For N.H., all bets are off

But neither Kerry nor former Vermont governor Howard Dean is a sure bet to win. North Carolina Senator John Edwards, whose campaign has barely registered in New Hampshire, will get a new look based on his second-place showing in Iowa.

And those candidates who just campaigned through near-zero temperatures in Iowa will confront a bracing reality of a different sort in New Hampshire: Retired General Wesley K. Clark has spent weeks boosting his effort in the Granite State.

In the final analysis, the Iowa caucuses may actually have ended up boosting more candidates than they knocked down.

"Kerry and Edwards are the clear winners here," said Michael Feldman, a former aide to Al Gore and now an unaligned Democratic consultant. "Clearly, they get the biggest boost going into New Hampshire. If Iowa demonstrated anything, it's that momentum trumps organization. So people in New Hampshire will be looking at the race with new eyes."

The best news for Kerry seemed to be that voters bought him whole. Polls of voters going to the caucuses showed they valued his experience and agreed with him on issues ranging from foreign affairs to health care.

Iowans also appeared to find his demeanor presidential. Those kinds of endorsements don't fade as quickly as an appealing message.

Edwards, too, was elevated by his personal qualities more than his message. By the end of the campaign, other candidates were using rock stars to bring in crowds -- Carole King for Kerry, Joan Jett for Dean, Chuck Berry for former House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt -- but Edwards was drawing rock-star crowds on his own.

"When I saw him in person he's so dynamic. . . . He instilled a confidence we're all lacking here," said Jeanne Uhl of Elkhart, Iowa.

Still, both Kerry and Edwards were offering stump speeches that borrowed heavily from Dean's campaign -- including sharp attacks on President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, an education plan that both Kerry and Edwards supported. And both Edwards and Kerry raised the volume on attacks on special interests, stealing another bolt of thunder from Dean.

Dean was left to complain that his rivals weren't as serious as he is about attacking Bush.

Dean's final ads touted his antiwar stand. But they eventually rang hollow: With Saddam Hussein in custody, and Bush promising to turn over power to Iraqis by this summer, most voters seemed either satisfied with the progress of the war or at least willing to withhold their opposition.

Worst of all for Dean, many voters didn't seem to like him as much as his message: They liked the way his opponents delivered the key points better.

Dean retains a fatter war chest than his rivals, a much larger national organization, and the passion -- and fund-raising potential -- that comes from diehard antiwar supporters.

But unlike some past poll leaders laid low by early defeats, Dean doesn't have a well of personal affection to draw on. He was largely unknown at the beginning of the campaign, and is still a subject of contemplation by much of the electorate.

His fiery speech last night, shouting out the names of states he plans to win and punctuating them with a dizzying yell, seemed off key: Voters probably were hoping for a little humility salted into his super-confident posture.

"Howard Dean will have to pick himself up and regroup," Feldman said. "I'm a big believer in the process and the process will yield a better nominee at the end of it. If Howard Dean cannot recover from a setback in Iowa, he's not the best person to take on George W. Bush."

Still, Dean will benefit from his lower standing in one way: Some of the intense heat will be off of him.

And one of the candidates who attacked Dean most relentlessly, Gephardt, won't be in New Hampshire to fire off any more volleys: He indicated he was quitting the race after finishing with 11 percent in a state he pledged to win.

Yesterday, his former rivals began courting him. Edwards, not missing an opportunity, declared that he had admired Gephardt for many years and implored his supporters to give Gephardt comfort, in an impromptu post-mortem delivered before Gephardt himself had a chance to withdraw.

Not surprisingly, Kerry gave his own tribute to Gephardt.

In another sign of changing fortunes and shifting strategies, the Kerry campaign sent an e-mail last night attacking Clark for changing his football alliance to the New England Patriots.

It was just the kind of attack e-mail that used to target Dean.

"In New England, he dons a Pats jersey, in Wisconsin it's the Packers," the e-mail read. "What will Wes wear in South Carolina today?"

For Kerry, Edwards, Dean, and Clark -- along with Connecticut Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, and the Rev. Al Sharpton -- the race goes on.

(Peter Canellos can be reached at canellos@globe.com.)