The Demise of New Hampshire House Parties

The New York Times has a story about the demise of the living room politics in Iowa. The article argues that candidates now favor larger events, over small intimate settings. Will this impact New Hampshire house parties??

"Mr. Edwards’s experience has been shared by most of the major candidates on recent visits to Iowa, almost a year before the caucuses. It is evidence of what appears to be the demise of the living room campaign, signaling a potentially profound change in the way presidential campaigns are conducted here, and to a lesser extent in New Hampshire.

A chapter in American political history that began in 1976 when Jimmy Carter rose from obscurity by working the living rooms and kitchens of Iowa may be drawing to a end. It is, at least for this election cycle, the victim of an era of celebrity candidates tracked by busloads of reporters, and of intense interest in the 2008 race among voters, who are turning out in numbers that would fill many, many living rooms.

One day after Mr. Obama appeared there, he bounded onto the stage at the Field House at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Christine Sohl, who arrived early to get a seat about 20 rows back, recalled meeting a little-known governor named Bill Clinton in a group of no more than 20 people.

Four campaigns later, she strained to see Mr. Obama. “This is as close as we’ll get,” she said."