Now, it's a steep hill for Dean and Clark

KEENE, N.H.

THE NEW CAMPAIGN that was launched in Iowa Monday night was established as fact in New Hampshire last night. John Edwards got asked about confronting Al Qaeda, dealing with Muslim nations, paying for the occupation of Iraq, overriding state laws on marriage licenses, and guns -- respectfully.

John Kerry was asked about facing President Bush on tax issues, the Iraq war, and military deployments, -- mostly respectfully.

Howard Dean got similar treatment, except when he was being asked about his temperament and his plunge in Iowa -- most famously when Peter Jennings of ABC asked him to respond either to a question about taxes or to one about his infamous Monday night screech (Dean chose both).

And Wesley Clark got asked about his credentials as a recently self-discovered Democrat, his business dealings with former Pentagon colleagues, and the endorsement statement of film-maker Michael Moore, who called Bush a "deserter" in his silent presence.

The political importance was in the questions, not the answers -- which on a night with so much at stake were predictably safe and not likely to produce much post-debate controversy.

In the pre-Monday campaign, Dean and now-departed Dick Gephardt clawed at each other while Kerry and Edwards soared to dominance by staying more focused on the kitchen table issues clearly most important to Iowans -- as they clearly are here as well.

In the new campaign Kerry and Edwards have been able to operate the same campaigns here while Dean and Clark have had to spend precious time justifying their positions in the campaign -- both rocked by the Iowa results.

Coming into the debate, it was Kerry and to a lesser extent Edwards who have kept moving forward; it was Dean and Clark who found themselves struggling to hang onto pre-Iowa positions. That dynamic was not changed by the debate, which means Dean and Clark will have to climb an even steeper hill for the next four days.

The last time the field debated in this state, in the immediate aftermath of Al Gore's endorsement of Dean, the atmosphere was the reverse; last night showed that what goes around comes around.

The result was that Kerry and Edwards (especially on foreign policy issues) got another opportunity to display their convictions and ideas. With almost every query to Dean and Clark, there was the additional element of self-justification. In Dean's case, there was the further matter of his appearance immediately after with Diane Sawyer on ABC and, more important, his wife -- and more post-Monday self-justification.

This inevitable side issue of self teed up a golf ball, which Edwards belted with a riff, criticizing the questions about "us" that should have been more focused on "you" (voters) -- still another opportunity for the new campaign to take root.

Thomas Oliphant's e-mail address is oliphant@globe.com.