Primary day
THE VOTERS of New Hampshire have a chance to show their mettle today and turn out for the state's primary in the teeth of a New England winter. We hope they will, not just as a matter of regional pride but as a matter of national importance. Our choice for primary voters is Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, whose steady hand, abiding values, and deep experience make him best suited to lead the nation at this perilous time. We think he will responsibly reengage Americans with the world community and steer the country back to a more progressive track domestically.
But New Hampshire's status as the first primary in the nation is also, in a sense, on the ballot today. And as all seven remaining Democratic candidates for president know by now, the tiny, unrepresentative New Hampshire petri dish is unparalleled as a place to begin the national conversation.
Every four years, New Hampshire comes under attack for being too small or too white or too rural to command such an outsized role in the presidential process. Sustaining predatory attacks from bigger states that want the attention of an early primary date, New Hampshire has been pushed further back into the calendar to an exceedingly early date. But moving the first primary to a more populous or diverse state would only cheat voters of the colorful, informative grass-roots campaigns that continue to define New Hampshire.
In Somersworth, hard by the Maine border, Richard Gephardt braved temperatures of minus 5 degrees a few weeks ago to take questions from a small group of curious voters gathered at a local diner. The Formica tabletops, the thick china coffee mugs, the handmade signs, and the calloused skin on the hands Gephardt shook were not props for some TV commercial; they were real -- as real as the concerns of the man who asked about jobs or the young woman worried about nuclear weapons.
It may sound corny in a hip, ironic culture, but the New Hampshire primary, with its emphasis on retail politics, road travel, low-dollar events, and shoe leather, is the closest thing we still have to pure democracy in presidential politics.
True, the influence of the national press corps, 30-second spots, and professional message handlers has grown in New Hampshire. It is fashionable to say that the state has lost its special status as the last place where ordinary voters take politics seriously. But the numbers don't lie. In the 2000 campaign, 85 percent of registered Republicans and 74 percent of Democrats voted in the New Hampshire primary -- about 50 percent above the national average.
A compact, relatively cheap place to wage a campaign will always be the most small-d democratic place. We hope voters will give a resounding win to John Kerry today. And we also hope they will vote for New Hampshire. 