Hillary Clinton accused the Obama campaign of “deliberately [trying] to mislead” the American people by distorting her comments on Barack Obama and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Calling the commentary about her remarks “baseless and divisive,” Clinton said “I was disturbed by it. I think it clearly came from Senator Obama’s campaign, and I don’t think it’s the kind of debate we should be having.”

“I was personally offended at the approach taken, that was not only misleading but unnecessarily hurtful and I’ve made that clear to many people in the last several days,” she said.

In an interview with Major Garrett in New Hampshire last week, Clinton criticized the analogy Obama had drawn between his own hopeful campaign and the words of Dr King — saying “I would point to the fact that Dr King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act… That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in people’s lives because we had a president who said we were going to do it, and actually got it accomplished.”

That remark angered many in the African-American community, including South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn — who said “it bothered me a great deal.” Clyburn told the New York Times “It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those.”

Clinton said she’s talked to Clyburn to explain her remarks, and that the influential lawmaker will stay neutral in the South Carolina primary.

Take a look at Clinton addressing the controversy surrounding her words below.

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Money is still pouring into the Obama campaign - despite the candidate’s New Hampshire loss. According to campaign manager David Plouffe, the campaign has raised $500,000 online since midnight. This is in addition to the $8 million the Obama campaign has raised so far this 8-day long year.

The candidate also hit Boston and New York today for a pair of fundraisers - according to Communications Director Robert Gibbs, the campaign had to cut off admission at the high dollar New York event because there were too many interested attendees.

Senator Obama hit February 5th (aka Tsunami Tuesday) state New Jersey today in between his two East Coast fundraisers, where he was greeted by a couple thousand voters inside the gymnasium at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City. There were long lines of people who were turned away when the gym hit capacity - Obama told the crowd that some 2,000 were not able to get into the door.

The loud crowd treated the second place New Hampshire finisher with a hero’s welcome. Obama made the best of the disappointing loss. “I have to tell you that one of the useful things - and I told this to my staff yesterday - about yesterday was it reminds us that change isn’t easy,” he told the New Jersey crowd. “Change is always met by resistance by the status quo.” A young man in the crowd bellowed out, “Hillary Clinton is the status quo!”

Obama continued, “You know, there are people who are in power who don’t want to give it up. There are folks who are making money on the way things are working right now. It doesn’t make them bad people - it just means they don’t want a change.”

Team Clinton was too giddy to provide much analysis directly after their 2-point victory in New Hampshire tonight. Communications Director Howard Wolfson hugged Director of Press Advance Jamie Smith. Senior Strategist Ann Lewis exchanged an exuberant embrace with an unknown woman who said “we’re on our way to the White House!” Junior staffers cheered and exchanged high fives in the press filing center.

But, when pressed, advisers were at a loss to explain what happened here. Spokesman Jay Carson said he’d heard anecdotal evidence that her crowds were bigger than Obama’s, and that there were more of the voters likely to support her (mostly older women) than to support him at the various polling places — but that he didn’t believe it after many polls put Obama’s margin in double digits.

Wolfson called the win a “tremendous comeback that nobody anticipated, except for her.” He says “she said to me that she was seeing something different in the last 48 hours.”

Those two days included a fiery debate performance in which she went further than ever in arguing that Obama and Edwards have never achieved substantial change, and contrasting Obama’s soaring rhetoric with her record of results (a debate that could have been interpreted as positive or negative but seems to have landed squarely in the first category); a tearful moment at a small roundtable discussion in Portsmouth that gained national attention (Wolfson called it “critically important); and rallies around the state as well as six stops and numerous TV and radio interviews today.

Clinton’s explanation? “I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice,” she told supporters in her victory speech. Indeed, Wolfson says Clinton herself made the decision to make herself more accessible to New Hampshire voters and to the press — leading to marathon 2-hour Q&A sessions at events and two media availabilities (as well as 2 Fox News interviews) in three days.
Watch a 2-minute run-through of the last 24 hours of those race-changing two days below.

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Carson says Clinton and the campaign will fall back to NY to figure out what to do next to capitalize on this victory. First up: the morning news shows tomorrow; Obama will also be making the morning show rounds. As for Wolfson, he said “we’re going to take stock of this, and enjoy it for at least the next 10 or 15 minutes” — though it barely took 15 minutes after her speech for the first fundraising note to be sent to supporters touting her win. Check it out after the jump. (more…)

The media interest in John McCain intensified on Primary Day.

The Senator stopped by a polling place in Nashua, NH, to greet supporters. But camera crews surrounded him the moment he stepped off his Straight Talk Express bus, and most of the voters never even got a glimpse of him.

So many in the crowd expressed frustration, that campaign aides allowed a few supporters onto the bus to take pictures and shake hands with the candidate.
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McCain visited the very same polling place in 2000, when he won New Hamsphire.

Hoping for good luck, he’s making many of the same stops as he did eight years ago: He’s staying in the same suite at the same hotel. And he held his last rally in Portsmouth, NH, Monday just like he did in 2000.

McCain spoke to reporters about his other lucky charms.
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As the New Hamsphire campaign came to a close, McCain’s campaign announced the formation of a Truth Squad in South Carolina to counter any negative or misleading ads against the Senator.

In 2000, a smear campaign against McCain targeted his wife and daughter.
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Eight years ago, rumors surfaced in South Carolina that McCain’s wife was a drug addict and his youngest daughter was illegitimate.

As John McCain’s poll numbers climbed in the last days before the New Hampshire primary, media mobs descended on his campaign.

TV cameras, bloggers, snappers and scribes completely encircled him, pushing shoving and elbowing for room.

Here’s a look at a couple of recent McCain campaign events. Check out Fox’s Brian Wilson wading into the crowd in Nashua, New Hampshire, trying to get a live interview with the Senator.

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What did John McCain think of the Fox News Republican candidates’ forum in New Hampshire this weekend?

He shared some observations with reporters Monday, while riding his Straight Talk Express bus on a final campaign swing through the Granite State.

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Since Senator Obama arrived in New Hampshire following his Iowa victory, he has attracted large crowds, eager to take a peak. On the 5th, the traffic getting to the Obama event at Nashua’s North High School was backed up for miles and the line to get in the gymnasium door extended down the sidewalk, through the parking lot.

When the gymnasium was filled to capacity, the campaign opened up an adjacent gym for those who couldn’t get inside. Hundreds of displaced voters sat on the floor and on rolled up gymnastics mats and listened to the senator over speakers. One of those voters, Sheryl Farrar, told me afterwords that it was actually better than being at the main show because, “you don’t have all the hype and everything going on around you, so you’re just using those one set of senses instead of everything else,” she said with a smile. Farrar is still undecided between Senators McCain and Obama.

At a event in Salem yesterday, the fire marshals shut down the auditorium where the event was held just minutes after they opened the doors. As soon as the room was filled to capacity, the marshals shut it down and wouldn’t let anyone inside - including staffers and traveling press. We were sent to a near-by “overflow room,” one of two set up for voters to watch the candidate on television. And here you thought New Hampshire voters were spoiled…

Last night in Keene, NH, the candidate spoke to about 700 in the cafeteria of a local high school. Meanwhile, about 1000 people denied entrance sat in a near-by auditorium, watching Obama on a projection screen. After the main speech, Obama popped in to say hello to the (larger) crowd next door after his speech. Some in the press wondered why the event wasn’t originally scheduled in the larger room.

At all but three of his New Hampshire events, there has been a need to accommodate those who could not get in - even if that just means setting up speakers outside of event sites. At two stops today, Obama addressed crowds waiting outside in the snow, blocked from entering event sites by fire marshals. I guess snow and cold is not the worst case scenario - several supporters who were turned away from Obama’s Rochester event were found hiding in a closet inside a Rochester auditorium, hoping to hear Obama’s (muffled) message. They were escorted out by police.

Communications director Robert Gibbs lamented the campaign has to turn away voters, but admitted it was “a good problem to have.”

Here is a montage of Obama’s speeches to his overflow crowds.

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Speaking before a crowd of John Edwards supporters at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire, Hilda Sarkisyan recalled the sweet sixteen party she threw for her daughter Nataline—the California teenager who died three weeks ago after a drawn out dispute with her insurance company over who would pay for her liver transplant.

There is perhaps no other candidate in the 2008 presidential campaign who has relied so heavily upon the presence of ordinary citizens—whose lives represent extraordinary hardship—like John Edwards. Individuals like James Lowe, Sandy Lakey, Doug Bishop and, most recently, Hilda Sarkisyan, have accompanied Edwards to numerous events to speak out on his behalf. Their personal stories differ dramatically, yet to Edwards they share a common struggle: they are powerful symbols of the working middle class’ battle to end corporate greed and indifference. And their testimonials are a critical component of his campaign.

In his final sprint before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, Edwards embarked on his second “36-hour Marathon for the Middle Class”—this time visiting various cities in the Granite State to speak to voters. Accompanied by the Sarkisyan family, Edwards said the “real underdog” in this election is the working middle class family.

But Edwards’ use of Nataline Sarkisyan’s story on the campaign trail was met with criticism by some—in particular, Clinton’s traveling press secretary, Jay Carson, who yesterday told reporters, “in order to be President, you need to do more than read articles about people who need help and talk about them.” Senator Clinton is “somebody who’s actually going to help people and not use them as talking points.”

In response to Carson’s remarks, Edwards said the Clinton campaign “doesn’t seem to have a conscience.”

Below is Edwards’ latest “Underdog” television ad currently running in New Hampshire:

10 minutes into Sen Clinton’s address to a crowd of 700 in Salem, NH, a man near the front of the hall interrupted the remarks — standing up with a big, yellow sign reading “Iron My Shirt” and loudly chanting the same phrase. He was soon joined by another man in the back. Those homemade yellow signs (with the slogan sometimes followed by a profane, derogatory term for women) first popped up at a feminist protest at the Masters in 2003.

At first, Hillary kept plowing through her stump speech, but when the interruption didn’t stop she asked for the house lights to come up. As security started to remove the two hecklers, Hillary said “ah, the remnants of sexism are alive and well tonight.” The crowd erupted, rising to give her a standing ovation.

“As I think has just been abundantly demonstrated,” she said, “I’m also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling.”

Later, saying she’d answer questions from the audience about the issues facing the country, Clinton joked “if there’s anyone still left in the auditorium who wants to learn how to iron his own shirt, I’ll talk about that.”

At least she seemed entertained by the distraction, on a day where much of the focus was on her emotional reaction to the difficulty of campaigning. Clinton called such interruptions on the campaign trail “always interesting,” saying “it’s one of the things I love about it, it’s never predictable.”

UPDATE: here’s the video… the long crowd reaction (including Hillary chants and standing O #1) cut out due to time constraints.

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As she did in Iowa, Hillary bought 2 minutes of ad time on a nightly newscast the night before election day — this time on NH’s most influential TV station, WMUR. Unlike that Iowa spot, which was a sober 2 minute address directly to the camera, this one starts with dynamic images of Senator Clinton campaigning throughout the state as she thanks New Hampshire for welcoming her. She then makes basically that same Iowa argument — that she’s ready to lead on day one.