Candidates make last push before N.H. primary
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- New Hampshire voters make their presidential picks today in an environment transformed in less than a week. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has lost her national lead on the Democratic side, a new Gallup Poll shows, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has wrested the top Republican spot from Rudy Giuliani.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who won last week's Iowa caucuses, is now tied at 33% nationally with Clinton, who finished third. Three weeks ago, she had a 15-point lead.
Huckabee, who also won in Iowa, was at 25%. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, had 20% and Arizona Sen. John McCain 19%. All were within the poll's margin of error of +/-5 percentage points.
The National Weather Service predicted temperatures in the 40s and 50s throughout the state today. Secretary of State Bill Gardner predicted a record turnout of about 500,000 (previous high: 396,000 in 2000).
Going into the primary, Clinton trailed Obama in this state by double digits in several polls, including a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Sunday. She appeared to be struggling for composure as well as votes here Monday. Her voice faltered and broke with emotion as she explained at a Portsmouth coffee shop why she was running, an exchange shown repeatedly on TV and widely available online.
Clinton has projected a tough, disciplined image for months, but another side was evident when a woman asked her how she copes with the hardships of the campaign trail.
"I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't want to see us fall backwards," Clinton said, her voice fading and breaking.
Even as she tried to keep a grip on her emotions, Clinton stayed on message. "Some of us are ready and some of us are not," she said of her rivals. "Some of us know what we will do on Day One, and some of us haven't really thought that through."
Obama drew exuberant overflow crowds. "Something's happening out here, folks; something's stirring in the air," he told a cheering audience at Rochester City Hall.
Former North Carolina senator John Edwards, who nosed out Clinton for second place in Iowa, posted a 5-point gain to 20% in the national Gallup Poll.
McCain ended his campaign on a note of confidence, predicting he'd win and that this time, unlike when he won in 2000, the victory would launch him to the White House. He said he wants to "restore trust and confidence in government."
McCain faced what pollster Scott Rasmussen called "an unusual two-front challenge" — competing with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for Republicans and with Obama for independents, who can vote in either primary. He said Obama's rise was hurting McCain.
Romney closed with a theme he had toyed with briefly last fall: the need to change Washington, and his own "outsider" qualifications, as a former Olympics and business CEO, to do so. In speeches and a two-minute TV ad, he drew implicit contrasts with McCain, who is 71 and arrived in Congress in 1983.
No "Washington insider," Romney told a business group in Nashua, will be able to meet challenges such as job creation and expanded health coverage.
Contributing: USA TODAY's David Jackson, Martha T. Moore and Susan Page