BREAKING! Hillary Clinton Makes Absolutely No News During Her NH Trip!

All those sticks and no news. Not that no news is a bad thing.

Only 20 days remain until the March 31 filing deadline and the last thing a candidate wants to do is say something stupid and spook potential donors.

Steady and not too slow is the Way to Win in '08.

The Union Leader has the non-story of Clinton's NH trip here.

Of course this is New Hampshire and there is always stuff always going on behind the scenes.

Especially in a New Hampshire Press File room, a.k.a. the "The High School Cafeteria".

Gossip! Gossip! Gossip!

We crashed "The High School Cafeteria" last night at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual 100 Club Dinner at the Sheraton Nashua Hotel in Nashua, NH where we were credentialed along with about 75 other members of the "press" (old, new, new-new) corp.

Noted: When we started this Blog last October we were convinced (CONVINCED!) that Team Hillary would be among the most difficult and obnoxious campaigns for us to cover.

We have found, after five months experience, that our initial skepticism was flat out wrong.

Both Kathleen Strand, Clinton's NH communications director (who we've known for a couple of months) and Jamie Smith, part of Clinton's national press operation (who we met last night), have been gracious and helpful. It's Noteworthy and appreciated (don't worry 'Nails Hazelbaker, you're still our favorite communications guru).

But back to the High School Cafeteria where the question of the night (week and month) was "Clinton or Obama?"

And since GreenMountainPolitics1 is opinion driven we have absolutely no problem holding forth on a candidate's '08 chances in a Press File room, much to the shocked look of one or two print reporters.

So, Clinton or Obama?

"Oh, we're boring," we would answer. "The '08 election will be between Clinton and McCain."

"While we don't agree with Rove and Mehlman on much (making sure we say this in such a way that we sound like we actually talk to Rove and Mehlman while the reality is that the closest we've gotten to either of them is when we almost hit Rove with our car at the MacArthur Blvd Starbucks) we absolutely agree with them on the importance of campaign metrics."

"Metrics! Metrics! Metrics!" we almost yelled, pounding our fist for emphasis.

We concluded, "Everyone in the Big Six is going to have money, but only Clinton and McCain will have the campaign organization, the savvy and the candidate to slog out the next 12 months."

"But what about Obama and Giuliani?" came the reply. We are learning quickly that the Gang of 500 has their "darlings of the moment (cycle)"

We responded, "Obama is probably the real deal with almost no campaign organization. Rudy is probably not the real deal with almost no campaign organization. Both candidates are blissfully unaware of what it takes to win the Presidency. Clinton/McCain are going to roll right over them."

"However," hedging a little bit, "if anyone can beat Hillary it's John Edwards (we've been saying it for months and now Dan Balz is saying it). And if anyone can beat McCain it's Mike Huckabee (we've also been saying this for months and while no one else is really saying it now, just wait).

Huckabee ahead of Giuliani? That sent Gang members into a tizzy!

It seemed like everyone in the High School Cafeteria then jumped in with their opinion. We watched James Pindell tackle Dan Balz screaming, "DC ain't got nothing on Beantown, NOTHING!" before Pindell was taken down with a karate chop from Charlie Cook who answered Pindell's war cry with, "How do you like those poll numbers!"

Insanity.

And '08 is just getting going.