One who didn't change themes was Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who won decisively in Iowa on Thursday. Addressing a midday rally in Concord, Obama continued to present himself as a unifying leader who can heal partisan divisions.

“We are one people, and our time for change has come,” Obama said. “In four days' time, we have a chance to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship and the anger that has characterized Washington for so long, to end the political strategy that says it's all about tearing your opponents down, as opposed to building the country up.”

But his fellow Iowa victor, Republican Mike Huckabee, pivoted quickly to adapt to a vastly different political landscape for the New Hampshire primary.

The once-obscure former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister jolted the Republican Party by winning in Iowa on a burst of support from evangelical Christians. In New Hampshire, where there are relatively few evangelicals and voters are fixated on taxes, Huckabee shifted his focus from religious values to his proposal to eliminate the income tax and replace it with a 23 percent sales tax.

“My tax plan, which would completely overhaul the tax system, is connecting with the voters of New Hampshire,” Huckabee said in an interview on CBS' “The Early Show.” “We only have a few days to close the sale, but I think the momentum coming out of Iowa is going to be good for us. Then we're on to South Carolina and Florida, where we're running first in the polls.”

Republican Mitt Romney, who bet his presidential hopes on free-spending campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire, declared he would recover from his disappointing second-place showing in Iowa. He dismissed Huckabee's win as an evangelical-driven “prairie fire” that would burn itself out in New Hampshire.

“It will be a different race here,” the former Massachusetts governor said at an early-morning news conference in Portsmouth, N.H.

Romney, whose relentless attacks on Huckabee seemed to draw little blood in Iowa, began airing a scathing ad aimed at Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whom polls show to be his strongest rival in New Hampshire. The ad blisters McCain for voting against President Bush's tax cuts and favoring “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who finished third behind Obama and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, highlighted New Hampshire's history of repudiating the Iowa vote, with the help of her husband.

“New Hampshire will be given a chance to show your well-known and deeply deserved independent judgment,” former President Clinton told a rally at Nashua Airport. He described his wife as “an agent of change both in government and out – in the Senate and in the White House and in all the years before.”

The former president's remark appeared to set the stage for a continuation of a debate between his wife and Obama that began in Iowa.

In the days leading up to the caucuses, Obama seemed to gain the upper hand by contrasting opponent Clinton's emphasis on experience with his promise “to bring change to a government seen by many voters as paralyzed by bitter and polarizing partisanship.”

In Iowa, polls showed that he appealed to young voters and those who had never participated in caucuses.

Seeking to recast the debate for New Hampshire voters, Clinton declared that younger voters in the Granite State “need a president who just won't call for change, or a president who won't just demand change, but a president who will produce change, just like I've been doing for 35 years.”

Clinton's reliance on her husband's enduring popularity among hard-core Democrats is not without risk, said Sam Popkin, a professor of political science at the University of California San Diego.

“I don't know how Bill Clinton really strikes out for his wife without making her look like the weakling of the family,” Popkin said. “She's got the same problem as all vice presidents do. How can you be an independent person of strength without being just a cheerleader or a 'yes' person?”

Sen. Clinton argued yesterday that Obama, as a first-term senator, has a relatively scant record and said voters should not make a hasty decision “without taking a hard look at all of this.”

“It's hard to know exactly where he stands, and people need to ask that,” she said.

For his part, Edwards continued railing against special interests and derided his opponents as “corporate Democrats.” He also sought to consign Clinton to irrelevancy by declaring that New Hampshire voters “now have two choices.”

In the Republican race, McCain said Romney lacks the foreign-policy experience a commander in chief needs, citing Bush's level of experience when he first ran in 2000.

“You could argue that he had to lean a little bit too much on Vice President Cheney,” McCain said in an interview on Bloomberg television's “Political Capital With Al Hunt.”

“When George W. Bush was first elected, we were not in wars. Now we are in two wars and a larger struggle against radical Islamic extremism.”

Two Republicans did not campaign in New Hampshire.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani campaigned in Florida, which holds a primary Jan. 29. Giuliani placed a distant sixth in Iowa, behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is hoping for a Huckabee-like breakthrough in the Granite State.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, whose third-place finish in Iowa was slightly ahead of McCain's, returned to his home in suburban Washington. Campaign officials said Thompson would participate in the weekend debates in New Hampshire but would devote most of his campaign time to South Carolina.

Almost unnoticed – and virtually ignored by the candidates – are Wyoming's Republican caucuses today. Because Wyoming violated national party rules by moving up its caucuses, the state GOP is being stripped of half its 14 delegates to the national convention.

Meanwhile, three televised presidential debates in New Hampshire this weekend will have an unfamiliar look: There will be fewer candidates onstage.

Two Democratic contenders – Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware – dropped their presidential bids after the Iowa results were announced Thursday night.

And ABC, which is airing back-to-back debates tonight, announced that Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of Alpine and two Democrats, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska, would be excluded from the debates because of poor showings in Iowa and low standing in the polls. The tape-delayed debates – Republicans appear first – will be broadcast in San Diego from 7 to 11 p.m. on KGTV-10 News.

Fox News Channel will broadcast a debate at 5 p.m. Sunday that excludes Hunter and Paul, even though Paul had a better showing in Iowa than Giuliani, who was invited to the debate.