ANCHESTER, N.H. - Charging into the last hours of the New Hampshire Republican race, Texas Governor George W. Bush yesterday adopted the folksy approach used by his father in a successful campaign here in 1988 while Senator John McCain made an emotional appearance at a town hall meeting.
Both candidates attracted throngs of spectators at their public events, though the pace of their schedule eased in late afternoon as the campaign segued into a series of Super Bowl parties.
Bush was greeted by an overflow crowd of 700 spectators packing a gym at Alvirn High School in Hudson, while another 200 stood outside to welcome the candidate.
McCain, meanwhile, returned to Peterborough, where he hosted an event last summer that attracted a handful of people. Yesterday, hundreds crowded into every available spot in the town hall to hear the Arizona senator tell of his plans to deal with the federal surplus and to answer questions from the audience.
Bush, by contrast, seems to have concluded the last days before the primary are a time to lift the curtain on the candidate's lighter side. Followed by dozens of photographers and camera crews, the Texas governor has been emphasizing his athleticism and informality in a series of carefully planned stops over the final weekend of the campaign.
To underscore the casual theme, Bush replaced his business suit with a sports jacket and slacks. He has gone snowmobiling and played goalie in a soccer game. Today he hopes to go ice fishing and bowling.
''It's color. It helps us win on personality,'' said Patrick W. Griffin, Bush's New Hampshire media strategist. ''I've never seen John McCain without a coat and tie on. McCain does one thing and he does it well. But winning the New Hampshire primary is as much about image as issues. Our key right now to optically differentiate the two men.'' Griffin called it ''the Elvis factor, the rock star factor.''
The strategy is reminiscent of the photo opportunities used on the way to the White House by his father, George Bush, who donned a sports cap and climbed aboard a tractor in the closing days of the New Hampshire primary 12 years ago.
And as the candidates dashed across the state in an 11th hour appeal for support, polls, including the latest Boston Globe/WBZ-TV tracking poll, continued to reflect a very tight race between McCain and Bush with the other three candidates lagging well behind.
McCain was cautious about his prospects yesterday. He said he thinks the vote will be close, and that tomorrow would be ''a late night'' for everyone.
McCain continued to draw contrasts between himself and Bush, without quite criticizing his rival. On NBC's ''Meet the Press,'' host Tim Russert asked McCain several times whether an advertisment asserting that the senator is the only candidate fully qualified in military and foreign affairs was meant to imply Bush was not qualified.
McCain, who has often vowed publicly to forgo negative campaigning, avoided saying that, repeating that he was simply more qualified than the Texas governor.
''What I was trying to say was that I am fully prepared, and fully qualified,'' he said shortly afterward on his bus. ''I'm not saying he's unprepared, I'm just saying I'm better prepared.''
He chose Peterborough Town Hall for his 114th and final town hall event in the state. ''What happened at Peterborough is really the metaphor for what happened in this campaign,'' McCain told his audience.
Last July, McCain said, he held a town hall meeting in Peterborough, gave away ice cream, and only 40 people showed up. Back then, he garnered just 3 percent of Republican voters surveyed. Last December, he drew a crowd of 400, without benefit of free dairy products, he said. Yesterday's crowd doubled the December event, and McCain was jubilant.
His last town hall meeting was worlds away from his earliest ones in more ways than audience size. Instead of recorded music, itself a very recent addition to McCain events, a live band revved up the crowd with Van Morrison and James Taylor numbers. The musicians cranked out ''Johnny B. Goode'' when McCain arrived, but were barely audible over the applause.
When McCain had answered his last question, the audience rose, the band struck up with ''Play That Funky Music (White Boy),'' and red, white, blue, and silver streamers and confetti rained down on everyone.
While Bush and McCain continued to quarrel over the merits of their rival tax proposals during their public appearances, Steve Forbes sought to insert himself into the day's debate by suggesting that Bush was not committed to a tax cut.
Noting that Bush had said that he hoped to achieve a tax cut in his first term, Forbes said the statement implied that the American people would have to wait four years or longer for action.
''This idea that you make a weak tax proposal and then not even be willing to fight for it vigorously from day one, that's the difference,'' Forbes said. He also accused Bush of ''straddling and wishy-washiness'' on the issue.
Trailing badly in public opinion surveys, Alan Keyes and Gary Bauer campaigned in the shadows of their competitors. Bauer kept a light schedule, and Keyes turned his tongue on the Democratic candidates, describing the race between Bill Bradley and Al Gore as a choice between ''the devil and Beelzebub.''
Although discussion of abortion has been muted in the Republican contest since the campaign departed Iowa, the two leading candidates were grilled on the subject during network television appearances yesterday morning.
On ''Meet the Press,'' McCain said he had ''come to the conclusion that the exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother are legitimate exceptions'' to an outright ban on abortions. ''I don't claim to be a theologian, but I have my moral beliefs.''
If Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion outlawed, McCain said he believes doctors who performed abortions would be prosecuted. ''But I would not prosecute a woman'' who obtained an abortion.
He said the National Right to Life Committee had labeled his position as ''conflicting'' because the organization opposed him on another issue, campaign financing. The antiabortion group has ''turned a cause into a business, and they are very worried that if I have campaign finance reform, all these uncontrolled, undisclosed contributions may be reduced, and it may harm them in their efforts to continue this huge business they've got going in Washington,'' McCain said.
In an appearance on CBS's ''Face the Nation,'' Bush was asked about McCain's reluctance to prosecute women who might obtain abortion should the day come when abortion is once again illegal. ''I think that's a realistic position that the senator took. I feel the same way.''
In contrast to the contention of Bauer and Keyes that abortion is the premier issue of the day, Bush said, ''I think abortion is an important issue, but it is not the only issue. I think it is important to have a president explain the value of life. But it's certainly not the only issue on the American agenda.''
Globe Staff writer Michael Crowley, traveling with Forbes, and Globe correspondent Curtis Wilkie contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.
