Kerry Scores On Beating Bush

John Kerry scored big among New Hampshire Democratic primary voters most concerned about beating President Bush in November, while Howard Dean edged out Kerry among those angry with the Bush administration and most opposed to the war in Iraq, an Associated Press exit poll found.

Half the voters in the leadoff presidential primary said they had made up their minds since the Iowa caucuses a week earlier. The exit poll provided evidence that Dean's screaming speech the night he placed third in Iowa may have cost him votes in New Hampshire, although he began to rebound in the last three days.

John Edwards won support for having a positive message. Wesley Clark drew some strength from his opposition to the Iraq war although the retired four-star general did no better among households with military veterans than those without.

In a race in which only half the voters were registered Democrats -- the rest were mostly independents, who in New Hampshire can vote in either party's primary -- Joe Lieberman did best among the relatively few voters with positive views of Bush and his policies.

The findings were from preliminary results of a survey of 1,375 New Hampshire Democratic primary voters.