RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The two leading Democratic candidates, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are on the road campaigning today. Obama has a midday rally in Charleston, South Carolina, and Clinton heads to Nevada.
NPR's David Greene has been on the bus with both of these two candidates over the past several days, and he joins us this morning to talk about the next phase of the campaign.
Good morning, David.
DAVID GREENE: Hey, Renee.
MONTAGNE: And have Hillary Clinton and/or Barack Obama had a chance to catch their breath?
GREENE: I guess as much as they can, they certainly starting to get used the life away from snowy Iowa and New Hampshire now. Hillary Clinton took a day away from campaigning yesterday and she went home to chat Chappaqua, New York to pick up clean clothes, as one of her aides put it us. But she also did some television interviews from her house and she went down to Washington to thank her campaign staff members for what they've done so far.
Now, Barack Obama spent time right in Hillary Clinton's backyard. He held a big rally in Jersey City right outside New York and he told a big crowd that was packed into a gymnasium that he's already shaken off the loss to Clinton in New Hampshire. So here's a little of Obama.
Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois): Yesterday in New Hampshire, we - my vote came up just a little short, but the turnout was enormous. The passion, the energy, the volunteers who are going door to door, stomping through the snow.
GREENE: And Renee, I was down in New Jersey, and as you can hear, there were some very serious supporters there and there were some people who were just wanting to get their first look at a candidate they've been reading so much about. But a lot of people, about 3,000 inside the gym and more than a thousand were locked out by the fire marshal, and Obama made a spontaneous move to get outside and greet them on the sidewalk.
MONTAGNE: Well, with all that energy, focus, outpouring of interest going into two states, Iowa and New Hampshire, now we're looking ahead to nearly two dozen. How does that change the strategy for these candidates?
GREENE: It could feel very different. You know, there are two important states coming up, caucuses in Nevada that work similar to Iowa, and we have a Democratic primary then in South Carolina. But the way this race is marching along, I think it's going to feel like in no time we're at February 5th, when 22 states have a nominating contest.
And so suddenly, you know, you're not having these candidates in one place for voters to concentrate and compare. They'll be spread out. And these different states have different advantages for the candidates.
Hillary Clinton has done well with actual Democratic voters, so she might focus on states that allow only Democrats to vote in the primary. Barack Obama has been drawing independents out in force.
So a state like California that allows independents to vote only in the Democratic primary, not the Republican primary, could be a big focus for him. Absentee ballots are also expected to be very decisive in a state like California, so the campaigns say they're going to be looking there.
I mean, if you compare this to a play, there's just not one state now. The campaigns have to ship their surrogates all over the country. There's more ground for them to cover, and this is going to make advertising more important, and also money. And both campaigns are trying to brag about how well they've done in fundraising.
The Clinton campaign says their Web site was getting 500 hits a minute yesterday after the New Hampshire victory and set a one day record for online fundraising. And Obama was in Manhattan last night, right in Clinton's state having a big fundraiser. He raised $700,000. He told his donors he knew everyone was surprised that he lost in New Hampshire, but that his message has been consistent. And there was one joke. One of the people in the room, when Obama was talking about how sort of drained he is from the campaign, said don't cry. And that was a reference, of course, to Hillary Clinton's swelling up at a New Hampshire event a few days ago.
MONTAGNE: Right. Which is turning into a classic campaign moment.
GREENE: It really is, and you know, the Clinton campaign has been very careful to say that was a spontaneous moment, but they also say it really helped her connect with voters, and they're saying they need a really good decision in New Hampshire to have her taking so many questions and having these personal interactions from voters. But now the question is - and they acknowledge - we're spreading out to so many states, how many opportunities she'll actually have to do that.
MONTAGNE: Okay, just - we have a few seconds left. We heard about the Republicans field being a free-for-all. The Democrats are different. Two strong candidates now and a narrowing field. Tell us about who's gone and who may be out.
GREENE: Well, John Edwards, the other major candidate in the Democratic race, seems very weakened, although he's still going at it. Bill Richardson, it sounds like we're getting reports he may drop out. So a dynamic with two candidates focusing on one another, and it could get very negative. And Barack Obama said he's ready for rough and tumble politics that he would use to in Chicago if it goes that way.
MONTAGNE: David, thanks very much.
GREENE: Thanks, Renee.
MONTAGNE: NPR's David Greene.