DURHAM, N.H. -- Democratic presidential candidates don't often look to the conservative editorial page of the Manchester Union-Leader for political support. But when this state's largest newspaper yesterday endorsed Senator Joseph I. Lieberman for the Democratic presidential primary, the Connecticut senator seized upon the front-page blessing like a candidate reborn.
Given Lieberman's single-digit standing in some New Hampshire polls, his enthusiasm might be viewed as a stretch. But Lieberman sees a parallel between the enormous boost his fellow Senator John Edwards got in Iowa when that state's largest paper, the Des Moines Register, endorsed the North Carolinian, helping Edwards surge to a strong second-place finish.
"I like the precedent," Lieberman said cheerily during an interview with The Boston Globe after he delivered another one of his trademark low-key campaign addresses. But the question is whether the precedent will help Lieberman, or whether it comes too late.
On the surface, the endorsement is great news because it could prompt many undecided New Hampshire voters to take a second look at the 2000 vice presidential nominee. But he is battling candidates who are newly energized by a bounce in Iowa: Edwards and Senator John F. Kerry, who won the Iowa caucus. Retired Army General Wesley K. Clark and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean are also vying for votes at the head of the pack. As Lieberman hit the campaign trail yesterday in Penacook and Durham, he faced questions about how he could emerge from the pack after not campaigning in Iowa and facing so many formidable foes here. "Nobody's had a chance to vote for me yet," Lieberman explained to students at Merrimack Valley High School in Penacook.
more:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/01/21/lieberman_endorsed_by_union_leader/