New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Like skiing and ice skating, presidential politics in New Hampshire is usually a winter sport. Every four years, the candidates of both major parties flock here when snow is on the ground for the traditional Granite State voting that kicks off the political primary season. Then as soon as the results are in, they're off to other parts of the country where other primaries are to be fought. After that comes the general election, which is focused usually on the largest states with rich electoral vote prizes.

WOLFEBORO, N.H. -- With his avuncular smile, his shopworn homilies, his lanky first-baseman gait and his rusticated innocence, he hardly looks the part. But within a year it may be clear: For Republicans seeking the GOP's 2000 presidential nomination, Bob Smith will be the most dangerous man alive.Not because Mr. Smith, the New Hampshire senator who officially entered the nomination fight here last week, has much of a chance to be president. But because he has almost no chance to be president.

One more win, and Towson's worst-to-first journey in the Colonial Athletic Association will be complete. One more game like the one he had Saturday against New Hampshire, and Terrance West will be a lock for the Jerry Rice award given to the top freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision. The turnaround Tigers continued their remarkable season and their star but not starting tailback continued his breakout season. After falling behind on the game's first possession, No. 12 Towson scored three touchdowns in less than three minutes and seven in the first half — three by West — en route to a wild 56-42 victory over the No. 7 Huskies at Johnny Unitas Stadium before an announced crowd of 8,366 Saturday night.

WASHINGTON -- Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, Republicans with dreams of the White House have begun trouping into New Hampshire to get a running start on the 1996 presidential campaign.Not to worry. If recent history is any guide, this early testing of the water means little or nothing about how that contest for the Republican nomination or the campaign for the presidency will turn out.The latest Republican visitors to the splendors of New Hampshire in autumn have been Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, who stopped in two weeks ago, and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas and Gov. Carroll Campbell of South Carolina, who attended a party dinner in Manchester over the weekend.

Manchester, N.H. -- THE NEW HAMPSHIRE presidential primary of political legend may be held in New Hampshire rather than Iowa next year. As the delegate-selection calendar begins to crystallize, it seems likely that the Democratic vote here once again will be significantall out of proportion to its size.The frist- in-the-nation primary here was a defining political event from the 1950s through the 1972 election in which George McGovern emerged as a leading contender for the Democratic nomination by running closer than expected to then Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, the national frontrunner from neighboring Maine.

Manchester, N.H. -- Opinion polls are tricky in primaries, and no one should know that better than President Bush, who was clearly victimized by the poll-takers in New Hampshire.The last polls taken before the primary all showed the president leading challenger Patrick J. Buchanan by about 25 points. Thus, when exit polls taken on Primary Day suddenly showed Mr. Buchanan running only 4 to 6 percent behind Mr. Bush -- even less in one case -- the television networks overreacted by exaggerating the "upset" in the making.

IT BEGAN when the Chicago cops bopped all those heads during the 1968 Democratic Convention and the delegates went home mad.Since then, the pundits and politicians have been asking the same question over and over again: Can anyone ever put the Democratic Party together long enough to win the White House?True, Jimmy Carter won in 1976. But that was more of a post-Watergate fluke. Also, he had the good fortune to run against Gerald (President Palooka) Ford, who kept falling down.The rest of the time, they've come up with candidates who didn't have a chance in the first place (George McGovern)

Manchester, N.H. IN LAUNCHING his long-shot presidential challenge against George Bush here, right-wing news commentator Patrick Buchanan insists he is not simply trying to keep the president honest on conservative issues but is out to win the Republican nomination.But at the same time he says it is "almost impossible" for a challenger to wrest the nomination from an incumbent president in a drawn-out competition for national convention delegates. "Teddy Roosevelt couldn't do it," he says, "Ronald Reagan couldn't do it," even against "an accidental president (Gerald Ford)

Exeter, N.H. -- PRESIDENT BUSH'S political problem is simple: He's stuck for an answer. And because he lacks anything that might be seen as a solution to economic distress, the president is following a political course that totally misjudges the concerns of the electorate. The voters are far less interested in who's gets elected than in who has an answer that might offer a way out.Campaigning here for the Feb. 18 Republican presidential primary, Bush's message was conventional. Yes, he "cares" about the suffering of those who are out of work.

BEDFORD, N.H. -- Three questions hold the key to tomorrow's New Hampshire primary .Can Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole hang on to enough Republicans to achieve the 28 to 30 percent of the vote needed to succeed? Polls show him with a hard core of 20 to 22 percent of the vote among party activists but little evidence of enthusiasm among less involved Republicans. In short, he still has some persuading to do.Second, is Patrick J. Buchanan a threat to win here or just the flavor of the week?