NBC satellite trucks camped out behind the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) yesterday and members of the Harvard College Democrats confirmed logistics on walkie-talkies as the campus prepared for the first in a series of visits by the Democratic presidential candidates.

Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., came to Harvard with his wife and daughter to appear live on MSNBC’s “Hardball” and meet with students in a more informal gathering at Kirkland House. (Please see related story, above.)

Edwards is the first presidential hopeful to travel to Cambridge as part of the show’s weekly “Battle for the White House” series, hosted by Chris Matthews and filmed live at the KSG’s Institute of Politics (IOP).

The candidates will also visit Kirkland House to take part in a speaker series organized by House officials and the Harvard College Democrats, popularly known as the Dems.

Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., is slated to visit next Monday, and several other candidates are lined up for future weeks.

Edwards’ visit represented a trial run of sorts for the MSNBC crew and the Dems, who both spent yesterday afternoon dealing with last-minute logistics ranging from security, to the placement of signs, to the color of the mugs on the Hardball set.

Details, Details, Details...

Dressed in suits, the Dems gathered at about 2 p.m. yesterday in the Kirkland House courtyard for a run-through of the evening’s events.

Brooks Washington ’06, the Dems member overseeing the “external” logistics of the senator’s arrival, told the team that Edwards’ wife Elizabeth and daughter Catharine, a student at Princeton, were expected to arrive in about two hours. Edwards himself was scheduled to arrive by the time the event started at 5 p.m.—“not late,” Washington promised.

Holding a roll of yellow “caution” tape, Washington explained that volunteers in the courtyard would walk with Edwards to the dining hall entrance and

keep his path clear of curious onlookers.

From there Edwards would wait with his family in the “holding area”—otherwise known as the Senior Common Room—before the event began in the Junior Common Room.

About an hour after the run-through, as organizers awaited the arrival of the senator’s family, Dems president R. Gerard McGeary ’04 told the assembled group of about a dozen student volunteers, “It’s all about gearing up for ’04.”

Joseph M. Hanzich ’06, speaker director, who was one of the coordinators of the event, said the team met for about three hours a night for the past week to hammer out all the details—ranging from clearing the parking area in front, to providing an Internet connection in the holding area, to figuring out how the senator would cross JFK Street to attend the Hardball broadcast at the IOP.

“From the second that John Edwards stepped out of his car to the second we handed him over to the IOP, we had to have every minute planned down,” Hanzich said.