Newt Arrives Late, Leaves Early

About 150 Nashua Rotarians wrapped up lunch and an early afternoon business meeting at Nashua Country Club just in time for the media crush which precedes every presidential candidate.

Tight schedules are hard to keep, and particularly fragile, this close to the Primary.

Gingrich arrived about a half hour late for his 1 o'clock Rotary Club stop. And the promised "meet and greet" was scrubbed when Gingrich was hustled back to his big campaign bus.

"I was looking at Newt and asking him if he wanted to stand in one place or another while a line formed, and he told me he had to go," said Sy Mahfuz, past Rotary president and owner of Persian Rug Galleries on Main Street. "I was left kind of holding the bag."

Gingrich was expected at BAE Systems down the road in Nashua at 2 p.m., about the time he was pulling away from the Nashua Country Club. Plans for a 4 p.m. stop at the Hudson American Legion Hall were changed, last minute, to Alvirne High School. At 6 p.m. Gingrich is expected to swing by his Manchester headquarters on Elm Street.