CONCORD, N.H. (Jan. 6) – With primary day looming, the leading Republicancandidates for president scrambled to gather last-minute converts.
“My friends, I’m asking for your vote,” Republican John McCain, senator of Arizona, said at one of his rallies on Monday. “I’m asking for your vote because I can lead this country in difficult times.”
It was the constant theme of all of the candidates, just with different words. And the race was still up for grabs.
A poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire on Monday showed McCain with a 6 percent lead over his closest competitor Republican Mitt Romney. The poll showed McCain with 32 percent; Romney, former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, with 26 percent; and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee with 14 percent.
The New Hampshire polls are predicting the opposite of what happened in Iowa, Huckabee came out on top last week.
In Derry, N.H., this morning, Romney sauntered through Mary Anne’s Diner. The waitresses wore poodle skirts and blue shirts with the words, “Let the Good Times Roll” on them. They shimmied around reporters and photographers to serve pancakes and coffee to the customers in the crowded diner.
Romney sat down at a table with two men enjoying breakfast before work. “I’ll give you a tip,” Romney said. “Put some stock in this guy.” He pointed to a picture of himself on the front of the Union Leader newspaper.
At another table he joined two women enjoying breakfast. “You stay classy now,” he advised them.
One of the women, Diane Lachance, wore a blue “Mitt Romney for President” sticker on her right cheek. “I’ve done a lot of research on all of the candidates, hundreds of hours, and Romney’s the one I chose.”
Lachance already cast her vote. She’s flying to Texas tomorrow to visit a friend so she voted by absentee ballot.
In Concord, Huckabee made an appearance at the Barley House. Brian Shea, the owner of the restaurant, created a new hamburger for him. The “Huckaburger” comes on a whole wheat bun. It’s a hamburger patty topped with fresh basil, spinach, tomato, and —ahem — a fried pickle.
“It’s better than any burger I’ve had in my whole life,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee was equally positive about Tuesday’s primary. “Regardless of the outcome, we’ll still have wind behind us when we’re out of here,” he said.
Marg Maguire and her three friends from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Concord, Mass., came to the Barley House to catch a glimpse of Huckabee. “It’s his character, it’s what he stands for,” Maguire said.
“He’s different than the other candidates.”
In front of the state capitol in Concord, McCain asked voters to vote for him because will make tough decisions for the American people. “I want to be president, not to ride around in a helicopter,” he said. “I want to be president to do the hard things.”
As he walked back to his campaign bus from the steps of the capitol, McCain posed for a picture with Heide Hesse, an Iowa college student who has followed his campaign here as a volunteer. “Now,” she said, “I know I made the right choice.“
(Andrew Restuccia, a senior newspaper and religion and society major, is covering the New Hampshire primary for The Sun of Lowell, Mass.)
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