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It has been impossible to find a parking space in the mornings for all the ABC, NBC, NECN, etc. etc., busses on the streets - tents have been set up and there seems to be at least one (candidate) parade a day down Elm Street! The Merrimack restaurant is The Place to be in the mornings - and from the sounds of things the Palace Theatre is hopping in the evenings! I think it is Peter Jennings that has been set up at the Bedford Village Inn for the past week. Day after tomorrow Manchester will feel like Vermont after ski season ends - everyone but the locals will be gone!

Have you ever seen that Japanese television program run in translation on the "Spike" network? That's my working metaphor for the New Hampshire primary tomorrow: "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge." Indeed, the challenge for several of the candidates will be to avoid "elimination."

All the town meetings, all the ads, all the interviews are over. What matters tomorrow is organization, turnout, undecided voters, and the final count. So far since suppertime tonight, Howard Dean, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and John Edwards have checked in with recorded phone calls. Tomorrow there'll be follow-ups to see that we've gone to the polls, to ask if we need a ride, to inquire if we'd like to stand at the polling place with a sign. All this in an effort to obey Kenny Blankenship's exhortation: "don't get eliminated!"

What a riot. Candidates and voters buzzing around like bettors a few minutes before the Kentucky Derby. Four young guys, not from around here by the way they dressed, were carrying one giant Dean sign and a bunch of just big Dean signs to a large, boistrous, mostly Dean rally on the Dartmouth Green, outside the site of the conference on women's issues in Hanover, Sunday. I have to agree with one elderly woman who commented on NHPR, that the Dean movement has brought many young people into the political process, and that it would be a shame to lose that. She was having a very tough time deciding, as are a lot of people, especially a good chunk of the former Dean leaners.

Sunday was definitely "decision day" for many New Hampshire voters. You could see it in the streams of people who attended the variety of town hall meetings and rallys held by candidates throughout the state.

We started our day at the open house for Edwards. We thought he was going to be there, but instead Glenn Close served as his spokesperson. She showed a quiet commitment to the candidate and was very comfortable with deferring to his statewide campaign manager in the policy areas where she didn't know the answers. It was a personal decision on her part to support Edwards.