Top Democratic US presidential contenders, fresh from a contest which has dramatically reshaped the race for the nomination, arrived in New Hampshire today with polls showing Mr Howard Dean favourite to win next Tuesday's primary.
Senator John Kerry, who surged from behind to win Iowa, and Sen John Edwards, who finished a surprise second, beating Mr Dean, who was favorite, into third place and knocking Mr Richard Gephardt out of the race, received enthusiastic welcomes in the Granite State.
"The whole world will be watching what you do here, as they were watching in Iowa," said Mr Kerry from Massachusetts - who dubbed himself the "comeback Kerry" after polling 38 per cent to win in Iowa.
Just weeks ago, the millionaire war hero was lagging in the polls and his campaign was given up for dead by many analysts.
Also getting a big boost from Iowa was Mr Edwards, who won 32 per cent of the vote.
The boyish former lawyer from North Carolina, whose popularity had long been stuck in single digits, appeared to get a boost from the Democrats focus on finding a candidate to rival President Bush's personality.
"Can you feel it?" Edwards asked a crowd in Concord. "This movement is sweeping the country. And the people of New Hampshire are going to feel it."
The Iowa result was a major blow for Mr Dean, the former Vermont governor who had long set the pace in the Democratic race and now needs a strong finish in New Hampshire to reinvigorate his campaign.
"I used to be the front-runner when I went out to Iowa but I'm not the front-runner anymore," he told an airport rally in Portsmouth. "New Hampshire has a great tradition of supporting the underdog."
Mr Dean, whose clever use of the Internet to raise a record-breaking $40 million and drum up grass-roots support helped propel him to the top of the polls late last year, finished with just 18 per cent of the Iowa vote.
Speaking later to supporters in Manchester, Dean was subdued. "Today, I am going to give a different kind of speech," he said. "Those of you who came here intending to be lifted by ... a lot of red meat rhetoric are going to be a little disappointed."
The Iowa contenders face a new rival in retired general Mr Wesley Clark, who entered the race late and has focused his energies on the state. He has campaigned hard in recent weeks, drawing big crowds, some big-name endorsements, rising to second place in some polls.
But Mr Kerry's comeback poses problems for Mr Clark - with his record as a Vietnam war veteran and foreign policy expert cutting directly into the former NATO commander's strengths.
"This was poised to be a Dean vs Clark race, but now Kerry has jumped in," said pollster Mr Rich Killion of Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire.
"Clark filled a vacuum for people looking for an anti-Dean alternative, but he really might have just been a place holder for whoever came screaming in out of Iowa with all the momentum," he said.
The race has already tightened considerably in New Hampshire in the last month, with Mr Clark first closing the gap on Mr Dean, and Mr Kerry then staging a surge last week to challenge for second place.
The latest tracking poll from American Research Group, taken before the Iowa caucuses, had Mr Dean ahead with 28 per cent support, Mr Kerry with 20 per cent and Mr Clark with 19 per cent.
"I think the race is wide open," Mr Clark told supporters at his headquarters in Manchester. "We're feeling very, very good about where we are. We're going to do well in New Hampshire."
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the most conservative of the contenders, also elected to skip Iowa but has so far struggled to break out of the pack in New Hampshire.
Mr Lieberman picked up the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper, the Manchester Union Leader, today but remained in fifth place, behind Mr Edwards, at 7 per cent.
Mr Gephardt left the field after his poor fourth-place finish in Iowa.
Primary campaigns in New Hampshire, which takes its rich political tradition seriously and cherishes a reputation for independence, have a history of last-minute volatility.
After New Hampshire, the race turns national with seven contests scheduled across the country on February 3rd and caucuses set for February 7th in Michigan and Washington state.