this story has been updated.









a stampede of gop presidential hopefuls descended on<u+00a0>new hampshire this weekend<u+00a0>for the first in the nation republican leadership summit, a political cattle-call that formally kicks off the 2016 presidential primary in the early-voting state.









the post's bob costa explained the stakes in nashua: "the attendance by a bevy of ambitious republicans underscores the intense competition already underway in new hampshire, which plays a critical role in the nominating process. with no clear front-runner here, campaigns are rushing to make inroads with primary voters who traditionally demand personal interaction and unceasing attention."









we'll be following the speeches throughout the weekend. tune in for highlights...









among the gop presidential hopefuls who spoke at the leadership summit in new hampshire on saturday were former hewlett-packard chief executive<u+00a0>carly fiorina, louisiana gov. bobby jindal, businessman donald trump, sen. lindsey graham (s.c.), former arkansas governor mike huckabee and sen. ted cruz (tex.).









fiorina drew rousing applause when she was asked by a questioner how she would be different from other republicans, such as jeb bush, marco rubio and scott walker.









"i am different from everyone else running in every aspect," she said, noting her business background made her stand out from people whose only experience has been politics. "i come at problem solving differently. and oh, by the way, i look a little different, too."









jindal spoke at length about his parents who left india and settled in baton rouge. he praised their work ethic, the value they placed on education, and their belief in america as the land of unlimited opportunity.









he drew the biggest applause when he said: "when my parents came to america, they were coming to become americans. i am tired of the hyphenated americans. they didn't come to become indian-americans."









trump was asked what kinds of people he would choose for a cabinet if he ran for president and won. he criticized the way ambassadors are chosen, singling out caroline kennedy, who is u.s. envoy to japan. "she is not talented at what you have to do," he said. "she doesn't know anything about trade." instead, he would choose someone from wall street for that position.









huckabee was asked to state his opinion on global climate change. "fact or fiction?" the questioner wanted to know. huckabee said he was in college when scientists were predicting that "we would all freeze to death." now the grim outlook is that the earth will burn up.









"the earth is an amazing body. let me be very blunt. i believe the earth is the lord's creation," he said, as the audience applauded.









cruz criticized president obama's efforts to fight the islamic state. his first question was what he would do differently if he were in the white house. cruz said the goal shouldn't be to weaken or degrade the terrorist group, but to "utterly and completely destory isis."









and the current debate over "boots on the ground" in iraq should be driven by military assessments on how to reach that goal, he added. still, cruz recalled that he wasn't satisfied with the assessment he heard during a senate briefing from army gen. martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, about how that goal could be achieved.









"i asked him, 'in what time frame can we destroy isis,'" cruz said. dempsey responded that there is no military solution, cruz recalled, only a change in the underlying conditions to prevent potential recruits from being radicalized through poverty.









"there is a word for that--i have to clean it up for c-span--and simply say it's nonense," cruz said. "the way to defeat isis is not expanded medicaid throughout iraq."









here are some of friday's speakers:









best applause line: "we lived through jimmy carter, we'll live through barack obama! i promise you!"









runner-up: "[obama] had a very important mission: raising money for needy democrats in dallas."









hillary hit: <u+201c>she<u+2019>s the one that literally brought the reset button to the kremlin. ... well [russia] did reset us, that<u+2019>s for sure; they reset us back to pre-1989, from my perspective.<u+201d>









granite state pander:<u+00a0>on what he learned from the last election: "number one is you've gotta spend a lot of time in new hampshire. you better be healthy and you've gotta spend years here.<u+201d>









how it played: the texas governor spent a considerable amount of time on foreign policy, showing his grasp<u+00a0>of<u+00a0>the subject matter while avoiding any "oops" moments. (he told audience members running for president takes a lot of work, and that he's been studying up.) perry received several standing ovations but -- though he delivered an animated speech -- the tone in the room was somewhat subdued.









best applause line:<u+00a0>"some people say i'm too blunt and too direct and too straightforward. i think we could use a little bit of that in washington, d.c."









crowd pleaser: <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t know what they<u+2019>re talking about in terms of rough edges. <u+2026> i<u+2019>m a republican in new jersey. come and try that for a couple of days. ... [it's]<u+00a0>not a place where republicans go<u+00a0>to win elections."









obama zinger:<u+00a0>"all he cares about now are his legacy and his library."









gop side-eye: "what amazing leadership i just showed by saying i oppose government waste. ... anybody that comes up here and says that, boo them off the stage."









how it played:<u+00a0>christie played to his strengths and only delivered a few minutes of prepared remarks (on entitlement reform), instead choosing to spend<u+00a0>most of his time taking questions. the crowd greeted that very warmly. throughout his speech he urged members of the audience<u+00a0>to ask other candidates -- and potential candidates -- what they will do about the cost of entitlement programs: "if they're not going to do anything to fix that problem, we're not going to be able to deal with any of the other problems...we have in this country."









voter buzz: leader of the pack but needs to prove himself to conservative base*









subtle rubio jab: "we have elected a president who was a phenomenal speaker but he was two years as a united states senator and had no record of accomplishment...and what did we get?"









obama slam: "this is the first president in post-world war ii era who does not believe that america's presence in the world as a leader and america's power is a force for good. i do."









most self-aware line: "i don't see any coronation coming my way, trust me. we have 95 people running, i'm clearly intimidating a whole bunch of folks, aren't i?"









kumbaya: "it's not that [democrats'] motives are bad, it's just that they have bad ideas. that's the attitude you start with ... you have to rebuild trust. this is where the president has let us down more than any other thing ... it's pushing down people that disagree with him to make himself look better. the next president has to reverse that."



















how it played: bush spent the first 15 minutes sharing his biography peppered with policy over red meat for the base. bush is clearly positioning himself for the field's adult-in-the-room role: that of a pragmatic problem-solver who is not driven by ideology. he tried to strike a positive tone about america's future, at one point responding to a question about gay marriage with an answer about restoring economic opportunity for all americans. it underscored that he wants his campaign to be a debate about economic issues, not cultural/social ones.









hillary clinton jab: "scott brown tonight let me know that hillary clinton's gonna raise $2.5 billion dollars. that's a lot of chipotle, my friends."









harry reid jab:<u+00a0><u+201c>i think i get along personally with everyone, even people that call me a loser."









granite state name-check:<u+00a0>on the way here, i was texting with my youngest daughter. and i meant to say i'm in nashua. but i guess the spell check changed it to nassau. and so she wrote back: how many delegates does the bahamas have?"









how it played: rubio gave what's becoming his standard stump speech: he cast himself as a next-generation leader with a forward-looking vision and argued for a muscular foreign policy.









*rating is based on three recent new hampshire polls; an april 15 public policy polling survey; a march 25 franklin pierce/boston herald survey; and a march 24 suffolk university poll.









colby itkowitz and sean sullivan contributed to this report.
live from new hampshire: they<u+2019>re all here
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