Thursday, January 12th, 2012 12:24:55

New Hampshire Notions

Part of the joy of a presidential campaign is visiting different parts of the country. This past week was New Hampshire week. I’ve been to New Hampshire about a half-dozen times. It’s a beautiful state. Mountains, ocean, beautiful forests and normally snow this time of year. However, we were snowless.

Part of the joy of New Hampshire is that the state is relatively small physically, and the people are very interested in the process and the candidates. We held town halls and various “meet and greet,” and went to coffees. The town halls were overflowing. Standing room only in the back of the room was the norm.

Manchester, the largest city in New Hampshire, with approximately 110,000 people, was the hub of political activity. National news teams camped out in the hotels, local affiliate stations or at St. Anselm’s, a nearby college with a strong politics program. The Radisson hotel housed a lot of the media. This is where “Radio Row” was located. Dozens of national, local and syndicated radio shows held court, squeezed into rooms on the second floor above the atrium. Radio guests, speaking for various candidates, would spill out of the rooms and hang over the balcony.