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Schieffer: Lessons From New Hampshire

If you're counting - and I can't imagine why anyone would but me - this is my seventh New Hampshire primary.

When I started coming here, you could write about the campaign moving to the "snows of New Hampshire" and no one considered it a cliche.

It's a wonderful state but odd things happen here.

It was here that Ed Muskie got so mad he cried and it sent his campaign into a tailspin.

Crying was taken as such a sign of weakness, his aides were reduced to pointing out that among others, "Jesus wept," but even that wasn't enough and the Muskie campaign crashed.

George Bush's dad was in deep trouble in '88 but he came here, put on a tractor cap, got his picture taken driving forklifts and farm equipment and somehow that turned his campaign around.

It was here the world first learned of Gennifer Flowers but when Mrs. Clinton stood by her man, Bill Clinton managed a second-place finish here, called it a victory and went on to win the Democratic nomination.

So if you're looking for a certain prediction on what's about to happen, ask someone else. I wouldn't hazard a guess on what works here.

But I do note a small change on one front:

When Bill Bradley teared up the other day over a mother's sad story, it caused hardly a ripple.

In fact someone said, "What a sensitive man" and Bradley talks about it as one of the most meaningful moments of the campaign.

Maybe we do learn from these campaigns - not just about the candidates, but about ourselves as well.

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