HAMPTON, N.H. — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, slipping further behind her chief rival in the Democratic primary here, has taken direct control over her strategy and message as she scrambles to block the ascent of Sen. Barack Obama.

With just two days to go until the New Hampshire primary, contenders in both parties blanketed the state with campaign events. On the Republican side, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain of Arizona continued their war of words, with Romney seeking to remind voters about McCain's unpopular stand on immigration reform legislation.

Despite being outwardly optimistic, Romney advisers are well aware that a loss in New Hampshire after defeat at the hands of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Iowa on Thursday would unravel their carefully plotted route to the nomination. A new CNN/WMUR poll, released after a heated Saturday- night debate in which Romney was peppered with criticism from his rivals, showed McCain maintaining a narrow lead over Romney.

That poll also showed Obama, of Illinois, opening up a significant lead in the state, suggesting a major bounce in support after his win in the Iowa caucuses, where Clinton, of New York, finished third. Frustrated by her campaign's reaction to the defeat, Clinton ordered her advisers to reorient their message yesterday to more aggressively focus on the idea that Obama is all talk and no action. "This election is about the difference between talk and action, between rhetoric and reality," Clinton said at a crowded rally near the coast last night in what advisers said was a new approach that she scripted herself. "If we're going to be talking about change, then let's talk about change. Let's talk about who's produced change, and let's talk about who's more likely to bring about change."

Obama, drawing overflow crowds at every stop, challenged Clinton's assertion that he is offering "false hope." Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who placed second in Iowa but is trailing in New Hampshire, held an emotional event with the family of a young woman who died after she could not afford a liver transplant.

The Clinton campaign at times yesterday appeared to be grasping at straws, holding two conference calls to knock Obama over his record of talk, advisers said, and attacking his campaign's use of automated phone calls. Clinton campaign officials sent out an appeal, labeled "urgent," seeking phone-bank volunteers at its Arlington, Va., headquarters. Former President Bill Clinton also held a full day of campaign events, and advisers said he played a prominent role in crafting his wife's new approach.