Stamford, CT – Jo Lieberman: I Have a Lot of Respect for Obama, If He Wins I’ll Help Him

Stamford, CT – Just over one week before the presidential election, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn, said he will continue to work hard to elect Republican John http://www.vinnews.com/vinadmin/post.php?action=edit&post=21656McCain but is prepared to embrace a Barack Obama presidency.

“I have a lot of respect for Senator Obama. He’s bright, eloquent. Some day I might even support him for president,” he told a handful of state journalists Friday afternoon from his home in Stamford.

Lieberman had just returned from New Hampshire, his most recent stop along the campaign trail, for the Jewish Sabbath.

“I’m working my heart out for John McCain to be elected our next president,” Lieberman said. “But if for whatever reason he is not, I’m going to do everything I can to be bringing people . . . together across part lines to support the new president so he can succeed. What’s at stake for our country is just too serious.”

A self-described “independent Democrat” since being re-elected in 2006 after losing the party’s primary, Lieberman said he will head to Florida Sunday and has plans to stump for McCain in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The nearly half-hour teleconference marked Lieberman’s first interview with state newspapers in weeks. He fielded questions about the tone of the campaign, McCain’s choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for vice president and about the financial crisis.

Lieberman was asked how he felt about McCain and Palin singling out sections of the country they visited as “the real America” or “the most” God-loving and patriotic areas of the country.

“Well, Connecticut has always seemed to me to be a pretty God-loving state,” Lieberman joked. “These campaigns have had as most do what I would call moments where the rhetoric gets away. And sometimes that’s not where you’d like it to be.”

Lieberman declined to single out the McCain/Palin camp, which many observers, including some prominent Republicans, have taken to task for launching attacks painting Obama as an unknown “other” voters should fear.

Most recently Lieberman ally U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, decried anti-Obama robocalls linking him to 1960s radical William Ayers.

And in a recent column for Forbes.com, Dan Gerstein, Lieberman’s former senior campaign advisor and communications director, accused the McCain campaign of “unleashing a series of increasingly nasty and dishonest attacks that were fundamentally out of character for McCain and out of synch with his ‘country first’ mantra.”

“This has been the way it’s been since the republic was founded. It’s a little more damaging these days, I fear, because of the power of telecommunications,” Lieberman said. “I’m prepared to be held accountable for my own comments on the campaign trail. But I can say, if you gave me the time, all sorts of excesses that have gone on by the four major political candidates.”

Asked if there was anything he heard from the McCain campaign he felt obligated to speak out against, Lieberman told reporters: “You have contributed to the demeaning of our politics by this kind of focus. Give me a break.”

The response disappointed Bishop Theodore Brooks, a longtime Lieberman supporter from New Haven who helped organize the senator’s third-party re-election bid in 2006.

Brooks, who is African-American, said Friday he does not regret backing Lieberman and considers him a good man. But he wishes the senator would speak against some of the accusations leveled at Obama, particularly because, as a Jew, Lieberman understands the risks of stereotyping.

“I think if he had even come out and said . . . we’re better than that. We’re all Americans, no matter where we come from, what we look like. And we should be taking the high road rather than dipping down into the rhetoric and animosity that’s fueling the attitudes of those negative persons who, given the right scenario, would be flipping on him,” Brooks said.

Weston resident Harvey Bellin, who aided Lieberman in 2006 and is leaning toward voting for Obama, accepted Lieberman’s answer. Bellin said recent polls have shown the attacks on Obama do not appear to have traction with voters.

“I’ll tell you this. If and when he feels it’s something he finds morally offensive he certainly will (speak out),” Bellin said.

Lieberman said he does disagree with the McCain campaign’s use of the word “socialism” to criticize Obama’s plans for middle class tax relief.

“I don’t like to use terms like ‘socialism, ‘ ” Lieberman said. “I don’t know what they mean anymore.”

But said he opposes Obama’s proposal to provide tax relief by returning to the higher, 1990s tax rates for the rich.

“I’m for raising taxes on the wealthiest but think it would be a mistake in the short run,” Lieberman said.

Many pundits have criticized Palin as unprepared to assume the presidency if necessary. Lieberman, who has supported Palin, used that line of attack against Obama.

“(McCain) is ready to be our president at this very difficult time, and Senator Obama is not as ready,” Lieberman said. “It’s as direct as that.”

Lieberman said he believes Palin would be ready for the job.

“Let’s hope she never has to be ready, because we hope McCain is elected and lives out his term,” Lieberman said. “But if, God forbid, an accident occurs or something of that kind, she’ll be ready. She’s had executive experience. She’s smart. And she will have had on-the-job training.”

James Diamond, a member of Stamford’s Board of Representatives and the Democratic State Central Committee, laughed when he heard Lieberman’s response.

Diamond recently defended Lieberman against efforts by the central committee to censure the senator for backing McCain. But he has questioned how Lieberman can “say with a straight face” Palin is qualified to be vice president – a job Lieberman sought in 2000.

“When Senator Lieberman ran for vice president, he was a good pick because he was ready immediately to be able to be president and was qualified,” Diamond said. “Look, we’ve had vice presidents become president. Sometimes you have time, sometimes you don’t. It’s not a risk the country should have to take.”