Primary School: In N.H., It's for All

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Tom Rath has worked himself into the throes of excitement, his eyes widening as he explains the thrill and oddity of New Hampshire's presidential primary extravaganza.

"This is the Super Bowl of American politics," he says. "You're not going to find this replicated anywhere."

Rath is one of those fabled political warhorses of the state, a onetime New Hampshire attorney general who is serving as a senior adviser to the Republican campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Rath loves metaphors. He calls New Hampshire "Politics Land," host of the greatest live-action civics lesson known to mankind. Every four years, at least. "If you want to come in and see the primary show, in two or three days you can see nine candidates. You can get almost anywhere in 45 minutes."

Politics Land brings together the kooky and the sane, candidates and non-candidates, to witness, argue, listen, participate, press their case. There are more yard signs here that say stop global warming than say vote for Fred Thompson. Sure, the major contenders get all of the attention, but at least 42 presidential candidates have filed papers with the New Hampshire secretary of state, including Republican Vermin Supreme of Rockport, Mass. (can't make that up) and Democrat O. Savior of Minneapolis. If you want to fight chronic disease or just want a political vacation, "this is the place to come," Rath says. "This is where it's done."

Early on, Rath tried to impress upon Romney how unique it is to campaign for president in the state. "Watch what you're doing," he counseled, and by that he meant be careful. "There are no unguarded moments. People see things and notice things. And you learn things." Romney was like, yeah, yeah, I've been a governor, I've been around politics a long time, according to Rath. "But until you've been through it, you don't know." Romney is now in a dogfight, and New Hampshire could either propel him onward or send his presidential hopes to the bottom of the sea.

For his final metaphor, Rath went Broadway. "We're like 'Brigadoon,' " he says, referencing the 1947 Tony Award-winning musical about two American tourists who discover a mystical Scottish village that springs to life only once every 100 years.

New Hampshire as Brigadoon.

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Rachael Cobb got the e-mail from her friend Jennifer Feller at 6 p.m. on Friday. Subject line: "crazy idea."

Feller had been surfing the Web and discovered Barack Obama was having a rally in Nashua the next morning. Why don't we drive up from Boston?

That is how Cobb found herself walking on the shoulder of a Nashua road Saturday morning, joining a procession of others headed to the Obama event at a high school nearly a half-mile away. Traffic was at such a crawl that many, including Cobb and Feller, parked at a nearby elementary school and just decided to hoof it. Cobb, for part of the way, was carrying her 5-year-old son, Miles Mazzotta. "I figure I'm getting my weight-lifting in," she reasoned.