It was oddly fitting that the event commonly known as the fringe presidential candidates debate was held last night during a whiteout. The candidates outnumbered reporters, who outnumbered regular Joes in the audience, making it clear how hard it is for the upstart campaigns to break through.

State Sen. Jack Barnes, a Raymond Republican, is mounting an impossible vice presidential bid to draw attention to his beliefs that the United Nations is "useless" and that the United States has scrimped on stateside spending. He said he wasn't sure the event qualifies as a debate.

"I'll have a debate with my wife when I get home," Barnes said. "She was debating why I should leave the house today!"

Officially, the event is called the Lesser Known Candidates Forum, and it is sponsored by the New Hampshire Political Library. Last night, of the 42 candidates signed up for New Hampshire's ballot, four Democratic presidential candidates turned out, followed by seven Republican presidential candidates and Barnes.

The forum is part of the state's tradition of providing a little pomp and circumstance to everybody who has $1,000, the proper papers and a dream of running for president. Yesterday, that meant red, white and blue bunting and flags carefully displayed at the Manchester Community Access television station, along with taped marching band music.

Across a wide range of candidates - including an 81-year-old former nun who resides in Italy and a Pittsburgh-area libertarian nicknamed "Mad Dog" - several espoused strikingly similar views. Most expressed a dour outlook for the nation's future, and several said they believe the United States has suffered because it has become godless.

Michael Skok, a Democrat from New York, said the nation is facing attack from three sources, which he called "atheistic evolutionists," "Islamic terrorists" and "Communist Red China."

"We are coming to a crisis in which only God Almighty can help us," he said, speaking in a monotone. Later, he added: "If we continue our mad pursuit of cheap labor and goods, it is my opinion

that our next president will be our last president and that this country will not have much more than four years."

That view crossed partisan lines.

"America has lost the glory because we have ignored the person of the father, son and Holy Spirit," said Albert Howard, a Detroit chauffeur and father of eight who, according to his website, believes an angel of the Lord came to him 15 years ago and told him he would run against Hillary Clinton for president and win.

Hugh Cort, an Alabama man and Republican presidential candidate who billed himself as a counterterrorism expert, said he had information that Osama bin Laden had an "American Hiroshima plan" to blow up 10 American cities with suitcase-sized nuclear bombs. Meanwhile, he said, the FBI was asleep at the wheel.

"We're very alarmed because we feel the FBI is falling down on this, just like they did on 9/11," Cort said. "They are refusing to search the mosques in Washington, D.C., and New York, where we think Osama may have these bombs."

Cort, who paired a Southern accident and a New Yorker's speaking speed, also gave a quick lesson on when it is safe to go out after a nuclear detonation. Later, he disputed the science of climate change, saying the problem is that the sun is getting hotter and claiming that while Earth's ice caps are melting, so are Mars's.

"Guess what! There are no cars on Mars!" Cort said.

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