After Iowa, New Hampshire Just Doesn't Look the Same

[Freddie Stubbs]

ANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 20 — The Democratic presidential candidates gathered here Tuesday for an intense seven-day primary campaign that has been drastically altered by the Iowa caucuses. Campaign aides said they were girding for a nominating contest that would be longer, costlier and more debilitating than they had been planning for just weeks ago.

After the anemic showing by Howard Dean in Iowa — he lost by 20 percentage points to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts — Democrats said it appeared less likely that any candidate would sweep to a quick and decisive victory and capture their party's nomination. Dr. Dean had been looking to do that with back-to-back triumphs in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Instead, some Democrats said the contest, which many had expected to turn into a two-way race between Dr. Dean and his strongest opponent, could turn into a slog of delegate accumulation, with little incentive for any more candidates to drop out, at least in the next two weeks. Representative Richard A. Gephardt withdrew from the race on Tuesday, after coming in fourth in Iowa.

"We always thought that this was a delegate contest," said Mary Beth Cahill, Mr. Kerry's campaign manager.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/politics/campaigns/21CAMP.html