It's forty years now that the New Hampshire primary has been one of the inescapable sporting events of our politics-a superbowl to start the season, in any of three ways.
It's been a friendly launch for ambitious New England Democrats named Kennedy, or Dukakis or Tsongas. Especially in Vietnam time, New Hampshire set up a village-level forum around an irreconcilable national argument.
And then from time to time it's been the perfect out-of-the-way scene for a political mugging - the sort of surprise that Pat Buchanan pulled on front-runner Bob Dole four years ago, or Gary Hart on Walter Mondale in 1984.
It's none of those three things in the millennial year 2000: no locals, no issues, no surprises are in the deck this year: it's advertising up against apathy; it's centrists in both parties looking for an underdog's edge.
It's the best fight of the century, for sure, so far, but what is it all about? The New Hampshire primary - in the first hour of the Connection (Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Rick Berke, political correspondent for The New York Times, Bill Bradley, candidate for the Democratic nomination, Guy MacMillin, editorial page editor of The Keene Sentinel and David Broder of The Washington Post.
