CONCORD, N.H. — Former President Bill Clinton, stumping for his wife in the Granite State as she fights slipping poll numbers, took aim at Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ health care plan yesterday, calling it “a recipe for gridlock.”

Speaking to around 400 people at a community center here, Clinton said Sanders has lofty ideas, but his plan wouldn’t be able to get through Congress. Sanders proposed a single-payer health care plan earlier this week.

“I don’t want to comment on the merits. I just want to talk about the practical reality here,” Clinton said.

It was part of a larger narrative that a vote for his wife is the most sensible decision, and that she has the most experience, the same case she made the last time she ran for president in 2008.

“You’re never going to have a chance to vote for somebody who is better prepared for the demands of this time,” Clinton said. “She’s the only person in either party ready.”

Jeremiah King, a Sanders supporter who said he attended the Clinton event out of curiosity, said Clinton’s experience gives her more name recognition, but Sanders has a more consistent record.

“I don’t know if her experience is enough to get her the nomination,” King, 24, said. “I trust Bernie Sanders more than Hillary Clinton … I feel like I can trust him when he says how he feels, and not how he feels at the time when it’s convenient.”

Polls show Hillary Clinton trailing Sanders in the New Hampshire primary, which her husband referred to as a “hard fight against your neighbor.” A Gravis poll yesterday had Sanders up 3 points — 46 percent to Clinton’s 43 percent — while a CNN/WMUR poll Tuesday had Sanders up by a dramatic 27 points — 60 percent for Sanders to Clinton’s 33 percent, according to Realclearpolitics.com.

Hillary Clinton will be back in the Granite State to campaign tomorrow, just as Sanders completes a two-day swing through the state, with less than three weeks to go before the Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation primary.