Kerry Still Ahead in Post-Debate Polls
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}John Kerry (search) continues to widen his lead over Howard Dean (search) and the rest of his Democratic rivals in the New Hampshire primary, according to the latest polls.
Meanwhile, candidates on the campaign trail in the Granite State on continued to shake hands, seek endorsements from big-name newspapers and faces on Saturday.
Currently, 37 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire support Kerry, according to The Fox News New Hampshire Primary Tracking Poll released Friday. Nineteen percent support Dean, 15 percent are going for Wesley Clark (search), 11 percent prefer John Edwards, 8 percent back Joe Lieberman, 3 percent support Dennis Kucinich and 7 percent remain undecided.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}• Click here for the N.H. Tracking Poll.
Since Monday night's Iowa caucuses, Kerry has gained 13 percentage points and Dean has lost 14 points.
Kerry has benefited from voters turning away from Dean because of their concerns about the former Vermont governor's electability and consistency. Now, 44 percent of likely primary voters say Dean is the most inconsistent candidate, up 34 percent from three days ago.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, told Fox News that while all the polls show different numbers, the trends are the same.
"Post-Iowa, Dean's support in New Hampshire has just collapsed and almost all of it has gone over toward John Kerry," Smith said, noting that Kerry has been picking up Dean supporters left and right, particularly women.
Edwards and Lieberman, on the other hand, "are going to have a difficult time because the electorate here is a little more liberal than the message they're pitching," Smith said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Earlier, a Boston Globe/WBZ tracking poll showed that Kerry had opened a 15-point lead over Dean in New Hampshire; Clark had 14 percent support in that poll, Edwards had 11 percent and Lieberman had 3 percent.
The latest New Hampshire tracking poll from American Research Group, meanwhile, showed Kerry 11 points ahead of Dean with 31 percent of the vote. Clark got 18 percent of the vote, Edwards got 11 percent and Lieberman got 7 percent.
An MSNBC/Reuters/Zogby poll gave Kerry a similar lead, with Edwards and Lieberman in single digits, while a WHDH/Suffolk College poll put Kerry 26 points ahead of Dean. Clark trailed Dean by only 2 points.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}• For more campaign news, click to view Foxnews.com's You Decide 2004 page.
Kerry: Bush's 'Worst Nightmare'
On a national scale, a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll released Friday shows that Kerry has replaced Dean as the candidate the public expects will win the Democratic nomination and go up against Bush, according to the survey.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A plurality sees the Massachusetts senator as the Democrat who best understands "the real world," the poll showed. Kerry also strongly outperforms Dean on a new focus on the campaign — temperament.
"I think he's George Bush's worst nightmare," said former Sen. Gary Hart (search), a former presidential hopeful and Kerry supporter. "I think he's the one candidate on the platform President Bush wouldn't mention national security or defense or homeland security to."
Republicans are already aiming their fire at Kerry.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Whether it's economic policy, national security policy, or social issues, John Kerry is out of sync with most voters," said Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie.
While Kerry continued to pick up endorsements — including that of 1984 presidential nominee Walter Mondale — experts are cautioning that New Hampshires' independent-minded voters could always offer up a surprise in the end.
"Definitely the race is very fluid, and I certainly wouldn't preclude a big change of opinion at the end of the race," said Peter Canellos, deputy managing editor for the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe, which endorsed Kerry.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kerry enjoys the "unusual phenomenon" where he's underestimated at first, but "he's a good finisher," Canellos added.
"I think people have gotten to know who John Kerry is … people see in him the kind of person they want in a president," said Mark Mellman, a Democratic strategist for Kerry.
But Lieberman, who is still polling low, has the endorsements of the Manchester Union Leader, The Foster's Daily Democrat and the Laconia Citizen Lawrence Eagle Tribune. He is trying to capitalize on the Granite State's political makeup.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Democrats are now about 19 percent of the registered voters in New Hampshire so the key to our strategy all along is to reach out to the independent voters in New Hampshire who could take a Democrat or independent ballot on Election Day," Katrina Swett, Lieberman's campaign co-chair, told Fox News.
"We are definitely picking up ground and we feel that Joe just hit it out of the ballpark in the debate," she added.
Bush, too, will travel to New Hampshire next Thursday, the White House announced on Friday. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki and Arizona Sen. John McCain, who defeated Bush in the New Hampshire primary in 2000, also are scheduled to visit the state soon.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On the Move
Kerry has shifted almost all of his Iowa campaign staff to Missouri, the state his camp thinks is the most important of all the Feb. 3 primary contests. He's negotiating for Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt's endorsement.
Gephardt has told supporters to feel free to support other candidates since the congressman dropped out of the race after his disappointing fourth-place showing in the Iowa caucuses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Winning the Show Me State is seen as vital for three reasons: it's geographically the center of the country, it's a demographically representative bellwether of the rest of the country and it has the most delegates of the Feb. 3 states — Missouri, Delaware, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Carolina, where Edwards has been focusing much of his energy on South Carolina.
"Obviously, Missouri is a huge prize," Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told Fox News. "Senator Kerry is interested in winning it and he's going to make a great effort to do so … Senator Kerry intends on waging a full-scale campaign in Missouri to win that state."
The Kerry campaign believes that if he wins in New Hampshire, a Missouri victory will fortify him for a national campaign.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kerry has been working hard to get the backing of activists that worked for Gephardt, and there was some evidence of success.
Steve Elmendorf will join the Kerry campaign as deputy campaign manager, leaving a similar post on the Gephardt campaign. In addition, Kerry picked up Gephardt staffers in Missouri and Iowa and is dispatching operatives to Arizona and New Mexico.
"It's a coup for our campaign. Nobody knows politics and the Congress like he does," said Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Back on the Campaign Trail
Candidates continued to carry their debate messages to voters on Friday.
Dean derided Washington politicians who "say anything just to get elected" and in remarks to a United Auto Workers (search) meeting, said that with Gephardt out of the race, he's the one with the best labor record. "With your help, today will be the day the turnaround starts," Dean said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The doctor-turned-politician appeared on "The Late Show" with David Letterman Thursday night to make light of his post-Iowa caucus primal scream and read off the Top 10 "Ways, I, Howard Dean, can turn things around."
The No. 1 way was: "Oh, I don't know — maybe fewer crazy, red-faced rants."
• Click here to view Dean's Iowa concession speech.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In Concord, N.H., Kucinich said it's inevitable that he will pick up Gephardt supporters because of his strong commitment to labor, although he's only polling around 1 percent.
Lieberman, who supported the Iraq war, said that Bush didn't have to claim Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction to justify going to war with Iraq but said, "Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction."
Edwards denounced "war profiteers" Friday that are winning contracts for work in Iraq even as they continue making political contributions to Washington.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kerry tried to energize fellow war veterans by arguing that the Bush administration has defaulted on its commitment to them.
His campaign also released a letter Kerry wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warning that thousands of soldiers on active duty must wait for health care.
Fox News' Carl Cameron, Major Garrett, Kelly Wright and The Associated Press contributed to this report.