Hillary Clinton, one of the most familiar faces in American politics, and Barack Obama, one of the freshest, will launch rival campaigns today in the pivotal first presidential primary state of New Hampshire, even though neither Democrat is yet officially a candidate.
The undeclared contest between the two front runners for the Democratic Party nomination has suddenly intensified, as Mrs Clinton's well-funded political machine rolls into action to catch up with the hectic legwork put in by her younger Senate colleague.
Mr Obama, 45, the only serving black senator, is to make his inaugural trip to New Hampshire — where the first election primaries are traditionally held —accompanied by a press corps that has been beating the drum of "Obamamania" in recent weeks.
He will sign copies of his new book this morning and later attend a sell-out party, celebrating the Democrats' election victories in the state last month.
As the buzz around his visit grew last week, Clinton aides disclosed that the former first lady, 59, will be hosting a dinner this evening for senior Washington-based New Hampshire Democrats, at her newly renovated home in the capital's embassy quarter.
She has also signed up senior party operatives in recent days to organise her campaign, if she runs.
The energetic wooing of Democrats in the small north-eastern state reflects not only New Hampshire's crucial slot in the presidential electoral calendar but also the intense jockeying for position between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama.
She has already spent eight years in the White House as wife of President Bill Clinton and last month secured a landslide
re-election as a senator for New York. He has served just two years as a freshman senator for Illinois but has generated national attention after disclosing in October that he was considering a White House run.
Sen Obama's packed schedule this month indicates how intensely he is testing the political waters.
He has attended a World Aids Day event at an evangelical church in California, appeared on comedian Jay Leno's late-night television show and held talks in New York with George Soros, the billionaire financier and sponsor of Left-wing causes.
Mr Obama has a record of voting with the liberal mainstream and is a critic of the Iraq war — marking a distinction with Sen Clinton, who supported President George W Bush's invasion plans but later distanced herself from his postwar policy.
Many Democrats see him as a viable "anti-Hillary" candidate, fearing that Sen Clinton is too polarising a figure to win national office.
As allies in the 100-member Senate, the two are publicly friendly and have praised each other's work. But behind the scenes, the competition is becoming clear.
In the Obama camp the unofficial motto has become, "Don't tell Mama, I'm for Obama", in reference to Mrs Clinton's nickname when first lady.
For now, she remains the clear favourite among Democrat voters, but Sen Obama's rapid emergence from nowhere to second place in opinion polls has forced her to step up her lobbying operations.
Mr Obama was born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and white Kansan mother, who met at university there. His parents divorced when he was two and, aged six, he moved to Jakarta after his mother married an Indonesian student.
He studied at Columbia and Harvard Law School and cut his political teeth in Chicago, working with church groups and a civil rights law firm.
He came to national prominence when he was chosen to deliver the keynote address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention while still a candidate for the Senate.
His eloquent call for national unity earned rave plaudits and comparisons with a younger Mr Clinton. But in a noted change from the circumlocutions typical of the former president, Mr Obama has admitted smoking marijuana and taking cocaine as a teenager.
"I inhaled — that was the point," he stated, inviting comparisons with Mr Clinton's famous claim that he did not.
A committed Christian, Mr Obama recently admitted that he has never faced negative campaigning — an experience that doubtless awaits if, as expected, he takes on Mrs Clinton for the nation's highest office.
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