Given his choice in a Rand-McNally atlas, George Bush probably would not pick the Granite State as a favorite.
It`s true he was born in neighboring Massachusetts and attended prep school there. And it`s true he owns a windswept promontory and a family estate on the sea in neighboring Maine.
Given this geographic proximity, Bush is fond of telling voters here that he and his wife, Barbara, understand ”the heartbeat of New Hampshire.”
The truth is, Bush`s heart is racing as he confronts a right-wing challenge from inside his own party.
Conservative pundit Patrick J. Buchanan has become a fixture in the state, savaging Bush on taxes and trade and ”Republican values.”
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The early poll numbers for Bush and Buchanan were disturbing enough to lure the president up here last week, and the locals expect he`ll be back twice before the Feb. 18 primary.
You`d think there`d be some presidential wellspring of affection for New Hampshire since Bush saved his political life here four years ago.
With lots of help from Republican friends across the state, he won a primary that resurrected his dreams of succeeding Ronald Reagan.
But, despite that triumph, Bush finds himself again having to court a group of Republicans who have batted him around over the years.
New Hampshire conservatives suspect Bush of being a moderate, a
”Rockefeller Republican.”
They demonstrated that view in the 1980 primary, when Reagan trounced his eventual vice president 2-to-1.
”There`s about 15 or 20 percent of the Republican vote up here that just doesn`t trust George Bush,” said one Republican official who is supporting the president.
”They`re angry about his breaking the tax pledge, but it`s more than that. They think he`s getting credit that he doesn`t deserve.”
The Bush backer cites the credit the president has earned for the collapse of the ”Evil Empire,” the former Soviet Union.
That credit, many New Hampshire conservatives believe, belongs solely to Reagan and his defense policies.
Many Republicans here prefer their Reaganism straight; no taxes, new or otherwise; contempt for do-good social programs manufactured in Washington; a fundamental distrust of ”entangling alliances” overseas.
They admire Bush for his handling of the Persian Gulf war but they are scornful his talk of a ”new world order.”
Still, without an economic recession, it`s unlikely Bush would have had to worry about the disaffected conservatives of New Hampshire.
A year ago, in the aftermath of the gulf war, Bush`s re-election was an article of faith and there wasn`t going to be a contested GOP primary, here or anywhere else.
Now, there is a real possibility that Bush could be embarrassed by the insurgent Buchanan`s performance.
Buchanan`s advisers think he could get 35 or 40 percent of the primary vote. And while those figures may reflect the glow of a fledgling campaign getting lots of attention from the media, it has Bush`s strategists scrambling.
Four years ago, the Bush campaign imported everyone from conservative icon Barry Goldwater to Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams to assure Republicans their candidate was the legitimate heir to the Reagan throne.
This time, the surrogates include conservative favorites such as Vice President Dan Quayle, former Education Secretary William Bennett and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
Inside the state, Bush is supported by Republican Gov. Judd Gregg and his father, former Gov. Hugh Gregg, as well as the state`s two Republican senators.
For local consumption, however, the campaign is highlighting the presence of former Republican Sen. Gordon Humphrey.
Humphrey is a double-dyed, anti-tax, anti-Washington conservative who gave up his Senate seat to come home, and is thus a darling of the Right.
But if Bush has Gordon Humphrey, his primary opponent has the blessing of the state`s largest newspaper, the arch-conservative Manchester Union Leader. Fiercely ideological, the Union Leader is the voice of those in the party who view Bush as a country-club Republican, a man who conspires with liberal Democrats and who takes the United Nations seriously.
As perhaps with no other paper in the country, ideology is all at the Union Leader.
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The folks who write the editorials and the endorsements aren`t necessarily looking for winners.
The paper endorsed former Delaware Gov. Pierre ”Pete” duPont IV in 1988, and was encouraging Buchanan to get in the race well before his announcement.
They are loud, however, and they are clear.
In an editorial last Tuesday, The Union Leader described its man Buchanan as ”an attractive, articulate, principled, indefatigable and obviously sincere campaigner who leaves a good impression wherever he goes.”
That`s a tall order to top, even for the architect of Operation Desert Storm.