ASHUA, N.H. - All he needed to do was give them a sign, any compelling reason to follow their instincts and join his quest for the presidency.
But Texas Governor George W. Bush last night may have squandered a chance to connect with one of his earliest New Hampshire supporters, state Representative Jane O'Hearn, and nearly a dozen neighbors who crowded before a television in her living room to witness Bush's belated debut in a presidential debate.
O'Hearn had jumped on Bush's bandwagon months ago, publicly endorsing him and pledging to mobilize her local operation behind him. But she has since grown dismayed by what she considers his failure to campaign aggressively in New Hampshire.
And by the end of the 90-minute debate, O'Hearn was on the verge of dumping him, convinced he is out of touch with New Hampshire voters.
''George Bush showed tonight that he isn't aware of what the concerns are and can't answer the questions any deeper than what he has done in Texas,'' said O'Hearn, who is chairwoman of the House Education Committee. ''And New Hampshire isn't Texas.''
Everyone at O'Hearn's house believed Bush lost the debate to Senator John McCain and possibly others in the six-candidate field.
''He failed big-time,'' said Marc Roux, a Nashua contractor.
O'Hearn's living room was emblematic of how New Hampshire primaries often are won or lost, a community gathering where candidates are sized up, opinions are aired, minds are changed, and some choices are made. The viewers at O'Hearn's house were particularly significant because they live in Nashua's Ward 1, a bellwether precinct. In the last five Republican presidential primaries, the results in Ward 1 have closely paralleled the statewide tallies, from Ronald Reagan's runaway victory over Bush's father in 1980 to Patrick J. Buchanan's narrow defeat of Bob Dole in 1996.
Moreover, O'Hearn and her guests represented the kind of rank-and-file Republicans who help decide elections in New Hampshire: informed, politically engaged voters who often can influence friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
''I was hoping for Bush,'' said Marie DiMarzio, a teacher's aide who had supported Bush's father and yearned for a reason to commit to the Texas governor. ''I was saying, `C'mon, you can change me.' But he didn't change anything. McCain sounded much better.''
DiMarzio and the others are neighbors in Nashua's Parrish Hill section, a comfortable hillside community with broad lawns and two-car garages.
As they watched the debate over drinks, fruit, and cheese and crackers, they never discovered the passion they had hoped Bush would inspire in them.
Often, they said, he appeared too nervous and defensive to project a presidential image.
''I'm still with him,'' said O'Hearn's husband, Bob, a regional sales representative for a furniture manufacturer. ''But I don't think he won by any means. He was very uncertain about how to debate in this kind of a format against people who are taking shots at him. He was too uptight, and he did not come across as a leader.''
Several members of the group who were leaning toward McCain before the debate expressed greater interest in him afterward. Ken Goodsell, a manager for the Federal Aviation Administration, said he felt strongly about McCain from the start because Goodsell had been a Navy pilot in Vietnam, flying missions in the same period when McCain, also a Navy pilot in the war, was captured by the North Vietnamese.
Though Goodsell described himself as an independent who traditionally votes Republican and remains partially undecided, Goodsell said he believes McCain could ''bring dignity back to the office of the presidency.''
''I appreciate where he came from and what he is about,'' he said. ''I trust him because I know where he has been.''
When one of the debate's moderators, Brit Hume, asked McCain about ''a whispering campaign'' that he might not be fit for the presidency because of the trauma he suffered as a prisoner of war, Goodsell said, ''I wonder if they asked Mandela that question.''
After the debate, Goodsell said he was ''even more confident now'' about supporting McCain, as did several others in the group.
Representative O'Hearn, clearly discouraged, said she would wait until she contacted Bush's campaign staff before announcing her next move.
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