Politicians, their camp followers and the attendant media circus offer an added bonus this year to the thousands of tourists who come to New Hampshire each fall to marvel at the autumnal colours. As I watched the vice-President, Al Gore, wrap himself in a wide red ribbon in front of the historic State House in Concord as part of an anti-drugs campaign, some tourists from Seattle, 2,000 miles away, who had come to admire the brilliant orange, red and gold colours of the trees, got a thrill out of watching the political antics of a Democrat.
They are staunch Republicans, but whipped out the cameras for the souvenir photos which will help while away the dreary, wet north Pacific coast winters.
What is this political madness which grips New Hampshire every four years? It is one of the smallest states, barely one million in population, and yet this week you would think it was more important for presidential hopefuls than the mega-states of New York and California.
The answer, of course, is that New Hampshire by tradition kicks off the presidential primary election season. When other states try to steal in front, the proud New Englanders just move their date forward.
So next February 1st, the state's registered Democrats and Republicans will vote for their choice to be the party candidate in next November's election.
The number of delegates New Hampshire will send to the party conventions in August is insignificant, but the result of February's primary is the first real test for the candidates.
A decisive win in New Hampshire is a great morale-booster for a struggling campaign and even coming a good second against a highly favoured candidate can be just as important. When Bill Clinton back in 1992 finished second in spite of the breaking Gennifer Flowers scandal, he hailed himself as the "Comeback Kid".
But if Al Gore finishes second to his only rival, former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, next February, it will be a humiliating knockdown if not necessarily a knockout. Just a few months ago, Gore was ignoring the Bradley challenge for the Democratic nomination and assumed he would cruise to victory, but now he is scrambling to make up for this over-confidence as Bradley leads him in the opinion polls in New Hampshire.
On Wednesday night, they shared the stage for a nationwide TV debate at what the natives call a "town meeting" in Hanover on the banks of the Connecticut river which is the border with neighbouring Vermont. It was the first time the two men shared a platform and it was especially important for Gore who has been accused of being boring, wooden and overcoached by communications experts. It was also the first chance for many Americans to get a long look at Bradley who left the Senate three years ago but is better remembered as a star basketball player in the 1960s.
The next night it was the turn of five Republican candidates to face the Hanoverians, but without Governor George Bush, who stayed away to attend a ceremony in Texas honouring his wife. This did not go down too well but he is so far ahead in the polls and in fund-raising that he decided he could take the chance. There will be many more debates before the votes are cast.
In Gore versus Bradley, there were no knockdowns. Gore was perhaps overeager to dispel the image of being stiff and lacking spontaneity but he showed he can communicate well with an audience and that there is an underestimated human side to the man who has spent the past seven years in the Clinton shadow.
Bradley continues to intrigue onlookers by his combination of low-key demeanour and sharp intellect. He is able to inspire confidence and look presidential, and refuses to play down to audiences, reminding older observers of Adlai Stevenson, the "egghead" politician beloved of the liberals of the 1950s, but no match in the polls for the hugely popular Eisenhower.
The night before the Hanover debate, Gore spent three hours with "uncommitted" Democrats in the cafeteria of a junior high school in Nashua, a medium-sized town near the border with Massachusetts. The vice-president was in studied man-of-the people mode, dressed in black sports shirt and white khaki slacks as he took questions from parents and their teenage children.
He sweated a lot under the TV lights but impressed by his efforts to empathise with his audience's concern with school violence and rising health care costs. And he cracked jokes.
Bill Bradley also likes to discuss problems with voters but not in the way that Gore jumps around, trying to be all things to all people - perhaps an unconscious echo of the Clinton "I feel your pain" approach.
So far, the New Hampshire Democrats seem to be leaning towards Bradley. Although it is a strongly Republican state, the outnumbered Democrats have a nostalgia for the liberal ideas of a Stevenson or a Kennedy, ideas Bill Clinton had to abandon to win the White House after 12 years of Republican rule.
The glorious autumnal foliage will be replaced by the winter snows when New Hampshire announces its choices for the Democratic and Republican nominations next February. Maybe that is why Bradley bought a new pair of shoes when he dropped in on Alec's Shoes in Nashua, where the owner has been giving his employees Mondays off to be able to spend more time with their families.
Bradley likes the Monday off idea but he won't be having many in the coming year.
Joe Carroll can be contacted at Joewash96@aol.com
