DURHAM, New Hampshire — It's hot up here. Like asphalt-bubbling, knee-buckling, soul-crushingly hot — the kind of heat that comes in great waves and levels everything in its path. The mercury rose to almost 90 on Wednesday (September 26) — it was 86 yesterday — an unseasonable, unspeakable heat snap that's made Durham more like Albuquerque.

Of course, no one on the campus of the University of New Hampshire seems to mind the temperature. Students march to classes, lacrosse teams run wind sprints on athletic fields, and everyone's acting as if it were any other fall day, with a determination that's both impressive and a little insane.

In the offices of The New Hampshire, UNH's student newspaper, the air conditioning isn't even working. A pair of stationary fans whir feebly, barely moving air particles and creating more noise than cool air. But none of that matters, because the staff is gearing up to cover Thursday's MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue with Democratic candidate John Edwards (see "New Hampshire Students Want John Edwards To Address War, Global Warming, Health Care During MTV/MySpace Dialogue"), which they expect to be another display of the UNH student body's certifiably steely reserve.

"It's definitely going to be interesting, because the students here see it as a challenge," Kaitlyn Hennigan, a TNH staff writer said. "He's going to get grilled on Iraq, he's going to get grilled on the environment, and it's going to be unscripted. It's not going to be some sort of free ride, that's for sure."

Hennigan has been covering the comings and goings of all the candidates on the UNH campus, from fellow Democratic presidential contender Senator Barack Obama's February town-hall meeting to last month's Republican debate, and in that time, she's seen plenty she liked and plenty she didn't. Lucky for us — yet perhaps not so lucky for Edwards — she's not afraid to talk about the former.

"At the Republican debate, I was surprised about how few of the candidates were willing to speak with me, even though I had credentials," she laughed. "None of the big candidates would talk to me, only the Ron Pauls and the Sam Brownbacks would. I don't care where you are as a candidate, if you can't talk to a college reporter, then I don't know what to think of you."

So what advice does she have for Edwards? Well, it's pretty simple.

"Cut the bullsh--. Get to it," she said. "Everyone wants to leave Iraq, how are we going to do it? Get to the specifics. We've heard all the other stuff before."

Down the hall from the TNH offices — past the student-run TV network and the campus radio station — are the UNH Student Government offices. It's a tiny room with dry-erase boards on the walls and pamphlets everywhere. Oh, and they have air conditioning ... sort of, which probably helps explain their less-than-heated opinions about Edwards and his forum.

"I think it's a great opportunity for [Edwards] to convince students here why they should vote for him, because it's going to be an open forum" UNH Student Government President Richard Drenkhahn said. "When Obama came, people left with a whole new view of him. It certainly helped his popularity here."

Adds Vice President Mike Merrill, "As long as he treats it as an opportunity to have an open conversation with the students here, he'll do fine. He needs to talk to people, not at 'em. Voters like it when you're straightforward."

And these two should know. After all, much like Edwards, they entered the campus elections as decided underdogs, but thanks to a whole lot of T-shirts and their rather catchy "Vote for Dick and Mike" slogan, they overcame the odds and won the popular vote. So what kind of advice did they have for the Democratic candidate?

"Well, if we could tell him anything," Drenkhahn laughed, "I'd tell him to make some really good T-shirts. It worked for us."

Check out the MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue with John Edwards on MTV tonight at 7 p.m. ET.