Obama tries the N.H. way of campaigning

NASHUA, N.H. – In his first attempt to navigate the traditional New Hampshire campaigning method of meeting voters on city streets and in living rooms, Illinois Senator Barack Obama was soft-spoken and serious but offered few specifics.

He repeatedly cited his commitment to “transforming American politics” but seemed to shy away from offering details about his plans for addressing the nation’s problems.

In his second visit to New Hampshire and his first since declaring himself a candidate, Obama shook hands along Main Street in the capital city of Concord before attending a house party in Nashua at the home of a prominent state representative.

He began his remarks at the house party by saying that the country’s problems – the Iraq war, health care, and energy costs – could be solved but aren’t because of a “group of insiders who dictate the agenda.”

Asked by reporters later if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, was one of those insiders, Obama said she wasn’t.

However, he was asked if those who voted in 2002 to give President Bush the permission to use force in Iraq bear any responsibility for the turmoil that followed, Obama said, “All votes have consequences.”