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Famous cast will need all our help to succeed

Concord Monitor, July 16, 2007

When Gen. John Stark was taken prisoner in New Hampshire in 1752, he was condemned to run the gantlet. Two long rows of Indian warriors were formed. Each had a club or stick to strike Stark as he passed. In one version of the tale, Stark snatched a club out of the hands of the nearest Indian. In another, he was allowed to carry a pole decorated with a loon skin to mark his progress. Stark flailed at the warriors as he ran, forced them to step back and escaped virtually unhurt. That brought roars of laugher from the tribe's elders and made him a hero.

Candidates in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary run a gantlet of questioners. Some are ordinary citizens who want answers to their concerns. Others represent organized causes that use the primary to trumpet their views and, with luck, to extract a pledge to act from the candidates. One Vote 08 is such a group, but unlike most, it consists of a bipartisan cast of political heavyweights, rock and film stars, and 2½ million Americans who feel a moral responsibility to improve the lot of the hundreds of millions of people in the Third World who are starving or dying of easily preventable or treatable diseases.

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