MANCHESTER – Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama vowed yesterday to defend national interests against special interests, a fight he said is foreign to his Washington insider rivals.

In a veiled critique of his main rival, Obama presented himself as the unifying force and accomplished alternative to Sen. Hillary Clinton. Taking the question of his experience head-on, he touted his work as a civil rights lawyer, constitutional law professor, state senator and U.S. senator.

"There are those who tout their experience working the system in Washington, but the problem is that the system in Washington isn't working for us and hasn't for a long time," he said at a Labor Day rally in Manchester.

Extending his populist message, Obama spoke of restoring trust in government. He called for remaking the country as part of a grass-roots revolution to achieve universal health care coverage, improve schools, end the war in Iraq and rehabilitate the nation's image abroad. He reminded voters he did not vote to authorize the Iraq war, another indirect reference to Senator Clinton and her initial support of the invasion.

"We've seen a disastrous war in Iraq that never should have been authorized and never should have been waged," Obama said.

Campaigning in New Hampshire on Sunday, Clinton and her famous husband underscored her experience in Washington as both a former First Lady and a U.S. senator twice elected from New York. Despite leading in the polls, she has a few critics in her own party who are concerned she is a polarizing candidate.

►Roger Simon (Politico.com): Hillary stakes a claim on the political middle

Congressman Paul Hodes, a Democrat representing New Hampshire's 2nd District, said Obama is uniquely suited to unite the Democratic Party and begin a government transformation to help everyday working Americans. "Rarely do we see a candidate who has vision, the kind of vision to bring this country together," Hodes said in Manchester.

Michelle Obama introduced her husband at Veterans Park as a confident and authentic leader. She said she was speaking from personal experience, watching Obama in his early days as a community organizer fighting poverty and urban blight on the South Side of Chicago.

"We know change comes from the bottom up," she said.

The campaign day began with Obama voicing support for labor unions, employment benefits and universal health insurance to address an estimated 47 million Americans without coverage. He and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd spoke to the annual Labor Day breakfast hosted by the AFL-CIO, a union with 45,000 active and retired members in New Hampshire.

Mark MacKenzie, president of the NH AFL-CIO, sees 2008 as a watershed election for workers' rights and trade policy. "One of the things we're trying to kick off this Labor Day is health care for all, an economy that works for all people," MacKenzie said.

Obama promised to continue to fight to allow workers an easier time to unionize, something he encouraged Mary Daly to pursue at the union breakfast. A paraprofessional educator from Sanbornton, Daly said she lacks insurance and earns too much for public assistance and other benefits.

"I'm in a hole right now where I'm completely uninsured," said Daly, an undecided Democrat now leaning toward Obama.

The author of "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream," Obama further poked fun of Washington insiders. "When the folks in Washington hear me speak, this is usually when they start rolling their eyes," he said at his rally. "'Oh, there he goes talking about hope again. He's so naive. He's a hope peddler. He's a hope-monger.' Well, I stand guilty as charged."