The New Hampshire primary is on Tuesday.

But you might be forgiven for not knowing that it's just a few days away.

There are no debates, not all the candidates are even in the state, and Nicki Haley, the one person who should be

risking everything to win there seems to be playing it very safe. On the Democratic side,

Joe Biden isn't on the ballot, and his two opponents, Mary Ann Williamson

and Dean Phillips, are at worst minor irritants.

But there is one bit of mystery left in the race, one that's a reminder of an era when New

Hampshire was the king of the presidential nominating process, and when local media barons

had enormous influence. On Sunday, the New Hampshire Union leader, the 161-year-old

conservative paper that has operated like a Republican Party boss for many decades,

will issue its endorsement in the race.

And the union leader had quite a checkered career in terms of successful endorsements

but was always mixing it up on one side or the other or both.

Joe McQuaid was the longtime publisher of the union leader.

We've always gone for the person that we think has the best chance and it's up to the

voters.

And he has lived and breathed New Hampshire politics and union leader history ever since he was a teenager and was

pressured by his social studies teacher to back L.B.J. instead of the canlet who

had won his heart, Barry Goldwater. It may have been the last time anyone told him what to think.

When McQuaid took over as publisher in 2000, after the paper had been run since the

1940s by William Loeb and his wife Nacky.

McQuaid became well known for blunt editorials that punched candidates in the face.

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