“But whether he can generate the kind of enthusiasm he did in 1984 remains to be seen,” Calegari says. 1984 was the year Hart shocked the nation by upsetting former Vice President Walter Mondale in the New Hampshire primary.

Calegari said that Hart’s affair with Donna Rice, which took him out of the 1988 Presidential primary campaigns, wouldn’t be a serious issue. “After all,” said the ever-blunt Mr. Calegari, “Bill Clinton made him look like an amateur.”

Calegari said he won’t even back Hart if the former Colorado senator does run because he thinks it’s a mistake. He’d rather see Hart involved in someone else’s campaign “so he can have a major role in a new administration in reshaping government.”

Calegari says Hart, who privately spoke with about 35 people at the Merrimack Restaurant during his visit to the state last week, is expected back in the state later this month. If Hart did enter the race, he would “elevate the whole dialogue. I remember him predicting this war in 1983, when he said that if we do not develop energy independence, men and women will someday be dying on the sands of the Arabian peninsula,” Calegari said.