(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-23 10:21

MANCHESTER - Flanked by her mother and daughter, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton sought on Saturday to shore up her support among women in the tightening US presidential race.

Democratic presidential candidate US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (R) is joined onstage by her daughter Chelsea at a campaign stop in Lebanon, New Hampshire December 22, 2007. [Agencies]

Less than two weeks before voting begins in the state-by-state process to select party candidates, the New York senator who would be the nation's first female president touted her plans to expand paid family leave and boost child-care funding to help working mothers.

"We can do a better job in America in supporting families," Clinton told about 120 voters in the lobby of the Young Women's Christian Association offices in Manchester, New Hampshire, as her 27-year-old daughter, Chelsea, and her 88-year-old mother, Dorothy Rodham, sat in chairs beside her.

In Iowa, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Clinton's rival, criticized her and candidate John Edwards for failing to stand up to corporate interests or improve how government works while they served in the US Senate.

"I find it interesting when people say 'vote for me because I know how to work the system in Washington,"' the first-term senator told voters in Indianola. "We don't need somebody who can play the game better, we need somebody who will put an end to the game playing."

Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, said in a statement that Obama's attacks "seem to increase as momentum for our campaign grows."

'EVERY LITTLE THING MATTERS'

The race in both early primary states has become a statistical dead heat between Clinton and Obama while Edwards is trailing not far behind in Iowa ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election.

In a sign of just how tight the race is, Clinton dispatched her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, to once again campaign for her in Iowa, and she planned to return to the state on Sunday for more campaigning just before the Christmas holiday.

"For Hillary Clinton every little thing matters from here on," said Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire. "She wants to keep her core voters of working-class Democrats energized, but the more upscale Democrats with professional jobs, especially women, are going to be key for her."

Clinton's national advantage over Obama shrank slightly in December to eight points from 11 points last month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released this week.

Plenty of voters seem to be undecided with just weeks to go before the January 3 Iowa caucuses and the January 8 New Hampshire primary.

Tom Gillenwater, a construction worker from Indianola, said he initially liked Democratic long-shots New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd.

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