Now that the dust has settled, Steve Forbes and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley are hoping to rebound from their second-place Iowa Caucus finishes in time for the Feb. 1 New Hampshire primary.

Publisher Forbes received 30 percent of the Iowa Caucus vote, behind Republican front-runner Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s 41 percent. Bradley won 35 percent of the vote, far behind Vice President Al Gore’s 63 percent.

Despite what some pundits are calling a set back, President of Students for Bradley John Klein said he sees a positive finish in Bradley’s future.

“I don’t think he had any plans of winning Iowa, but in New Hampshire, he has a good chance of winning,” said Klein, freshman in pre-computer science. “I think he’s going to make a push for it. He’s going to be stepping it up.”

Bradley, who lost to Gore by a margin of two to one in Iowa, may be forced to take a more negative approach in campaigning in the next few days, Klein said.

“When someone pushes you, you have to defend yourself,” he said. “What pushed me over to the Bradley campaign is I didn’t like some of the stuff Gore was doing.”

Bradley defended himself Wednesday night, when he and Gore got into a heated exchange about Bradley’s health care proposal during a New Hampshire debate. Some political analysts have called it the first time that Bradley has publicly gone negative.

But for the sake of the Democratic party, Klein said he hopes the candidates don’t start openly attacking each other.

On the GOP side, competition in New Hampshire could be more stiff because Arizona Sen. John McCain skipped campaigning in Iowa to focus on the nation’s first primary. Without having to divide his resources between Iowa and New Hampshire, McCain has pulled even and, depending on the specific poll, taken a lead over Bush in New Hampshire.

Forbes supporter Dan Nelsen, senior in geology, said as much as he would like to think otherwise, he does not believe his candidate will benefit from the mythical “Iowa bounce.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to be in time to help Forbes in New Hampshire. I think a week is too short of time to change people’s minds,” Nelsen said. “I think Bush and McCain have done a lot more in New Hampshire. I think Forbes definitely has an uphill climb.”

Nelsen said he would like Forbes to concentrate on his flat-tax proposal and attempt to stick with the campaign trail.

“What I would like to see Forbes focusing on is that he really has a plausible tax plan,” he said. ” I think it could help in down the road in some later primaries.”