BUSH HAS NO COATTAILS ... OR EVEN A COAT

Thank God it's over. The candidates, sentenced to weeks in angry New Hampshire, can now spread themselves around the nation to the clout states with primaries and caucuses coming up in March.

Anyone who has campaigned in New Hampshire has described it as a dreadful, excruciating experience. New Hampshire in the best of economic times is irksome, in the worst of economic times understandably painful.

George Bush and Paul Tsongas won the scoreboard victories, but Pat Buchanan and Bill Clinton won the psychological victories. The media, grand arbiters of the politics of expectations, had previously declared Buchanan a respectable winner if he were to receive 30 percent of the vote and a huge winner if he got near the 40s. He did. Of course, Buchanan will not be the Republican presidential nominee in 1992. In New Hampshire he could concentrate his time, money and effort for 44 days in one small state of a million people. Now he must dissipate his political energies in several big states like Texas and Florida with 30 million people in the two weeks between now and Super Tuesday.

For the Democrats, New Hampshire was a form of political liberation. For the 10 days preceding the primary, the fear among professional Democratic politicians was that Paul Tsongas would continue to skyrocket upward and Bill Clinton would continue to plummet in a humiliating free fall. Party regulars view Tsongas as the second coming of Michael Dukakis. They worry that he seems to keep his charisma under wraps. The exit polls in New Hampshire indicated that nine out of ten Tsongas voters did not believe he could be elected president. How electable are you when your best friends know you're down the tubes?

Republican voters felt the same about Buchanan. It's vintage New Hampshire psychology to support fervently a man you know down deep in your heart is a born loser. New Hampshire, the unflinching Titanic of politics, loves to send messages via sinking ships.

Clinton did well enough with a substantial second place showing, moving in the last 10 days from 21 points behind to an eight point deficit. His second place finish in New Hampshire joins a list of noteworthy Democratic second place New Hampshire finishes in the history books: Eugene McCarthy in 1968, George McGovern in 1972 and Walter Mondale in 1984.

The recent rumblings in the corridors of Capitol Hill about getting a new man in the race will evaporate. Mario Cuomo's unauthorized write-in failed. He has had his 1992 political burial for the final time. No more speeches at Harvard. The other possible late entrants will view Clinton's resurrection as enough comfort to avoid having to attempt a risky rescue act.

Most comforting to the Democrats will be the Pat Buchanan bomb. Bush may well win the presidency he's still the Las Vegas favorite but he won't have any coattails. In fact, he may not even have a coat. For now he seems to be Carterized whining, complaining and asking for sympathy. For sure, he won't be a Franklin Roosevelt of 1932. Each Democratic Senate and House candidate can ignore the top of the ticket and concentrate on his or her own race. Come to think of it, in an atmosphere of voter discontent and in a landscape of massively altered congressional districts, that may be a tough enough chore by itself.