ONCORD, N.H. - We interrupt this era of political apathy and cynicism to bring you, of all things, New Hampshire.
I came here this week expecting to find cardboard candidates slashing one another to pathetic little pieces. I came here expecting to find male voters who drive pickup trucks with gun racks and have teeth growing out of the sides of their cheeks. I assumed the women would too, and have tattoos on their forearms proclaiming ''Billy Joe's Ball 'n' Chain.''
But yet again, reality gets in the way of another good theory. And the reality is that what's taking place in New Hampshire this week is something to celebrate.
Admittedly, we're supposed to report the bad news on these pages. We're supposed to pull things apart and let someone else put them back together. We're supposed to kick those who've risen too far. But now is not the time.
For starters, the four leading candidates - Al Gore, Bill Bradley, John McCain, and George W. Bush - are all experienced, talented human beings who've proven their mettle on the battlefield, in business, and in the halls of government. No moderate person should fear the leadership of any of these men.
They are conducting themselves as candidates should, but too rarely do, making this an election not about who's worse but who's best.
Then there are these voters, reputed to be among the most finicky and contrarian people to ever walk into a ballot booth.
They may be that, but they're also something more. At a time when an embarrassingly low number of people vote for president or for anything else, New Hampshire residents take the privilege as a responsibility. They talk to candidates in neighbors' homes. They pack forums. They listen. And they render clear-minded judgments based not on attack ads but on their personal sense of who these men are and where they want to go.
Early last year, the media had declared an overwhelming front-runner in each party - men raising what seemed like a billion dollars a day. Their polling numbers were sky high. ''Miles ahead,'' Newsweek wrote of Bush in a June story.
Not here, not now. New Hampshire voters told everyone to slow the process down. And a good thing once again.
Without New Hampshire, the nation never would have given Bradley's health plan any heed, never would have paid proper attention to the heroism of McCain and his 51/2-year stint as a prisoner of war.
The country never would have seen Bush as anything but a smirking front-runner, never would have watched a rejuvenated Gore fight for his political life before his own party.
It comes down to people like Mary Ann Edelman, a waitress at the Capital City Diner. She's met Gore (''A real darling. ... I wish he was a stronger candidate''), And her daughter recently saw Bush and said he was ''surprisingly warm.''
She's learned more about Forbes from one brief encounter than anyone could ever learn by watching him on television. He stopped by the diner to eat and didn't utter a word to the people who worked there. Enough said.
For one final weekend, the candidates will blitz the state, the voters will ponder their fate, and a nation awaits the outcome. And once again, regardless of the results, the voters of New Hampshire have done their job well.
REPORTER'S NOTE: The reaction has been immense and intense to Tuesday's column about a young boy who received no help as he was assaulted late last Wednesday night on an MBTA bus, possibly by his father.
MBTA police have found two more witnesses. One woman said she saw the man in question strike the boy with an open hand on a separate occasion. A second witness, on board Bus 36 in Roslindale last Wednesday night, said she saw a ''commotion'' with a man and boy, but says she did not see anything more.
Police have 11 officers and detectives assigned full-time to a search that is taking them through city schools and bus stops. They have handed out 4,000 fliers with composite sketches of the man and boy, drawn with the help of the witness, Daniel Auclair, who provided his account of the assault to me.
There's no doubt that Auclair, a medical researcher at a Boston hospital, was wrong not to intercede on the bus that night. But he has admitted fault, swallowed pride, and put his reputation on the line to help this child.
From this view, he deserves considerable credit. It's easy to make mistakes, especially in the flash of a violent instant. It's far harder to make amends, which is what he's doing now.
Brian McGrory's e-mail address is mcgrory@globe.com.
