So, the primary calendar, early as it is, may yet still get significantly earlier, because of one key state: New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire Union Leader profiles the man who controls it all, Secretary of State Bill Gardner. I asked their editorial page editor, Andrew Cline, for his sense of the possible voting dates in the Granite State:

Close observers have their own guesses, but that really is all they are. Gardner plays his cards so close to his vest that even he can’t see them. People try to pry information out of his family members, and they haven’t a clue. I wouldn’t be surprised if reporters had tried to interview his pets. And yet all we are left with are guesses because he has yet to make up his mind. Here are the buzzed dates as of the middle of this week, with my thoughts:

#more#

Dec. 11. College students are still around, and people haven’t left for Christmas vacation yet. However, there is Hanukkah. If Iowa moves to Jan. 5, and Michigan moves to earlier than Jan. 15, Dec. becomes a lot more likely. I would think that Dec. 4 is out for being too early, Dec. 18 for being too close to Christmas and during UNH final eams, and Dec. 25 and 31 out for obvious reasons. That leaves the 11th as the most preferable Dec. date, assuming Gardner sticks with his preference for Tuesdays.
Jan. 8. It conceivably puts us a week before Michigan and five days after Iowa. Pretty good position, holds the Iowa-NH tradition (assuming Iowa goes on Jan. 3 and doesn’t move again once we set the date for the 8th), and keeps us in January.
As John DiStaso reported today, Michigan and Iowa still are in flux, and that has turned it into a game of chicken. Who’s going to swerve first? Well, that’s why playing chicken is so exciting: no one knows, not even the drivers.

The ramifications of the earlier date are mind-boggling: The World Series hasn’t started yet, and yet it is possible that the New Hampshire primary is less than two months away.