Tomorrow will provide a study in contrast.

The well-oiled Clinton machine will roll into the state with Bill and Hill on board, ready to wow the crowds by combining the glory days gone by with what appears (at this point, at least) to be a bright future.

At the same time, the McCain Straight Talk Express will sputter in, badly in need of a tune-up, a realignment and probably a couple of new tires to be kicked by the New Hampshire electorate.

At a Concord business luncheon, John McCain is expected to deliver a major address on Iraq with a theme similar to the speech he made on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday.

He's expected to defend the Bush administration's troop surge while criticizing mistakes that were made. He's expected to hammer the Maliki-headed Iraq government, as he did on the floor when he said, "We see little evidence of reconciliation and little progress toward meeting the benchmarks laid out by the President. The Iraqi government can function; the question is whether it will."

McCain state campaign vice chairman Chuck Douglas said he came away from a 30-minute conference call with McCain and other campaign officials on Tuesday evening believing, "What you're going to hear from the senator is that unless there is a material change in the direction of the Maliki government, our commitment will probably have to be adjusted."

But the bottom line is McCain will be here looking to become the "Comeback Kid." Well, he's no kid, but you get the picture.

►Politico.com: McCain's meltdown was brewing for months

THEATER

The simultaneous Clintons/McCain visits also will have much different focuses.

For the Clintons, it will be more about theater, the proverbial "hoopla."

As Barack Obama tries to turn up the heat on her early support for sending troops to Iraq, the Bill and Hill show will be pep "Rallies for Change" in Keene, Nashua and at Manchester's Victory Park.

Celine Dion's "You and I" will blare. Vendors will dish out Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Ricky D's Hot Dogs and Jonathan's Quick Eats. No mention of carrots.

Hillary will have more serious "conversations" in Salem and Rochester on Saturday, but for tomorrow, expect lots of pure political theater, Clinton-style.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Sen. Clinton cancelled her Saturday schedule in New Hampshire late yesterday. She and her husband will attend funeral services for Lady Bird Johnson instead.)

ABOUT THAT CONFERENCE CALL

McCain will be under a microscope as he comes "home" to the state that in 2000 endorsed him for the GOP Presidential nomination.

According to campaign consultant Mike Dennehy, he'll try to resurrect his campaign here, on familiar ground, and in South Carolina. Dennehy said that the approach in the first-caucus Iowa "will continue as it is." McCain has an organization but has decided not to participate in a big straw poll later this summer.

Speculation was rampant on the Web yesterday that McCain will pull out of Iowa, but Douglas told us a handful of Iowans participated with an early states "high command" conference call with the Arizona senator Tuesday evening, and there was no talk of a pullout.

Douglas said McCain and new campaign manager Rick Davis were on the call, along with Granite Staters Peter Spaulding, the state chair; vice chairs Steve Duprey and Maureen Barrows and veterans coalition chair Paul Chevalier. Also on the call were South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and top campaign officials from South Carolina, Douglas said.

Douglas said there was "unanimous agreement" that it was time to retrench in the early primary and caucus states.

"We agreed that the national focus had spread him too thin and you can't have enough money for a full national campaign and still go to the early states as much as you have to," Douglas said. "We agreed to focus on the first major states and believe that good showings there will translate into better results down the road. You can't campaign in 30 states when you can't afford to do it."

Of course, given McCain's money problems, what choice did they have?

Douglas said McCain will return to the state in a few weeks and again in August, which is "exactly what we've been urging."

MORE FOR OBAMA

Obama today will unveil a list of 25 new New Hampshire endorsements, including Rep. David Borden of New Castle; Cheshire County Treasurer Stuart West; Paul O'Connor, state Democratic Party Labor Caucus co-chair; Douglas Micklon, former American Legion state commander, and his wife, former state Rep. Stephanie Micklon, both of Salem.

Next week, Obama's camp will roll out a summer-long series of issue-based community forums, with the first focused on child advocacy.

THE MONEY GAME

Second-quarter fund-raising number for 2008 federal candidates will be public by early next week. But so far we can tell you that:

• Republican former U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley raised $141,031 in the second quarter and has more than $200,000 on hand as he plans a rematch against Carol Shea-Porter.

• Shea-Porter will report raising about $150,000 for the second quarter and having about $250,000 on hand.

• Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Katrina Swett today will announce $737,280 raised for the quarter for year-to-date total raised of $1.2 million. More than 160 New Hampshire contributors include former state Sens. Wayne King and Katie Wheeler, attorney John Ahlgren of Portsmouth, prominent businessman John Swope, Rep. Bernie Benn of Hanover and New London activist Jay Rosenfield.

QUICK TAKES:

• Republican New Hampshire front-runner Mitt Romney's campaign today will announce an endorsement by former state Sen. Chuck Morse of Salem.

• When she recently joined McCain's campaign, Nancy Merrill resigned as a state member of the Republican National Committee. Former Executive Councilor Ruth Griffin and three others have expressed interest in being appointed, but state GOP Chair Fergus Cullen said that on Tuesday, the Republican State Committee executive committee decided not to appoint an interim member but to instead hold a meeting of the full state committee in the fall for a vote.

• The money-raising is non-stop for Executive Councilor Ray Burton, who will host his annual $20-a-person picnic at his Bath home on Saturday.

• Manchester Republican activist Joe Kelly Levasseur's August 2006 lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service was dismissed this week by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro, who accepted the postal service's argument that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the claims. Barbadoro did not accept Levasseur's argument that postal worker David McCloskey, who worked for Levasseur political opponent Pat Long, purposely hid the mailing.

John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader.