Who's in 1st? They all are

The lessons of Iowa and strategy for New Hampshire and beyond?

With New Hampshire's primary only two days away and the 22 primaries of Feb. 5 coming up fast, Illinois backers of Iowa's victors are quick to claim superior organizations and messages that they say will prevail in other states, too.

By contrast, local supporters of candidates who lagged in Iowa call that state's caucuses "quirky" and point out that one primary does not a nomination make.

Call it spin or healthy optimism, supporters of all the major candidates in both parties say their favorites are alive and well.

Ben LaBolt, Chicago-based spokesman for Barack Obama, said his candidate's ability to draw young, female and independent voters will be shown again in New Hampshire. He said the campaign has an organization in place there equal to the one that in Iowa helped produce a surprisingly large Democrat turnout.

But J.B. Pritzker, the Chicago-based national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign, said his camp knew all along that flat Iowa would be an uphill climb because of Obama's next-door neighbor status and John Edwards' heavy investment of time.

In New Hampshire, Pritzker said, "we have a great, great infrastructure. People are much more familiar with (Clinton) by virtue of her proximity in New York, and there's a whole different chemistry there."

Pritzker disputed the post-Iowa analysis that Obama trumped Clinton in selling himself to voters as the more compelling change agent.

"Change is great," Pritzker said, "but change coupled with a history of creating change makes it more likely that change is actually going to occur. Her record on that is superior to Obama's."

Pritzker also said he expects Obama to encounter closer media scrutiny now that he is widely perceived as the Democrats' front-runner.

As for Edwards, while some analysts say he needed to win Iowa to survive much longer, Glenn Stier, an Edwards delegate candidate from Vernon Hills, said Iowa indicates that Democrats are nearly evenly divided between Edwards and Obama as preferable alternatives to Clinton and her implied fondness for the 1990s, when her husband occupied the White House.

Edwards, Stier said, will draw well in New Hampshire and beyond because "he favors more fundamental change" than Obama does.

On the Republican side, Joe Wiegand, a delegate candidate for Iowa winner Mike Huckabee, acknowledged that any single victory's shelf life is short when the next primary arrives so quickly.

For that reason, Wiegand, of Kirkland, said he was pleased to see the former Arkansas governor's national campaign quickly follow up his Iowa win with Internet fundraising appeals.

Huckabee, Wiegand said, needs money to produce TV ads that will give viewers in other states what he says Iowa voters saw in person: "A fellow who seems so comfortable in his own skin that he can speak with extreme passion about his values and what he thinks and not give the impression that he's reading from talking points."

Some analysts have called Mitt Romney Iowa's biggest loser because the former Massachusetts governor finished 9 percentage points in back of Huckabee despite devoting large amounts of time and money.

But Dan Rutherford, a state senator from Pontiac and a leader of Romney's Illinois effort, said his candidate has the organization, money and cash to last the entire primary season. He predicted Romney's fortunes will change, beginning in New Hampshire, which, he said, features "a different type of process, a different type of constituency" from Iowa.

State Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, has drawn intra-party flak for appearing in an early Obama campaign ad aired in Iowa.

But Dillard, a delegate candidate for John McCain, said Obama and McCain share qualities that served them well in Iowa and will propel both in upcoming contests.

"Obama's surge, I believe, helps John McCain," Dillard said, "because Obama's message of hope and wanting a different kind of Washington and ability to work across the aisle is very similar to John McCain."

Former New York City Mayor and GOP hopeful Rudy Giuliani was the man who in Iowa literally and figuratively wasn't there.

State Rep. Ed Sullivan, a Giuliani convention delegate from Mundelein, acknowledges the risk of Giuliani's strategic decision to skip Iowa and now New Hampshire, with their heavy news coverage.

Sullivan explained Giuliani's calculation as, "Do I go into these two conservative primaries and get killed, or do I hold off and focus myself in other areas? I think it's better that he focus on other areas rather than come out bloody and with less money. Now, he's got a full bankroll, and he can go to other states and say, 'Here's my message.' "

Republican Ron Paul finished fifth in Iowa, but he also has raised $20 million in the past three months.

That, said Illinois campaign coordinator Joe Cesarone, will allow Paul to open four new Illinois field offices and continue his fight.