(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-23 16:45

MANCHESTER, N.H., - Flanked by her mother and daughter, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton sought on Saturday to shore up votes among women whose support is turning more fluid in the tightening U.S. presidential race.

Less than two weeks before voting begins in the state-by-state process to select party candidates, the New York senator who would be the nation's first female president touted her plans to expand paid family leave and boost child-care funding to help working mothers.

"We can do a better job in America in supporting families," Clinton told about 120 voters in the lobby of the Young Women's Christian Association offices in Manchester, New Hampshire, as her 27-year-old daughter, Chelsea, and her 88-year-old mother, Dorothy Rodham, sat in chairs beside her.

National polls have shown Clinton holding a strong lead among women over Democratic rival Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, but surveys in the early-voting states of New Hampshire and Iowa are more volatile.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll published on Wednesday showed Clinton and Obama in a statistical dead heat among women who plan to attend Iowa's January 3 caucuses, which will kick off the nomination process for the November 2008 election.

In New Hampshire, whose January 8 primary vote is the second big nomination contest in the race for the White House, a CNN/WMUR poll this week showed Clinton leading Obama 42 percent to 25 percent among women -- roughly unchanged from November.

But just a week earlier, the same pollsters said Clinton's support among women had collapsed in New Hampshire when they found that from December 6 to December 10 her support narrowed to 33 percent while Obama's support among women rose to 28 percent.

'EVERY LITTLE THING MATTERS'

"For Hillary Clinton every little thing matters from here on," said Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire. "She wants to keep her core voters of working-class Democrats energized, but the more upscale Democrats with professional jobs, especially women, are going to be key for her," he added.

Clinton's national advantage over Obama shrunk slightly in December to eight points from 11 points last month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released this week.

Most New Hampshire polls give Clinton an edge, though some show her neck and neck with Obama. Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards are virtually tied in Iowa.

The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire's primary five days later are the earliest they have ever been, forcing the candidates on Saturday to compete for time with voters who are distracted by holiday shopping.

For the first time in more than a half century there is no incumbent president or vice president running in the election. President George W. Bush's Republicans are in a see-saw race, with polls showing sharp fluctuations among top contenders.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was back on the campaign trail, stumping in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, after being released on Friday from a Missouri hospital, where he had been admitted a day earlier for flu-like symptoms.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney crisscrossed New Hampshire in a bid to fend off a mounting threat from Arizona Sen. John McCain's surging campaign.

McCain, a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war who gave George W. Bush a run for his money in the 2000 election, is climbing in polls following a flurry of endorsements.

One New Hampshire survey this week by American Research Group shows him tied with Romney, who has already lost a big lead in Iowa to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"For Romney right now, the certainty he had about being a front-runner is gone," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of politics at Princeton University. "If Romney loses New Hampshire, his status could fall very quickly. There's a lot at stake right now."