For 36 hours Sunday and yesterday, John Edwards maintained an exhausting pace, talking to voters in the southern tier, the North Country and the Seacoast.
A press bus with about a dozen journalists and Edwards advisers followed Edwards's "Main Street Express" to 16 scheduled stops. The last event was scheduled for Portsmouth at 12:30 a.m. today.
The tour is a repeat of one Edwards did in the closing days in Iowa, where he finished second to Barack Obama in that state's caucuses.
Here's what happened on the first half of the traveling road show, including overnight stops in the North Country:
Noon, Sunday, Manchester, Franco-American Center: Edwards said "the status quo" - aka Hillary Clinton - is "history." He called for a debate with Obama "in a very unfiltered way" about what kind of change the country needs.
Edwards was joined by the family of Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old from California, whose insurance company denied coverage of a liver transplant. She died Dec. 20.
3:30 p.m., Sunday, Keene State College: Before the event, Edwards was asked by a reporter what he thought of a Clinton aide's comment that he was using the Sarkisyan family as a "talking point."
Clinton's "campaign doesn't seem to have a conscience," he said. "It's not about them." About 750 people attended and 50 or more were turned away because of fire code.
5:40 p.m., Sunday: The campaign put out a written statement from Edwards elaborating on the scuffle with Clinton:
"I was willing last night to let this issue go and even willing to let it go earlier today. The more I thought about the idea that somehow everything is about them - it's an indication that they have no conscience about what's at stake here. These families are what this is about. It's not about them, nor is it about me. It's about whether we're going to actually stand up and fight for these people."
7:15 p.m., Sunday, Derry, Gilbert H. Hood Middle School: Volunteers stood at the door with baskets of cookies. "Would you like a sea biscuit?" one asked. On Friday, Elizabeth Edwards introduced her husband by comparing him to Seabiscuit, the 1930s racehorse that became an unlikely champion.
Seabiscuit is another name for hardtack, a dry cracker. But these cookies at the campaign event were rounds of gourmet shortbread that came in red and black plaid-colored tins.
9:45 p.m., Sunday, Nashua, upstairs at Martha's Exchange: The event was scheduled for 9:15 p.m. Staffer Pauly Rodney filled the time pulling people from the audience to dance in the middle of the circle of chairs to classics like "Takin' Care of Business." The stop was added to the schedule late in the day. The field staff started making calls to invite people at 6 p.m. The crowd was standing-room-only, with almost 300 people.
A woman in the back of the room fainted at about 9:55 p.m. "I've been through this a lot; I bet she's okay," Edwards said before making his way to the back of the room to check on her. "It's probably from standing." Staffers brought her juice and a chair, and the woman walked out looking just a bit dazed.
Midnight, Sunday, on the bus: Edwards rode a short way on the press bus to chum it up with reporters - off the record. Heading north on Interstate 93 toward Berlin, the press handlers broke out coolers of beer and popped Talladega Nights into a DVD player.
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