( L - R ) Obama, Clinton

NEW HAMPSHIRE (AP):

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton clashed yesterday in the homestretch to the critical New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, deriding each other's claims to be the true candidate of change. Clinton told Democratic voters they should elect a "doer, not a talker". Obama countered that his critics are stuck in the politics of the past.

A CNN/WMUR poll released late last night found Obama ahead at 39 per cent, Clinton following behind by 10 percentage points in New Hampshire, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards trailing at 16 per cent.

At a raucous rally Sunday in a high school gymnasium in Nashua, Clinton skewered Obama, though not calling his name, for several votes he has cast in the Senate."You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose,'' Clinton said.

Obama, speaking at a packed Manchester theatre, cautioned: "The real gamble in this election is to do the same things, with the same folks, playing the same games over and over and over again and somehow expect a different result."

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