1/27/2004

Candidate talks with students about Saddam, gay marriage

Grace Dobush
Daily Kent Stater

LACONIA, N.H. — The people who turn out for political events are often older, but part of the crowd waiting to see Sen. Joe Lieberman in Laconia, N.H., yesterday afternoon couldn’t even vote yet.

A few dozen students from the sixth and eighth grades of the private, K-12 Sant Bani School in Sanbornton, N.H., came prepared with questions for the Democratic candidate and milled around the refreshment tables before Lieberman showed up.

Eighth-grader Lillis Meeh, 14, had a lot to say about the importance of the primary.

“If we (Democrats) don’t unite, it’s just going to be Bush again,” she said.

Meeh said she’s been “pretty outspoken” about politics since she was little but didn’t understand everything until recently.

She didn’t think Lieberman has a very good chance of winning the nomination and predicted it would be unlikely that a minority — sexual, racial or religious — would be elected president.

“I’d like to see a woman president, though,” she said. “That’d be cool.”

Meeh’s world history teacher, Lorraine Jones, brought the class to see Lieberman to get students interested, informed and involved.

“They love it — they all get to argue,” Jones said. “It’s a way of making history pertinent. You don’t have to struggle to make a connection because it’s right there.”

The town hall discussion took place on the third floor of the Belknap Mill, where a giant American flag and a number of Lieberman signs hung from the wooden rafters, and the old floor creaked as people walked around.

As Lieberman entered, the crowd chanted, “Let’s go, Joe!” (As he left by tour bus, the people outside yelled, “Don’t go, Joe!”)

Lieberman, who ran for vice president in 2000, said he was going “right up the center to the White House” with his “Joe-mentum.” (That is just one of many plays on his name — another gem is “moJoe.”)

He made sure everyone in the audience knew of his 30-year history in public service.

“I didn’t just drop into this race out of nowhere,” he said, reiterating that he is “the one candidate who can unite independents, Democrats and Republicans.”

He made many promises in his speech and in answers to the crowd’s questions, including providing universal health care, protecting a woman’s right to choose and creating 10 million new jobs in four years.

A Sant Bani student asked if he supports gay marriage, and Lieberman replied, “That’s an interesting question for a young student. I do not.”

He said he supported civil unions but that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

A man in the audience asked if he would have supported attacking Iraq had he known of the recent report that said there were no weapons of mass destruction.

Lieberman said he was “troubled” by the report and questioned the validity of it but that he “didn’t need this president to convince” him of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. He also called for a full-scale investigation of the events surrounding Sept. 11, 2001, and proposed an “international Marshall plan for the Muslim world,” saying that in order to fight terror, the United States “must win over the hearts of Muslims” living in poor countries.

After the TV cameras were packed up and most of the audience had left, Lieberman stayed around to sign autographs and speak.

Sandy Upham, a respiratory care technician from Laconia, said Lieberman was “very down to earth.”

Upham spoke with Lieberman’s wife, Hadassah, about their kids and talked to Lieberman’s son about how his father raised him. She said she was already pretty sure she was voting for Lieberman but came yesterday to see him in person. “I like to know his people, not just his politics.”

E-mail: gdobush@kent.edu