EREDITH, N.H. - On the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, in the banquet room of the Chase House resort, Texas Governor George W. Bush shook every single hand held out to him yesterday before uttering a syllable of his stump speech.
He did the same thing in Littleton at the Elks Club the night before, spending an hour and a half moving from one rectangular table of ten to the next, signing his name on napkins, making small talk and thanking people for coming to see him. All the while, the mood music was strictly country as the sound system blared out favorities like ''Boot Scootin' Boogie.''
With an intensified schedule and more personal attention to the voters, Bush spent a day and a half in the first-primary state atoning for his absence from last week's Republican town hall meeting in Hanover, and making up for what some see as his all-too-rare visits here. But if his actions begged forgiveness, his words did not.
He took an aggressive so-sue-me tone when asked whether he is neglecting New Hampshire voters. He joked at several stops that he heard there had been ''a little bit of a flap'' about his wife, Laura, recently. (Bush had said he could not attend the GOP get-together because she was receiving an award in Dallas the same night.)
''I don't have to apologize for anything,'' Bush said yesterday, just before leaving for Delaware. ''I made the right choice as far as I'm concerned and that's what matters. People can either accept that explanation or not.''
They accepted it at the Littleton Diner, a town gathering spot since 1930. He roamed the narrow eatery, plopping down at each of the booths to talk to people such as Jane Bath of Easton, who was lingering over dinner with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Natalia Westlund.
''I told him if he's half as decent as his folks, he's got my vote,'' Bath said. ''He's had very good role models. I like his politics and he's cute.''
Mike Gibson, a beefy man with multiple tattoos, asked Bush if he's going to cut taxes.
''Yes, I am,'' Bush replied, smiling and moving on to the next table.
That was good enough for Gibson, who lives on disability payments.
''I think he's down to earth and I think he should be president,'' he said. ''I don't criticize him because he wasn't here last time because family comes first.''
Bush did spend part of his day trying to make amends, meeting privately yesterday with about two dozen local party officials from Belknap and Grafton Counties to assure them he would be spending much more time in the state. (Only Utah Senator Orrin G. Hatch has visited less frequently than Bush.)
''He's been so busy and not able to do the kind of grass-roots important in New Hampshire,'' said Christopher D. Boothby, a Belknap County Commissioner and Bush co-chair from this picturesque lakeside village.
But as Bush worked the room here, kibbitzing all the while, Boothby looked on approvingly.
''This is exactly what the Bush campaign needs, a return to the grass-roots,'' Boothby said. ''He's not just shaking and moving on, he's shaking and stopping to talk to the people, that's the crucial thing.''
Bush is also stopping to take more questions from voters than he has in past trips. Some are friendly, some are softballs and, occasionally, he encounters a little hostility.
At the Elks Lodge in Littleton, a man accused him of supporting discrimination against gays and asked for his view of homosexuality, such as whether he believes it is a sin.
''We're all sinners, buddy, and far be it for me to cast a stone,'' Bush said, struggling to get a word in edgewise. He also said he supports the ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy for gays in the military, and he said he believes marriage is for men and women only. He said he is opposed to discrimination of any kind.
More than once, in Littleton and again in Meredith, Bush was asked about his view of the nuclear test ban treaty, which failed in the Senate, Each time, Bush said he didn't support it. But then he used the question to make an impassioned plea for free trade, citing trade with China.
''I'm giving you more of an answer than you want, but I'm unloading,'' he said yesterday. ''It's called filibustering.''
Other times he tried to give a quick answer and then scoot on to something else. When he was asked whether poor towns should be able to sue rich towns to help pay for public education, Bush stoutly declared that the federal government should not tell communities how to fund their schools. It is a problem New Hampshire has been grappling with for years, and Bush said he hoped a local solution is reached.
''I don't mean to be dodging your question,'' he said, then paused and smiled. ''Maybe I do mean to be dodging your question.''
