Some Republican presidential candidates enjoyed live music and barbequed meat in Iowa yesterday, courting more the 40,000 Republican voters who turned out for the straw poll. But Sen. John McCain was in New Hampshire, answering tough questions about immigration and the Iraq war from a few hundred residents who showed up at an American Legion Post in Conway and a house party in Milton.

The Arizona Republican opted out of the Iowa straw poll - seen by some as an early measure of a candidate's strength - after another top-tier Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, decided to skip the event, saying it cost too much for little benefit. McCain's disappointing fundraising led him to drastically pare down his campaign staff last month. With limited resources, he's promised a return to the retail politics that helped him defeat a much richer Republican opponent in the 2000 New Hampshire primary.

"I think the straw poll is a great way to raise money for the Republican Party," he said after a house party in Milton, population 4,300. "But I think I can do my campaign and me personally better by being here in New Hampshire, talking to people, having the town hall meetings, and responding to their questions and concerns."

McCain beat George W. Bush by 19 points in the 2000 New Hampshire primary, but McCain knows he has no laurels to rest on. The most recent poll of New Hampshire voters had him in fourth place, behind Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Sen. Fred Thompson, who hasn't entered the race.

This was McCain's third trip to New Hampshire since his campaign shakeup, and he met with about 150 people at an American Legion Post in Conway before taking more questions at a house party in Milton. He told his audiences yesterday that he's starting from "ground zero" with them; he knows that many who voted for him in 2000 need more convincing to do it again this time. And after the upheaval in his campaign, he expects it will take a lot of time to persuade New Hampshire voters of the "validity" of his candidacy.

"That is going to take this kind of effort," he said about his trips to New Hampshire.

Judging by the questions he received yesterday, McCain has his work cut out for him. At least three people asked him about immigration, citing limp congressional efforts to close the borders and McCain's support of a guest-worker program.

"Seal off that border, then we'll talk about a guest-worker program," said Dave Walker of Rochester.

At the Legion Post, Robert Donahue, a 42-year-old independent voter from Bedford, said McCain hasn't stood up to President Bush on government spending and the war in Iraq, a charge McCain disagreed with.

"Our country, I feel, has fallen into a real hole," Donohue said. "I thought you were a man who was going to stand up to Bush . . . and stand your ground and be a man of honor. I know you're a man of honor, but I thought that for us out there, you would speak to us and say, 'I think what's going on is wrong.'

"And when I didn't hear that from you. . . . When I saw you embracing Bush, I was very disappointed. And it's difficult for me now to justify my vote for you back in 2000, and I think a lot of people in New Hampshire feel the same way."

McCain said he broke with Bush to support campaign finance reform, and he forcefully criticized Bush's earlier strategy in Iraq.

"I fought it tooth and nail every chance I had," he said.

McCain didn't shy from frustrated voters with follow up questions - he told aides to leave the microphone. Even if he couldn't reach an agreement with a questioner, he wanted to at least make sure they understood one another. Too many voters feel their voices aren't heard, he said.

While some asked tough questions, others couldn't conceal their giddiness that McCain was in New Hampshire yesterday. A headline in The Conway Daily Sun read "McCain skips Iowa for a Conway visit today."

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