New Hampshire

He is no rock star, but Mike Huckabee took pains to prove otherwise on Friday with his electric-bass rendition of "Twist and Shout" in a New Hampshire rock band. A day after his improbable victory in the Iowa caucuses, Huckabee used his guest stint with the band Mama Kicks to show New Hampshire that he is no typical Republican running for president. The rock 'n' roll rally was a bit of calculated mischief by the former governor of Arkansas.

Gray-haired veterans in narrow VFW caps dotted the crowds, pledging their undying allegiance. Independent voters quibbled and complained about concerns on some policy details, then said they would sign on, all the same. Reporters fought for the few seats at bull sessions in the back cabin of the "Straight-Talk Express." Sen.

It was anyone's guess what would win out on the campaign trail Friday with Barack Obama -- glee, fatigue or a growing pugnacity. There he was, buoyant but baggy-eyed, fresh from a resounding victory in Iowa's Democratic caucuses, standing in a drafty airplane hangar here and rallying a whole new set of troops. "My throat's still a little torn up, but my spirits are high because last night the American people began down the road to change," he said.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters -- her first direct attack on the Illinois senator since his Democratic victory in Iowa. The mailer says that seven times during his tenure in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, whereas Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

Their critiques crackling with animosity, Republican presidential candidates took turns Saturday upbraiding one another -- and, much of the time, former New Hampshire front-runner Mitt Romney -- in a debate whose tension illustrated the grave stakes in Tuesday's primary for many of the men on the stage. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, came under sequential fire from Arizona Sen. John McCain on his campaign ads, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on immigration, former Arkansas Gov.

No one ever accused Bill O'Reilly of being a wilting flower. So when the Fox News Channel commentator and interviewer appeared midway through a Barack Obama rally at a Nashua high school Saturday, his presence was evident. Tall, with camera crew in tow, O'Reilly marched forward to get a good look. Journalists have been known to seek the best angle. But it was after Obama's speech that O'Reilly threw some elbows. And not so figuratively, either.

A few minutes after 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, dozens of volunteers filtered into a storefront campaign headquarters where a massive photograph of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton smiled out from a window beneath a dingy Whirlpool appliance sign. The plan for the day was to get boots on the ground for a door-to-door canvass of Nashua, about 15 miles down the Merrimack River from Manchester. The Clinton organizers were eager to get started on the crucial last Sunday before Tuesday's primary.

He was wonky, folksy and occasionally self-deprecating. And though Bill Clinton never alluded to his wife's defeat in Thursday's Iowa caucuses, he said he was baffled by the way her years of public service had been perceived as a liability. Still, the former president said Sunday he believed that his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, demonstrated in Saturday night's Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire that she was the best candidate.

With their presidential hopes and political legacy on the line, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband battled across New Hampshire on Sunday, fighting to become the comeback couple of the 2008 race. Change was the word on their lips as they campaigned across this slushy state -- separately, to cover more ground -- taking thinly veiled shots at rival Barack Obama. "You campaign in poetry.

John Edwards launched a new television spot and a final, marathon bus tour through this state Sunday, acknowledging he was the underdog but insisting he would not give up a Democratic presidential contest that increasingly centered on Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.