Dispatches from New Hampshire

Just an hour before the democratic debates are set to begin and the press has convered on Manchester, NH.

The old guard - CNN, ABC, FOX (NBC, where are you?) - takes up about fifty percent of the gym here at St. Anselm College, but the real story is all the international press that's here.

El Mundo has four representatives, Swedish TV, Swedish newspapers, French newspapers, Danish newspapers - everyone has sent a small flock to cover this: Election '08 -- in '07.

American rationalizations of this extra-early election coverage span the guantlet: frustration over the war in Iraq, celebrity effect, the You Tube Generation - but what is the foreign interest? Yes, the election of our next president has a huge effect on the rest of the world, but where in the media-fed public hysteria is there any ground for a real, several-correspondent trip interest?

As we speak, the french delegation is standing over me eating grapes. Maybe the free Cordon Blue won them.

Andrew's learning how to hold a boom. He's the tallest person here.