CONCORD, N.H. —  Marge Bonneville voted for John McCain in the 2000 New Hampshire primary and wrote him in on her general election ballot after he lost the Republican nomination to George W. Bush. She did the same four years later, when McCain wasn't even running.

For a while after Democrat Barack Obama won her over last year, the retired postmaster still thought she could live with having McCain as president. Not anymore.

"I look at McCain now and say, 'How can anyone want him as our president?'" said Bonneville, 58, a lifelong Republican from Tilton. This year, she's changed her registration to undeclared and is volunteering for Obama's campaign in New Hampshire.

But McCain still has his supporters in a state where voters arguably know him as well if not better than his constituents back home in Arizona.

Andy Collins, a carpenter from Walpole, was torn between McCain and Obama just before the primary but voted for the Republican and will do so again in November. He called Obama a gifted speaker, but said with the nation at war and a son headed to Afghanistan, he wants McCain in the White House.

"Obama talks a good game and he gets people to vote for him, but I'm really worried on the world stage if he becomes president," said Collins, an independent.

"The guy is a hero," Collins said of McCain. "He has a lot character. He's a hot head, but so what? Sometimes you have to be like that to get what you want."

New Hampshire voters twice have launched McCain toward the GOP nomination. He trounced Bush in the state's 2000 primary and pulled off a stunning comeback win last January. But now McCain is trailing Obama in the polls here, and both candidates are in hot pursuit of the state's four electoral votes. McCain on Wednesday makes his fifth visit to the state since locking up the nomination.

Political consultant Dean Spiliotes says McCain's strong ties to the state are based on mutual recognition of the importance of retail politics. McCain's biography-heavy campaign works well in a small state where a candidate can meet a lot of voters face-to-face, he said.

And, he adds, "In an era where social conservatives have been driving the Republican Party, McCain has had sort of a refreshing quality to him that fits with the more libertarian leanings of the state."

State trends are working against McCain, however. New Hampshire was the only state to vote for John Kerry in 2004 after voting for Bush in 2000, and Democrats swept both its congressional seats, the governor's office and both houses of the state Legislature in 2006. Those results were fueled in large part by anti-Bush and anti-war sentiment, but Spiliotes argues the shift is certainly more than a blip, if not a permanent trend.

In the last two years, Democrats have increased their voter rolls by 20 percent, compared to a 6 percent gain by Republicans. The GOP has seen its advantage over Democrats shrink to just under 6,000 votes.

Undeclared voters, who were key to McCain's primary wins, have decreased but still outnumber those registered with either party. Spiliotes believes most of them lean Democratic given that New Hampshire's growing industries, such as technology startups, medical centers and precision manufacturing, attract people from metropolitan areas.

"You look at the large group of independents, and I wouldn't make the case any more that they're split down the middle," he said.

McCain isn't the only candidate prowling the state for votes. His running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, campaigned here earlier this month, a few days after a visit by her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, and a day before Barack Obama arrived.

Jennifer Donahue, political director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, thinks McCain still could win New Hampshire the same way he won the primaries.

"A month of politics in New Hampshire is like a year in many other places," she said. "McCain understands the voters of this state and has ample time to work with them and get their votes."

She argues that polls showing Obama opening a lead in New Hampshire reflect the Illinois senator's success in wooing Democrats, not necessarily independents, who she said tend to change their minds a lot.

"People really pay attention to what the candidates do at the end. If McCain came for a couple of days and stacked those days with town hall meetings, you can bet he would get a lot of support," she said. "There's nothing like the real thing. That's where McCain is really McCain and truly performs at a terrific level."

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