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Candidates sprint to New Hampshire finish, but brace for long campaign

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a town hall campaign event at the Londonderry Lions Club Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a town hall campaign event at the Londonderry Lions Club Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H.
photo Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign stop at Great Bay Community College, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
photo Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at a town hall-style event at Pedraza’s Mexican Restaurant in Keene, N.H., Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. (Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
photo Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton hands off her food order Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, at Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
photo Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., holds a snow ball and does not throw while playing with his children after a campaign stop Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Hudson, N.H. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
photo Barbara Bush, right, mother of Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, left, introduces her son at a town hall meeting at West Running Brook Middle School in Derry, N.H., Thursday Feb. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
photo The GOP presidential race may not shake out until after Super Tuesday in March when supporters of second-tier candidates like Ben Carson, pictured, decide where to place their support.
photo Amy Dussault cuts the hair of Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich as he takes a break from the campaign, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
photo In this Jan. 29, 2016, file photo, Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at a town hall meeting at the Rogalski Center on the campus of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. At nearly every stop in New Hampshire, Christie ends his remarks with a somber story of a couple he met at town hall event in Burlington, Iowa. An Iowa couple whose son is heading to Iraq made such an impression on Christie that he’s made them a staple of his New Hampshire stump speech this week. But while the couple came away from the encounter just as impressed, they supported rival Marco Rubio in the state’s caucuses. (Thomas Geyer/Quad City Times via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
photo Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina speaks during a campaign event at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

SALEM, N.H. – Eyeing their first wins in a capricious campaign, Republican Donald Trump lashed out at his opponents Monday while Democrat Bernie Sanders sought to play it safe on the eve of the nation’s initial primary. GOP contenders vying for second and third saw fresh hopes for survival after New Hampshire as both parties settled in for a drawn-out slog to the nomination.

As snowfall brought yet more uncertainty to the race’s final hours, Hillary Clinton tried to move past talk of a shakeup in her campaign and controversy over comments by supporters that women should feel obliged to vote for her. Barnstorming New Hampshire with her husband and daughter, she worked to flip Sanders’ favored critique against her by claiming that he, too, had taken big bucks from Wall Street – if only indirectly.

But it was Trump, the billionaire businessman, who launched the harshest attacks – not just against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who had bested him in Iowa, but against Jeb Bush as well. The former Florida governor is one of three Republicans hoping Marco Rubio’s recent stumbles have opened a fresh path for one of them to emerge as the more mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz.

“Jeb is having some kind of a breakdown, I think,” Trump told CNN, calling Bush, the son and brother of presidents, a spoiled child and an embarrassment to his family. “I think it’s a very sad situation that’s taking place.”

The enmity was mutual. Vying for votes in Nashua, Bush described his opponent variably as a loser, a liar, a whiner and the worst choice for president. He blasted what he said was Trump’s proclivity for “insulting women, castigating Hispanics, ridiculing the disabled and calling American POWs losers.”