Lieberman in 2004, Rubins in 2020?

MANCHESTER, N.H.—Rebecca E. Rubins ’05 spent last Wednesday like the ten preceding 15-hour days, frantically researching in dull light on even drabber furniture.

An hour’s drive from the carrels of Lamont Library, Rubins is more than a few mindsets removed from reading period.

The Social Studies concentrator drew a long pause before she could even name her four classes.

Here in the Manchester campaign headquarters “War Room” of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., Rubins’ manic energy blends in among the other two dozen staffers working to win “Joe” the Democratic nomination.

Rubins began working for the Lieberman campaign last summer in Washington, D.C., and the campaign asked her to continue through the fall term.

She attends debates in New England and transcribes Lieberman’s speeches. She founded Students for Lieberman at Harvard and has now spent almost two weeks of her winter break and reading period in New Hampshire canvassing, phone-banking and researching Lieberman’s gaggle of opponents.

“I’m involved in politics because I think it’s the most noble thing,” she said last Thursday, a few hours before returning to Cambridge. “It’s very easy to get caught up in the minute things. The next paper, the next exam. Going back to Boston will be a shock—I go from working on a national presidential campaign to writing a lit paper.”

The War Room is hardly comfortable, but Rubins is reluctant to leave it. The corner where she worked is dark and claustrophobic, filled with small televisions tuned to different news programs.

Mismatched, dilapidated sofas decorate the office—some even with holes in the arms—amidst the cubicles of different sizes and colors, which round out the office. Tacky hand-made campaign posters adorn the walls: “1600 Penn Ave or BUST!” and “Heinz may have ketchup but I relish Hadassah”—a reference to Heinz Co. heiress Theresa Heinz, the wide of Sen. John F. Kerry’s , D-Mass.

Rubins much prefers her current position with the campaign—as political researcher and speech transcriber—over the traditional campaign activities of canvassing and phone-banking.

“You’re just a body,” says Rubins, adjusting the bandana covering her shoulder-length curly brown hair as she sits back in her chair. “But if they feel you can do something unique—well, fast typing isn’t really unique—but if you can contribute something, you can distinguish yourself.”

Working with the Lieberman campaign, she says, has shown her that politics is the right path.

“I’ve always said I want to go into politics,” she says. “And then I was like, if you want to do it, you better see what it’s like first.”

From Minnesota to the Moon, and Beyond

Politics is not the only thing on the agenda for Rubins.

“I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut. And write a novel. The Great American Novel, of course. That’s all.”

But right now this Minnesota native manages to occupy herself with politics and plays.

She is producing her fifth show next semester, Crazy for You, a musical based on George Gershwin songs. Last semester, she produced South Pacific.

Rubins says that producing plays and working campaigns are very similar in some respects—a group of dedicated people comes together for a period of time for a common goal and then disbands once that goal is accomplished.

“The campaign has a special place because it’s bigger than anything else I do,” she said as she rushed back from New Hampshire to teach Hebrew School. “I can see what I do for the campaign having a real effect on the country. It’s more worldly. But, on the other hand, I need to take advantage of every second at school. When will I get to produce a Broadway musical again?”

Rubins is the only Harvard student volunteering at Lieberman’s headquarters, and though other members of Students for Lieberman have come up to New Hampshire for one-day canvassing, she is the only student to have made a long-term commitment.

“A lot of people I’ve talked to support him but don’t want to make the trek,” she says.

Rubins admits that there isn’t wide support for Lieberman on Harvard’s campus outside of the Students for Lieberman group. She says that students are attracted to the “glamour” of the Dean and Clark campaigns.

“If you don’t think a lot about [the issues], these are the campaigns that students are drawn to. Clark and Dean seem to be more liberal than Joe,” she says.

Rubins thinks that the current challenge for Lieberman is to beat Clark to become the “anti-Dean.”

“Clark is his biggest competitor now, but ultimately it will be Dean,” she says. “And that will be decided in the South where Joe is hugely popular.”

Lieberman is currently polling at 9 percent in South Carolina.

Campaign Lieberman: A Hope and a Prayer

Rubins met Lieberman—whom she calls “Joe”—at campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C. last summer. The first thing she asked him is where to find a good synagogue for Friday night services.

Like Lieberman, Rubins is an Orthodox Jew.

“I feel a closer connection to him because of [his religion], but it’s not the reason I’m supporting him,” she says. “I would support someone of a different religion with Joe’s positions and thoughtfulness.”

Lieberman frequently mentions God in his speeches and sometimes seems to be running on a platform of morality.

Rubins doesn’t have a problem with Lieberman’s religious references.

“When he talks about God it’s the same way the dollar bills do, and I admire that,” she says.

She understands Lieberman’s desire to talk about his faith, but she doesn’t think it wins votes.

“If I was writing [Lieberman’s] speeches I probably wouldn’t mention God that much,” she says. “I think America is weary of the God talk, and though I know where it’s coming from, it seems conservative.”

Rubins observes the Sabbath, attending synagogue in Manchester for Friday night services, where she also talks with “potential voters.”

Rubins says she will support Lieberman—“fighting the good fight”—as long as he is in the race, but she concedes she would ultimately work for the Democratic candidate, no matter who wins the nomination.

“I’d probably switch to another campaign, though I can’t imagine working for another candidate right now, especially since I do research so I know what their positions are,” she says.

She wants to work in Washington again this summer but does not yet have concrete plans. One thing is for certain, she says: she will be working on her thesis at the Library of Congress.

“I want to write a manifesto for American society,” she says, bobbing her head seriously. “Our country needs a vision, a mission.”

What is her vision? “Well, foreign aid…and bringing the world’s standard of living up and…space exploration! Like, what’s happening with that? There’s a future for the entire human race that we need to think about. There’s more to America than everyone owning their own SUV in the suburbs and we need to find out what that is.”

Career-wise, Rubins’ long-term plans are to run for political office. She admires John F. Kennedy and says that Bill Clinton was a “cunning politician” whom she would like to emulate.

“People say he has this amazing ability to look into your eyes and make you feel like the only person in the room as he shakes your hand,” she says. “I aspire to that.”

She stopped short of saying she wanted to be president, but she may have already mastered the necessary political lingo. “I want to get to the level where I feel I’ll be doing the most for the people I serve.”

However, her roommates since freshman year, Elly S. Page ’05 and Mariecel C. Pilapas ’05, related greater ambitions.

“Becca’s definitely the only person I’ve ever known who’s taken the idea of actually being president of the U.S. so seriously,” Page wrote in an e-mail. “She already had her campaign slogan freshman year, when she was thinking about running in 2020: ‘Rubins: Perfect Vision in 20/20.’”

“I was, like most people would be, a critic when she first told me about her presidential ambitions,” wrote Pilapas in an e-mail. “But I have never seen Becca give up on anything she has been passionate about, so why should this be any different?”

As Rubins makes the rounds of the War Room on Thursday, she embraces superiors and fellow-volunteers alike.

“Thank you, Rebecca,” someone told her.

She looks directly into the co-worker’s eyes. “No, please, thank you.”

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.