John McCain is a Washington insider who dislikes tax cuts.

Those are the accusations being flung about in New Hampshire by the two GOP candidates leading polls here as voters prepare for the nation's first primary election today. McCain and Romney are locked in a tight battle for the state's delegates, and most importantly, the attention a win in this state would bring.

Romney barnstormed the state Monday, pledging to voters to turn Washington around, and warning that the Republican Party needs a strong contender to take out Sen. Barack Obama. McCain, he argued, is not that candidate.

"Barack Obama may well become the Democratic nominee," Romney told a Rotary Club crowd at the Nashua Country Club. "And if we put up a long-term serving senator, who can talk about his years and years of experience, Barack Obama will do to him what he did to the other Democrats."

McCain traversed the state on his "Mac is Back" tour, and his campaign shot back at Romney. ''If 'change' means flip-flopping on nearly every issue imaginable, then sure, Mitt Romney wins that prize,'' said spokesman Brian Rogers.

The McCain camp also noted Romney's convincing defeat in Iowa after outspending first-place Republican finisher Mike Huckabee by a margin of 15-to-one. "Mitt Romney's angry, negative attacks didn't work in Iowa and won't in New Hampshire," said a spokeswoman.

Romney has sharpened his aim at McCain since jetting into New Hampshire immediately after his second-place Iowa showing.

Many political observers say New Hampshire is a must win for Romney, who had banked on an early states victory to push him through to the nomination. After Thursday's Iowa defeat, he won the Wyoming caucuses, which most candidates overlooked. But a victory in New Hampshire would secure him leading-candidate status.

Romney moved to lower expectations Monday, saying he'll be fine with second place here and go on to win others.

"From here we're going on to Michigan, South Carolina and Nevada," Romney told reporters after speaking to employees at The Timberland Co. headquarters. "This is not a one- or two-state campaign. This is a 50-state campaign."

Senior adviser Ron Kaufman, who led then-Vice President George H.W. Bush through New Hampshire in 1988, dismissed critics who say the camp is finished if they lose the first primary.

"This has been an interesting year and people have been written off 8,000 different times," he said. "The one thing I know about conventional wisdom this year, it's been wrong."

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani visited a diner and held a series of town hall meetings Monday in New Hampshire, a state where he once challenged Romney's lead in polls. But Giuliani is not expected to do well today. Polls indicate he may come in fourth behind McCain, Romney and Huckabee - or even lower - after coming in sixth in Iowa last week.

Giuliani is looking ahead to delegate-rich Florida, where he has been campaigning and running TV commercials in recent weeks, for the most part unchallenged by his GOP rivals. Giuliani arrives in Melbourne, Fla., on Wednesday and is planning a bus tour next weekend. As for Fred Thompson, he, like Giuliani, appears to be looking beyond New Hampshire, where he lags in polls, to South Carolina, where Republicans vote Jan. 19.

In fact, when voters go to the polls today in snowy New Hampshire, Thompson will be campaigning in South Carolina, the first Southern state to weigh in.

tburr@sltrib.com

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* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story.