Deep snow remains on the ground but temperatures could approach 60 degrees for today's primary – weather tailor-made for the armies of new voters who have been attracted by the candidates' vigorous attacks on the status quo in Washington and repeated promises of change.

The likelihood of a high turnout augurs well for the candidates atop the polls – Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Both are challenging their party's establishments and both have sparked excitement with appeals to voters tired of partisan battles in Washington. Each spent yesterday working to stave off frantic, last-minute efforts from the candidates who only a month ago enjoyed big leads in the polls.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a Democrat, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, lost those leads after faltering in Thursday's Iowa caucuses. New polls showed them falling further behind Obama and McCain.

The stress on Clinton was particularly evident yesterday. Famed for her poise, the senator and former first lady permitted a rare glimpse at her emotional side when a voter in Portsmouth asked her how she was holding up in what has become a grueling campaign.

“It's not easy,” Clinton replied. “It's not easy.” Then with a catch in her voice and struggling to contain her emotions, she added: “I've had so many opportunities from this country. . . . This is very personal for me. It's not just political.”

The show of emotion triggered a small media furor, with Clinton later laughing about all the attention. “I actually have emotions. Some people don't believe that,” she said in a CNN interview, explaining she was “touched” by the voter's expression of concern.

Clinton also tried to raise more questions about Obama's ability to deliver on his promises of change, even reaching back to Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign against Gary Hart to ask of Obama's promises, “Where's the beef?”

For Obama, the emotions were all excitement bordering on exultation as his crowds continued to swell and his lead in the polls grows. The only snag for him was his voice, battered from so many speeches, forced him to pay a visit to a doctor on Sunday. The doctor's advice, Obama reported in Claremont, was to “shut up.”

He didn't take the advice. When hundreds of his supporters could not get into an event in Lebanon, he spoke to them from the steps outside. “You guys caught us a little by surprise,” he said. “You're the wave and I'm riding it.”

On the Republican side, McCain and Romney seem to have tight grips on the top two spots, but McCain appears to have the momentum.

McCain mounted one last bus tour of the state that gave him a surprise victory eight years ago. “The Mac is Back” bus tour took him to several towns in a pitch to wavering voters.

Romney, meanwhile, used his money advantage over McCain to purchase a two-minute, statewide commercial.

The Republican winner in Iowa, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, enjoyed very little bounce in New Hampshire.

The best hope for those chasing Obama and McCain is the willingness of so many New Hampshire voters to change their minds at the last minute. Voters such as Patricia Larkin, a 48-year-old independent, and her accountant husband, Jim, who waited patiently outside Manchester City Hall to see McCain.

She is torn between McCain and Obama. Her husband, 54, a Republican, said he was undecided between Romney and McCain. Arriving 45 minutes late, McCain delivered a 7-minute version of his standard stump speech. It included a pledge “to get Osama bin Laden if I have to follow him to the gates of hell.”

Afterward, both Larkins said they were no closer to a decision than before. “Too short. I didn't hear anything new,” Pat Larkin said. “What time is the Obama thing tonight?”