Posted on 01/09/2003 7:08:35 AM PST by Fixit
STAMFORD -- U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., is expected to return Monday to Stamford High School, where he campaigned for class president more than 40 years ago, to announce he is running for president in 2004.
While supporters expect the Stamford native and the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate to announce his presidential bid Monday, a source even closer to the senator -- his mother, Stamford resident Marcia Lieberman -- hinted yesterday that he is already in the race.
"He's going to make a great president," she said.
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Marcia Lieberman said she has expected her son to run for president since 2000 when he and Al Gore narrowly lost to George W. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney.
"I think he was gearing up for this after he lost last time -- actually he won, which you know," she said, a reference to the Gore-Lieberman team's winning the popular vote in 2000 but not the election.
Lieberman still would not say with 100 percent certainty yesterday that he's in.
Asked in Washington whether he was definitely running, Lieberman laughed and said, "Until I make an announcement, it's not an announcement."
Lieberman intends to avoid the modus operandi followed by his rivals, which usually involves making the first declaration on a national talk show. Lieberman said he will save his statement for the high school because, "It just feels right to me, making a decision this momentous."
He also wants to highlight the symbolism, by speaking "at a place where so many of my dreams were formed."
A Lieberman spokesman said the senator will announce his decision about a presidential bid during the 10 a.m. press conference at Stamford High.
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If elected, Lieberman, a New Haven resident, would be the first Jewish president.
His political career started at the former Burdick Junior High School, where he was the ninth-grade class president. By the time he graduated from Stamford High in 1960, Lieberman had been a member of the school's student council, jazz club, math club, a capella choir and was crowned prom king. The future senator was voted "Most Popular" and "Most Likely to Succeed" in the school's 1960 yearbook.
Stamford High School Principal Carmine Limone, who was a year behind Lieberman at Stamford High and "knew of him," speculates the senator is making his announcement from the school's small auditorium because, while the school has undergone many changes, that room "looks similar to how it looked when we were in school."
Limone also said Lieberman's staff wanted an intimate setting where the senator could take questions from students and mingle with former classmates he has invited. The auditorium can seat a little more than 100 people, he said.
"They said they wanted a more homey feel because he wants to spend time with members of his class," Limone said. "This is a guy who has not forgotten where he comes from."
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Though there is talk of the state's other Democratic senator running for president in 2004, Malloy said he does not believe U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., will be throwing his hat into the ring if Lieberman wants the job.
"These are two guys who are friends," Malloy said. "I certainly have no expectation that Chris Dodd will run. I think he'd be doing a lot of different things right now if he was."
According to reports, Dodd was still undecided.
"I haven't decided yet, I'm still thinking about it," Dodd said yesterday.
Dodd spokesman Marvin Fast said in a statement the state's senior senator, "will not make a decision about a possible presidential run based upon what other possible candidates do, but based upon a number of factors, including whether he feels he has a contribution to make to the national debate on our country's future. He will make that decision at the appropriate time."
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(Excerpt) Read more at stamfordadvocate.com ...
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