Here's a long-range weather prediction: Next January will be cold and snowy. Why? Because the New Hampshire primary campaign will be in full swing, and all those candidates wouldn't know what to say if they couldn't make a few references to New Hampshire's (typical) winter weather. Thousand of words have been and will be written about all the candidates, but when the campaign really begins, much of it is what I call baseball-score newswriting: Where the candidate was, how many people showed up, and not much about who the candidate really is. Most candidates have a standard speech that they repeat, with minor updates and variations, at every stop, so what they are saying usually doesn't get much coverage, since it hasn't been new since the first time the candidate delivered it. It's hard to guess, at this point, who will be the front-runners by the time we are overrun with candidates in the late fall and early winter of 2007-2008. But it's a pretty safe bet that prominent among them on the Republican side will be Arizona Senator John McCain. 

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