CONWAY, N.H. -- Four years ago this week the old Kennett High School gym was rocking. The place was jammed, the crowd was on its feet, and all the way down Main Street, well past the Conway Cafe, the cars lined Route 16. Sen. Barack Obama brought out one of the largest political gatherings in the history of Carroll County -- and then his entourage moved west, to Hanover, where thousands of Dartmouth students filled the space between Rockefeller Center and Hitchcock Hall. Something big was happening.

Last week the main thing in presidential politics here in New Hampshire, site of the first primary, was the meet-and-greet former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman held at Jesse's Restaurant in Lebanon, a log cabin-style steakhouse holding its popular crab fest this month. No presidential candidate at the Merrimack Republican Town Committee meeting, no White House wannabee at the Atkinson Republican Committee meeting. In any other political season could the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women hold a lilac luncheon -- this year's event was scheduled for this weekend in Concord -- without a presidential candidate showing up?

There will be a few stirrings this week -- Huntsman at a house party in Durham Monday, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia at the Seacoast Republican Women's breakfast Thursday. But that's about it -- nothing compared to the level of activity four years ago, when the campaign was raging like a North Country fireplace on a cold night.

The story of the struggle for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 is the story of the dog that isn't barking -- not here, nor in Iowa, site of the first presidential caucuses and where the Republican governor, Terry Branstad, last week all but begged GOP candidates to come to his state, build organizations ... and spend money.

Just how slowly is this campaign opening? On March 21, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota formed an exploratory committee. At that point in the 2008 election cycle, 20 candidates of both parties had done so or had made clear they would. The biggest news so far this year has been about candidates dropping out: Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Donald Trump.

Not that we should be complaining. For years Americans considered their campaign seasons too long and believed that money and attention spent a year before an election were money and attention wasted.

Look a few miles north to Canada, where the election season began March 26 and ended May 2 -- and in that period an entire G-8 nation came to a decisive resolution of its political future. Maybe we should just enjoy the silence, pack up the fishing gear, repair to Big Diamond Pond for lake trout or the First and Second Connecticut Lakes for landlocked salmon and look skyward to watch Saturn move through Virgo as Gemini sinks below the western horizon.

There are lots of reasons the public part of this year's campaign -- quiet organizing has been going on for some time -- is starting late.

One of them is Fox News, which employed five of the potential contenders, none of whom was particularly eager to relinquish the pay that went with being a network commentator.