Giuliani and Romney, making two a crowd

And for those who are not fans, Mr. Giuliani is viewed as more scary than straight-shooting, whereas Mr. Romney is thought too polished to be for real.

Mr. Romney tends to plant himself during his stump speeches, standing ramrod straight in his starched white shirt and tie. Mr. Giuliani often bounces around, so jittery during a speech in New Hampshire about health care last month that the camera crews in the back of the room interrupted him to stop him from pacing in and out of the frame.

At forums, Mr. Romney almost invariably tacks on to his response a “thank you,” even after a hostile question. When he spoke to a crowd on Thursday where the stage was in the middle of the room, he repeatedly apologized to those who had to look at his back. Mr. Giuliani, who is not without manners, is also not especially delicate, likely to flash a toothy grin when he hears something he considers absurd.

Mr. Giuliani, with his wife, Judith, in tow, was the first to drop by Mary Ann’s diner on Wednesday. The stop was an unusual bit of retail politicking, with limited interaction with voters. After just a few minutes of greeting people, the Giulianis sat down to eat an actual meal together — vegetarian egg-white omelets — with hordes of journalists hovering.

‘The street tough’
At the Chocolate Moose candy store in Salem, when Mr. Giuliani arrived he stopped in the men’s room as dozens of camera lenses trained on the door waiting for him to emerge.

Mr. Romney, on the other hand, campaigns with an energetic focus, purposeful at every step. At Mary Ann’s on Thursday, he worked hard to connect, pausing for extended conversations with patrons.

While Mr. Romney would hold four town-hall-style forums the next day, Mr. Giuliani’s campaign scheduled one, in Windham, at the end of a day of diner-hopping.

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During Mr. Giuliani’s question-and-answer session, a woman in a wheelchair pressed him about the legalization of marijuana. She accused Mr. Giuliani of promising to have “federal agents arrest the sick and the dying.”

Mr. Giuliani, with his trademark smirk, interjected, with just a hint of underlying aggression, “I never said that.”

Here was the pugnacious, alpha male in Mr. Giuliani. The word “strength” is an important buzzword of Mr. Romney’s campaign, but he sometimes struggles to match Mr. Giuliani’s testosterone level.

“I find Rudy to be the street tough,” said Nancy Copa of New Boston, who has seen both in person and was interviewed after a Romney event on Thursday here. “That New York temperament, knock-off-the-kneecaps if I want to get on that bus.”

Mr. Romney, on the other hand, is more polite, Ms. Copa said. “I don’t think Mitt’s personality would work with that.”

But who will she vote for? She is still not sure.

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