AP
Barack Obama holds his daughter Sasha as he stands with his wife Michelle and other daughter Malia as they celebrate with supporters who helped him win the Iowa caucus, in Des Moines, on Thursday.

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (AP):

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, whose win in Iowa caucuses dashed Hillary Rodham Clinton's front-runner status, returned to New Hampshire on yesterday, hoping to repeat the win in this state's primary on Tuesday.

"This feels good. This feels just like I imagined when I was talking to my kindergarten teacher,'' Obama said to laughter in a cold, echoing airplane hangar.

The kindergarten line is a favourite for the Obama campaign, referring to an exchange with the Clinton campaign over the longtime ambitions of their candidates.

Swipe at Clinton

A month ago, Obama took an apparent swipe at Clinton by saying he had not been planning to run for president for years like "some of the other candidates". The Clinton campaign responded by citing media reports quoting Obama and friends talking about him running for the White House for years and mentioning essays he had written even in the third grade and kindergarten. Obama has focused on the kindergarten mention, ridiculing the Clinton point.

Obama, 46, a first-term senator from Illinois, is trying to become the first black president of the United States. He garnered about 38 per cent of the vote in Iowa, comfortably ahead of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Clinton, the former first lady, in the U.S.'s first key race of the presidential elections season.