Midday Primary Wrapup

Anticipation, anticipation … Let's see what fresh weirdness is unfolding up in New Hampshire. You can bet there's a lot of it.

For starters, Dan McCarthy at the Weekly Dig witnessed the Republican debate at St. Anselm's and finds that no one will understand how much McCain despises Romney unless they see it in person. And the press area at the debate was "more ghetto than our hotel, the Econo Lodge, on Manchester's west side." Ouch.

Two dudes from WBCN, Adolfo Gonzalez and Nick Gemelli from the Toucher & Rich show, disrupted a Clinton event by holding up a sign that said "IRON MY SHIRT." Some suggested they were plants designed to make Clinton look good, but it was just Intern Nick and Adolfo scoring some free publicity. More on this later because it wasn't funny.

Mike Gravel put new meaning in the phrase "dime store" by telling Phillips Exeter students that pot should be available for sale in package stores (WMUR).

The Huck-a-Burger, in honor of Mike Huckabee, was all over the news. Not only is the Huck-a-Burger in honor of Huckabee, but it is a healthy burger that accommodates Huckabee's focus on weight control. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound especially appetizing. Here's how Charlie Savage describes it: "a Huckaburger is a patty of herb-seared bison, tomato, and baby spinach on a whole wheat English muffin, served with deep-fried pickles." It isn't clear how a deep-fried pickle meets anyone's dietary requirements. Oh, and Team Ron Paul crashed that party, too. They're everywhere.

Bostonist was watching CNN last night and remains in awe of the tenacity of Team Ron Paul. They had crashed the "Anderson Cooper 360" show and basically created a Wall of Ron Paul as Cooper broadcasted. Cooper made some comment about how CNN was focusing on the front-runners, but he had no choice but to acknowledge them.

And check out Chris Klein's HubTrotter blog. He's been keeping track of the general primary mayhem.

Image of John McCain taken by Chris Klein, who is rocking the debates, from photos tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr.