Voters Grapple for Choices They Can Live With : Primary: Many in New Hampshire remain undecided, or wrestle with second thoughts about earlier favorites.

Two weeks ago, Scott MacHardy, a 25-year-old small business owner in Dover, wasn’t sure whether to support former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas or Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Now, he’s decided that all the accusations against Clinton have left him too weak to carry the Democratic banner against President Bush.

“The whole situation is just getting a little bit out of hand, and I’m not sure if he’s electable anymore,” said MacHardy. “I don’t know if Tsongas can be elected either. But maybe message can win out over charisma.”

Until recently, Kathleen Brown, a liberal 39-year-old civil engineer in Manchester, thought Clinton was too moderate for her taste; now, after watching him pilloried over unsubstantiated charges of marital infidelity and controversy over his draft status during the Vietnam War, she’s reconsidering.

“I’m leaning toward Clinton,” she said. “I guess I’m just reaching a disgust threshold with the media.”

Lorrie Baird of Laconia doesn’t use the word disgust to describe her choice in the Republican primary--but she comes close. With great reluctance, she has made up her mind to support President Bush over conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan.

“I’m going to vote for experience in the primary,” said Baird, a 44-year-old public relations consultant. “That doesn’t mean I won’t go with somebody else in the general. I’ve never been so unexcited.”

Voters of every age and ideology in New Hampshire are struggling to reach--and live with--their decisions as Tuesday’s first-in-the nation primary approaches.

To gauge opinion in this crucial state, Times reporters on Saturday re-interviewed, in an unscientific sample, more than three dozen New Hampshire voters who participated in a Times Poll three weeks ago. These conversations suggest that opinions are beginning to harden among Democrats, Republicans and independents, who are eligible to vote in either primary. But many voters, particularly those intending to vote in the Democratic primary, remain uncertain just what they will do when they step into the voting booth two days from now.

Tsongas, who leads Clinton in the most recent polls, has impressed many of the voters in his neighboring state as serious and thoughtful.

Diane Boudreau, a 37-year-old medical technician in Rochester, was leaning toward Clinton two weeks ago; now she has concluded Tsongas has a stronger economic plan and she plans to vote for him.

To her, Clinton’s proposal to cut middle-class taxes misses the point. “I thought they are not the people who are really hurting,” she said. “I was very impressed that Tsongas says he wants to rebuild the manufacturing base because that’s what we need up here. We need jobs.”

Tsongas’ strongest suit, though, for Boudreau and many other voters, is not his program but his unassuming profile--which has become more attractive as questions have mounted about Clinton, his flashier rival.

Voters like Brian O’Reilly, a 38-year-old social studies teacher in Derry, are drawn to Tsongas precisely because of the contrast with Clinton, who strikes O’Reilly as too slick. “Tsongas is the least like a politician of the candidates,” he said.

And yet doubts about Tsongas remain. To Lynn Montana, a 40-year-old picture framer in Meredith, Tsongas “is just not strong enough” to be President. Gary Howe, a 47-year-old engineer from Merrimack, said Tsongas “doesn’t give me the impression that he’s ready for something as big as the White House.”

Clinton’s struggles with allegations about his marriage and his draft status have left more questions than answers for many Democrats. “You don’t know how much of it is just mud-slinging,” said Patricia Kinville, an undecided 62-year-old electronics plant employee in Nashua. “But if you can’t trust a man on small matters, you can’t trust him on big matters.”

Like other older voters, Wayne Gilcris, a 52-year-old truck driver from Groveton, isn’t sure he can still support Clinton after the questions about his draft status. “I ain’t leaning so much that way anymore,” he said.

Some voters maintain that Clinton’s performance during the recent tempest demonstrates the strength a President needs. “The country needs a real leader and I feel a leader is someone who doesn’t bend under pressure,” said John Little, a 31-year-old restaurant manager in Belmont. “And if anybody has had pressure put on him this past week, it is Bill Clinton.”

The other three Democratic candidates don’t seem to be stirring strong emotions. Several of those interviewed said they didn’t really have a clear impression of Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. “I sort of like Bob Kerrey,” said Dave Morris, a 38-year-old telephone worker in Derry, “but he just couldn’t get his act together up here.”

To 46-year-old Ken Ellis of Boscawen, who is unemployed, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin seems “more for the working class.” But some younger Democrats such as John Borden, a 33-year-old marketing manager in Amherst, see him as just a relic--”a blast from the past.”

Former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. has impressed voters like Lynn Montana with his sharp denunciations of political corruption--but she’s dubious he can be elected.

For Republicans, the decision is not as confusing, in part because there are only two major candidates on the ballot.

“A lot of my friends who are Democrats are undecided, but the friends who are Republicans have made up their minds, pretty much,” said Harold Keyes, a 35-year-old utility company employee living in Bow. Within the past few days, Keyes decided to vote for Bush, saying he considers Buchanan’s foreign policy views too isolationist.

But even Bush’s staunchest backers concede that the state’s economic troubles will take a toll on the President’s support. “I see a lot of switching going on,” said Rose Daniels, a 52-year-old educator in Concord. While she has not wavered, Daniels said many of her friends are “desperate” and believe a new Administration is needed. “They think that if there’s a change in the government, things will change for them.”

For many Republicans, the primary is less a choice between two candidates than a referendum on Bush’s policies.

Marguerite Blynn, a 66-year-old retiree who lives in Nashua, will vote for Buchanan. But asked whether she thinks the television commentator has much of a chance of winning, she laughed: “Oh, heavens no. That’s a frightening thought . . . it’s just an idea of sending a message.”

While other Republicans said that amounts to wasting their votes, Ron Fournier, a 40-year-old car salesman and fellow Buchanan voter, agreed with Blynn.

He said of Buchanan: “If he comes up with a sizable percentage of the votes, he can send a message to Bush, and that’s a message that needs to be sent.”

Fournier, a single parent, works three jobs to support himself and his 12-year-old handicapped daughter. He eagerly voted for Bush in 1988 and even attended a fund raiser for him. “The big difference was, four years ago, I always had plenty of money in my pocket,” Fournier said.