On the Road in New Hampshire

ROUTE 93, N.H.--Though Presidential election night is still nine months away, you wouldn't know it from the frenzy of activity in New Hampshire this week.

Tuesday's New Hampshire primary will go a long way in determining who will go head-to-head with President Reagan in November. No candidate since World War II has won the Presidency without first being victorious here.

The second day after the Iowa caucuses found six of the eight Democratic hopefuls stumping in the area. But the top two--former Vice President Walter F. Mondale and Sen. Gary W. Hart (D-Colo.)--were in the nation's capital yesterday.

Hart, though, kept himself in the news by introducing a bill in the Senate calling for the removal of all U.S. military personnel in Central America.

Former Florida Gov. Reubin O. Askew, who finished close to the back of the pack in Iowa, gave a short U.S. history lesson to students and press at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass.

"You have to give George Washington a lot of credit," the soft-spoken Floridian said on the birthday of the nation's first President. "He was the one who held it all together."

"And then we had a terrible war between the states," Askew continued, adding that the nation became "stronger" as a result of the Civil War.

Before a crowd comprised of equal numbers of Secret Service men, journalists, and students, Askew called for a "return to basics," putting forth a platform that is considered one of the most conservative in the party. Askew reiterated his opposition to abortion and a freeze on the testing and the deployment of nuclear weapons.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who seems to have struck a chord with New Hampshire voters with his stirring rhetoric, spoke to students at St. Anselm's College, where all eight Democratic candidates will debate tonight.

New Hampshire prides itself on having the first primaries each election year, but the intense attention focused on the small state seems to be tiring its citizens out.

The streets and signs and buildings are postered over with campaign bills and posters, and the Down East locals are continuously pestered by pollsters and newsmen seeking to gauge the collective will.

A Crimson poll of two yesterday revealed that the sentiment of this pivotal state is... irritation.

"I just get annoyed with it all," said Robert Bellisle of Hudson, N.H. "The whole thing is overdone," agreed the other man in the street interviewed, who asked to remain anonymous.