A Snowstorm Damper on McCain's Barnstorming Plans

The first snow snafu of the 2008 campaign has arrived.

Not that the campaign hasn't been challenging so far. But let's face it, traveling through Iowa and New Hampshire in the summertime is, well, a piece of cake. But those days of short-sleeved shirts and baseball caps at the state fair are over.

Today, Arizona Sen. John McCain was scheduled to fly from Denver to Berlin, N.H. to kick off a weekend swing through the New Hampshire north country. (That's the part up near Canada, for those of you not familiar with the term).

But those plans were scrapped this morning because of snow in Berlin. Instead, McCain boarded a plane headed to Manchester, where, as of about noon, it was just icky and cold but not snowing. From there, he plans to drive up to the North Country, missing his first event.

Meanwhile, the weather also confounded the reporters who were along for the ride. The New York Times reporter got stuck in the Big Apple for a time when his plane was delayed, though he eventually got in the air.

As McCain aide Brooke Buchanan observed: "And the winter begins!"

--Michael D. Shear