After doing my final round of morning radio reports from Concord, New Hampshire, I stumbled down into the breakfast room at my hotel. Instead of a good meal, I got a great window into some of those who worked in the trenches of this GOP primary.
It was a reminder of why the campaign for the White House is about much more than just the candidate.
My hotel had a bunch of cars with Ron Paul stickers, and the people eating breakfast this morning along side of me were mostly Paul volunteers.
"I did my two weeks up here," said one guy proudly to the two other guys at his table.
"Dude, let me tell you he (Paul) gets my vote; he's so down to earth," the man said, his rolled up sleeves showing off large tattoos on both arms.
At another table, the conversation was who was going where next for Paul.
While some were champing at the bit to run to South Carolina, others were ready to get a break.
"I'm going home for a day," one voluteer said, noting he needed to do laundry and pay attention to his wife and kid back home, adding that he has another child on the way.
"Then I can't wait to get to South Carolina."
"I can't wait to see my kids," chimed in one woman, who who looked like every 30 year old suburban mom that you might see towing young kids through your local mall.
"You going to South Carolina?" was simply the question of the morning.
"Yeah, got to," one Paul volunteer said with the firm conviction of someone who has a job to do.
"Nine days right?" another asked, referring to when South Carolina votes on January 21.
Jesse cornered me," one man said with a smile, nothing that he had been urged to head to the Palmetto State on Tuesday night.
"I gotta go down and see what the hell is happening," he added between bites.
A few minutes later, a young woman in a "Ron Paul Revolution" hoodie walked up to join her mates.
"You going to South Carolina?"
"I'm not," she said sadly. "I really hope to come out again; we'll see," as she told her fellow volunteers that she has been on the road for a while.
"Iowa was crazy," she said with an approving lilt in her voice.
Over breakfast, the Paul foot soldiers broke down why Mitt Romney won and how Paul could do better in coming weeks.
"We need to be more nimble with the message," one man observed.
"Those talking points you handed out really worked well for the kids," said another.
"The suits need to listen more," said a third guy.
Meanwhile over at the breakfast bar, three tired looking guys appeared in the room wearing white t-shirts like they had bought a three pack at Wal Mart and shared it to get one last clean shirt for their ride home.
Then the inevitable question came.
"You going to South Carolina?"
