Hadassah Heralds Husband’s Abilities

The star of Hadassah Lieberman’s speech at Harvard yesterday was not herself but her husband.

The wife of Democratic presidential contender Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., told Harvard students to “vote your future” and called on them to help her husband’s primary campaign in New Hampshire.

Lieberman demurred from addressing the specific policies of her husband’s campaign, focusing instead on his qualifications for the office.

“This country needs a president we can believe in,” Lieberman said to a group of almost 40 students gathered in the Lowell House Junior Common Room.

She pledged that her husband would be up to that challenge.

“We need leaders who will lead with integrity, we need leaders with vision,” Lieberman said. “You can rest assured, when it comes to Joseph Lieberman, you can trust the man, trust his words, trust his values, trust his experience.”

She contrasted her husband’s track-record with that of movie-star-turned-Governor-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, calling the results of Tuesday’s California gubernatorial recall race “surprising.”

“My husband was not happy about this whole concept of a recall,” Lieberman said.

“The Davises are a lovely couple. They were very helpful in 2000,” she later added, referring to ousted Democratic Governor Gray Davis and his wife.

Students attending yesterday’s event generally praised Lieberman—though not all were ready to pull the voting lever for her husband.

“It definitely brought the political issues closer to home to me,” said Lora R. Dagi ’06. “It’s all very ambiguous when talking about political leaders, and it just seemed very personal. I feel much more important because of it.”

M. Shai Davis ’06 said he respected Lieberman and her husband but was not ready to throw his full support behind the senator.

“I still have a lot more research to do before I’m ready to cast a vote,” Davis said. “It [made] him more accessible, but as far as policy, it did not inform anything.”

Lieberman also briefly touched on the War in Iraq and economic troubles on the domestic front.

“To have done the tax damage that Bush did—it’s unbelievable,” she said.

At one point, Lieberman’s voice grew hoarse and she had to stop for a drink of water.

“I’ve been talking too much, I’ve been screaming my beliefs all day,” she explained, laughing. Her appearance at Harvard was her third of the day in the Boston area, following stops at Boston College Law School and the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Rebecca E. Rubins ’05, the president of Harvard Students for Lieberman, planned the event. Rubins worked for the senator’s campaign this summer and coordinated with representatives from its New Hampshire headquarters to bring Hadassah to Harvard.

Lieberman’s appearance, which included 15 minutes of remarks and a short question-and-answer session, was co-sponsored by the Harvard College Democrats and Harvard Hillel.

Hillel President Joshua I. Rosenbloom ’05 said the event was one of the first times the organization has hosted a major figure in American politics.

Rosenbloom said that the experience of the Liebermans—both observant Jews—in politics attracted Hillel to the event.

For the College Democrats, Lieberman’s appearance is only the first in what they hope to be a series of visits from prominent leaders of the party.

“We want students to be energized about the primaries, energized about the convention, and then ultimately be energized to take it to Bush,” said R. Gerard McGeary ’04, president of the College Democrats.