KEY POINTS:
NEW HAMPSHIRE - Democrat Hillary Clinton, her back against the wall in New Hampshire, battled to keep the state from swinging to rival Barack Obama on Sunday while Republican Mitt Romney lashed out at John McCain.
Clinton pulled out a new get-tough strategy a day after a debate in which she sounded frustrated that while Obama talks about changing the United States, she believes she has actually carried out change.
At stake is crucial momentum in New Hampshire and on both sides the race was taking a negative turn.
The state's primary on Tuesday is the next battleground in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to replace President George W. Bush.
New Hampshire is vital to efforts by Clinton and Romney to revitalise their campaigns after disappointing showings in Iowa.
Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, is seeking to become the first US woman president. Romney, a wealthy former governor of Massachusetts, would be the first Mormon president.
Clinton has reason to be concerned. Obama, days after winning Iowa soundly over former Democratic Senator John Edwards and third-place finisher Clinton, has pulled into a virtual dead heat with Clinton in New Hampshire, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday.
Republican rivals Romney and McCain, winner of the 2000 New Hampshire primary over Bush, are also essentially deadlocked as the White House races in both parties tightened.
Clinton strategist Mandy Grunwald, signaling a tougher strategy, said it was time for Clinton to make some points about Obama. "We're in a tough race here and it's time to make some comparisons," she said.
The risk for Clinton was turning off those voters who might see the strategy as negative politics. The Edwards campaign, noting Clinton's performance during the ABC News debate on Saturday, said in an email, "Change won and the status quo lost it."
Obama, the Illinois senator seeking to become the first black US president, took some swipes at Clinton before a packed audience at Manchester's Palace Theater, saying he was running for president "not because I feel it's somehow my turn."
"For many months I have been teased, almost derided for talking about hope," he said. "We saw it in the debate last night when one of my opponents said we can't just offer the American people `false hopes' of what we can give them. False hopes?"
Romney needs to win or finish high in New Hampshire to maintain his credibility, and is threatened by McCain, the 71-year-old Arizona senator who clashed with Romney at the Saturday debate.
"He talks about changing Washington. But he's been there so long, he's got so many lobbyists at each elbow, he's worked so long - in many cases, he's a maverick against his own party," Romney said of McCain on Fox News Sunday.
McCain, who is competing with Obama for New Hampshire's large section of independent voters, rejected Romney's claim that he has not been for change.
"I'd like to say that I have never been elected Miss Congeniality in the United States Senate because I have tried to eliminate waste and unnecessary spending, defence procurement reform, et cetera," he told CBS' Face the Nation.
Looking for an edge was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa with big support from Christian evangelicals in that state but who may not be able to repeat that in New Hampshire.
Huckabee and McCain both took on Romney at the Saturday debate. Huckabee told Fox News Sunday he and McCain have "created a brotherhood here" because both have come under withering attack from Romney.
He said he would be delighted with a third place finish in New Hampshire to propel him into presumably friendlier territory in South Carolina on Jan 19.
"But let me tell you what's happening in New Hampshire," Huckabee said. "We are seeing great crowds and they're jazzed. We're pumped."
Republican leading candidates faced a Fox News Channel debate on Sunday night. Left out was libertarian long-shot Ron Paul, who has raised millions of campaign money but has been unable to translate that into wide voter support.
- REUTERS
