Candidates try to change minds in N.H.

By Michael Kranish
Globe Staff

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. -- Attention presidential candidates: Joe Hale and thousands like him will be watching tonight's debates. It might be your final chance to lock in the leaners and persuade the undecideds.

Hale, a teaching assistant from nearby Sharon, N.H., has been closely examining all of the candidates for months. He is proof that there is an Iowa bounce. After he watched Barack Obama deliver his victory speech, he leaned more strongly to Obama. But he intends to watch the debates and listen to all the pitches before making a final decision.

"If I change my mind, it will be because of the debates," Hale said over breakfast at the Peterborough Diner, one of New Hampshire's classic venues for political discussion.

Outside the diner, the presidential campaign could be seen in all its glory in "Our Town," as Peterborough is known. Hundreds of people were streaming through the town, attending a peace rally, listening to Democrat Dennis Kucinich at a local bookstore, or heading to the elegant Town Hall to hear Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican.

McCain's appearance here demonstrated that a key issue at the debate could be illegal immigration. During an hourlong session, at which McCain was enthusiastically applauded, the senator was asked to respond to charges aired in commercials paid for by McCain's rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The ads accuse McCain of favoring amnesty for illegal immigrants and say he favored Social Security for illegal immigrants.

"That is absolutely false," a visibly angry McCain said. "I have never supported Social Security benefits for people in this country illegally." McCain said that Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who has endorsed him, has said that "anybody whoever said [McCain] supported amnesty is a liar."

Given the fervor of McCain's remarks, he may directly confront Romney about the charge is the issue comes up at tonight's debate.