MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – Activists and volunteers lined the road outside the Democrats’ first New Hampshire presidential debate Sunday, but anger toward the war in Iraq – and not support of any one candidate – was their key motivator to stand in the rain.

“Yeah, it’s miserable, but it’s a miserable war,” said Penny Robinson, a peace activist from North Hampton, Mass. “We voted last time against this war. We want them to listen to us. If you want to be our candidate, bring our troops home before 2008.”

Steve Lindsey stood in the driveway of Saint Anselm College, playing a broken trombone, bleating at cars and urging them to honk and support impeachment.

“Yeah, it’s a noise. But it’s noise they need to hear. They need to end this war and impeach this president,” said Lindsey, who drives a cab in Keene. “We’re not going to sit and take it quietly. We look like fools, but look at the war around us.”

Mark Lathrop, shopkeeper from Keene, held two signs, one criticizing the American media and the other proclaiming a Sept. 11 conspiracy.

“They were orchestrated by the government and they were to get Americans to wave the flag so they would be comfortable with pre-emptive war in Afghanistan to secure oil out of the Caspian basin and to go into Iraq,” he said.

Inside the debate hall the war also was a key topic in the first-in-the-nation voting state, in a debate presented by CNN, WMUR-TV and the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Campaigns also were represented outside. Supporters of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden plastered the roads leading to the debate with signs. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had a large of group of supporters and Sen. Barack Obama’s supporters stood with signs and banners for their candidate.

“I might get a cold, but it’s worth it. We need a candidate who will change the world,” said Brian Lessels, a 20-year-old Obama volunteer from Hopkinton.

Peace activist Andy Davis of Albany, N.H., said Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich has his vote.

“He’s always been courageous and uncompromisingly in favor of getting the troops home, opposed to the war in the beginning,” Davis said.

Michael Knarr or Reading, Penn., mixed two messages, holding one sign proclaiming a Sept. 11 conspiracy and another supporting Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. He had a low opinion of the Democrats preparing to debate inside.

“They’re all shills, they’re all puppets,” he said. “These people, they get into a certain position of power and it’s compromise this, compromise that, and they compromise themselves right into the toilet.”

Meanwhile, boosters of Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards appeared to be engaged in a battle of heavy machinery, with each campaign using construction equipment to hold giant signs as supporters sang, chanted, cheered and beat noisemakers not far from each other.

Seventeen-year-old Janine Hanrahan of Foxboro, Mass., stood in front of a cherry-picker hanging a column of Clinton banners. “I’ve been a Hillary fan since 7th grade. I think she’s been a pioneer first lady,” she said. “I think she’s the one who could probably break the glass ceiling.”

Down the road, Edwards volunteers hung banners and flags from a scissor-lift parked in the driveway of a house across the street from the college. Supporters who braved the soggy weather got a treat when Edwards made a quick stop en route to the debate, jumping out of a minivan to shake hands and pose for photos.

Arlington, Mass., lawyer Deborah Sirotkin Butler said her support for Edwards has personal roots. “His people were mill workers, my people were mill workers,” she said.

Republicans debate on Tuesday.

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Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott contributed to this report.