MANCHESTER, N.H. ? Democratic presidential contenders attacked President Bush’s handling of the economy and postwar Iraq on Thursday night in the final debate before the New Hampshire primary, each one adding he was best positioned to defeat the Republican incumbent.

“I look forward to that fight,” said Sen. John Kerry, winner of this week’s Iowa caucuses and leader in the polls for Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary as well.

In a debate far more civil that earlier encounters, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean trumpeted his record as a state budget balancer, while Sen. Joe Lieberman said Bush had recently identified him as the Democrat he was most worried about.

“I didn’t get to the Senate by accident,” said Sen. John Edwards, a North Carolinian who defeated a Republican incumbent to win his seat in 1998 and cited his support for gun rights.

Dean, who faded to a weak third-place finish in Iowa, sought to minimize any damage from a memorably long and loud post-caucus speech he made to supporters, while retired Gen. Wesley Clark strongly defended his Democratic credentials.

“I’m pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-environment and pro-labor,” he said. “I was either going to be the loneliest Republican in America or I was going to be a happy Democrat.”

The two-hour debate was held five days before Democrats and willing independents cast ballots in the first primary of the nominating campaign.

The Iowa caucuses shook up the race dramatically, and the debate’s opening moments suggested it had caused a reappraisal in debate strategy, as well.

Dean and Richard Gephardt finished third and fourth in the caucuses, after engaging in a late-campaign exchange of attack and counterattack. Gephardt has since bowed out of the race. Kerry and Edwards stayed largely above the fray, and surged to surprise first- and second-place finishes.

Several of the contenders passed up opportunities to criticize one another — chances they might have leapt at in earlier encounters.

“This is a time to be affirmative. I’d say nice try,” Lieberman told one questioner who had invited a critical comparison with other Democrats on stage.

Democratic presidential hopefuls, from left, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, Al Sharpton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman and Dennis Kucinich greet the audience before the start of a debate in Manchester, N.H. The candidates held off on attacking each other in Thursday night's debate, instead focusing on criticism of the Bush administration.