Excerpts... with Joseph Lieberman

This issue closed prior to the Democratic National Convention, however, we thought you would be interested in excerpts from Jessica Bernhard's interview with Senator Joseph Lieberman which appeared in TeenSpeak Issue 2.

TS: What should we be looking for in our political leaders?

Lieberman: Character and competence are the main ingredients. A leader will have to be a hard worker who will try to learn as much as he or she can about every issue, and in the end will try and do what is best and right for the country. That's really more important than how a candidate feels about a particular issue, and it's really what we should look for.

TS: How does the media impact elections?

LIEBERMAN: The media has a big affect on elections because most people form their opinions of candidates from the media. Newspapers, and increasingly television, to some extent radio and the internet, has a real big affect. A candidate can have their own affect if they have enough money to buy advertising on radio or television.

TS: How important is campaign finance reform?

lieberman: It's the most important thing. There's too much money in politics today. If I had my drothers, I would have the law put a limit on how much candidates can spend in a campaign. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court said in the 1970's that's not constitutional. I'd still like to see if we could figure out a way to do it. The second most important thing is to make soft money illegal.