This study examines the peculiar role and history of the New Hampshire primary in American presidential politics, through the 1996 election season. The work reviews the primary's history, analyzes the media's treatment of New Hampshire results, and provides a study of the phenomenon of momentum, and the role played by local media such as the infamous Manchester DEGREESIUnion Leader DEGREESR. There is also an examination of the strained relationship between New Hampshire's state parties and their national equivalents and of the efforts of Congress to reform the entire electoral system, with...