to cheers. "Washington is fundamentally broken and incapable of dealing with the challenges we have."

Clinton told 300 people in Penacook, New Hampshire, that she had the experience to tackle problems on day one, including health care, as she targeted the young voters who flocked to Obama in Iowa.