Sen. Hillary Clinton kicked off her NH presidential primary campaign, dubbed “Let the Conversation Begin,” with a statewide sweep from the Massachusetts border to the Canadian frontier. All-in-all it was a big splash and a great success, putting her in front of large and small audiences, and getting plenty of play in the MSM. It would have been far more impressive, however, had she been on time – especially in city of Berlin. She was nearly three hours late for an 8:30 conversation with the residents of the former mill town, and the free coffee and donuts did little to appease. Those of us who’ve been around a while know that running behind schedule is SOP for a Clinton campaign. Bill was famously tardy for everything, but blessed with the Eddie Haskell-like charm to get away with it. She, on the other hand, should get a new watch.

Her campaign webpage did an artful job of re-casting her maiden voyage as a flawless foray into the Great White North – omitting the jeers about her refusal to admit to making a mistake in voting to give the Bush Administration her imprimatur to go to war, and highlighting the cheers for her promise to end it when she’s elected president. They put up photos of her looking happy, pensive, and empathetic, leaving out the tight-faced grimace that she actually wore much of the time.

The war, and the role she played in making it possible, was clearly at the heart of the Granite State zeitgeist on her first visit. And that’s not likely to change. So watch for more of the alternative universe campaign to show up on her (and others’) official websites. It’s a good public relations use of the web, but won’t do much to advance the “conversation.”