By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent COLUMBIA, S.C., April 27 (Reuters) - The eight Democratic White House contenders campaigned across South Carolina on Friday after a first debate that produced no winners or losers but gave some lesser-known candidates a share of the national spotlight. After months of heavy media attention on favorites Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, the debate allowed the rest of the crowded Democratic field to seize the microphone and lay out views on issues like Iraq and health care. "What it did was show Americans there are more than three people in this race," said South Carolina state Rep. Jerry Govan of Orangeburg, a supporter of Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware. Along with Biden, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel also shared the stage in Orangeburg with the early favorites. Clinton, a New York senator who would be the first woman president, leads the Democratic race in national polls. Obama, a senator from Illinois who would be the first black president, has gained ground in polls and matched Clinton in fund-raising. Both managed steady and gaffe-free performances that will not hurt their standing, analysts said, while most of the rest of the field helped themselves simply by being there. "Nobody hit a home run and nobody struck out," said Phil Noble, head of South Carolina's centrist New Democrats and an Obama supporter. "They all were competent and did what they needed to do -- stand up there and go toe-to-toe with everyone else and look like they could handle the job." The debate was the first of nearly a dozen planned before the first votes are cast in the party nomination races in January 2008. The Republicans hold their first debate next week in California. 'ROCK STARS' "I don't have the rock star status of Senators Clinton and Obama," Richardson said on CNN. "I don't have their resources to get my message on paid media. So I rely on these debates." "I wish I'd had a little more time but I felt very good," he said. With answers in the debate limited to one minute, none of the candidates had much time and the frequent switching of topics did not allow for extended discussion of any issue. The Dodd campaign said a debate analysis showed he got barely half the speaking time of Obama and Clinton -- 6 1/2 minutes compared to about 12 minutes each for them. "It was a chance to be on the stage. This is probably one of many over the next 10 months," Dodd said on CNN, adding activists in early voting states were not ready to fall in line behind the favorites yet. On Friday, candidates scattered across the state for campaign events before gathering in Columbia in the evening for a state party dinner and a fish fry hosted by U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state's most prominent black politician. Some candidates will address the state party convention on Saturday before leaving South Carolina, which holds the first primary in the South in January 2008. During the debate, the candidates all backed the need to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq quickly and to institute universal health care, with the only differences coming in some details. Biden said he was glad he was able to lay out his plan for partitioning Iraq into three regions but said he also felt he did not get enough time. "They seemed to be going to Obama and Clinton a bit more than they were going to me," he said.
