NORTH CONWAY, N.H. – It is immediately recognizable as a New Hampshire presidential campaign event. Behind the candidate is a display of topographical maps of Mount Washington. To his left is a large two-pole tent with a mesh door. Along the side wall are rolls of climbing tape and 56-gram chunks of pure-grade natural magnesium carbonate chalk, the better for adhering to rocks and eliminating finger perspiration.

This is the July before an election year, and one of the evergreen figures of Capitol Hill, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, is standing here on a sparkling New Hampshire afternoon, talking about health care to an audience that resembles the lawmakers, lobbyists and opinion-makers he’s accustomed to addressing only in that it is composed of members of the human race.