Five democratic presidential candidates spoke before hundreds of people with disabilities and their advocates yesterday at a forum in Manchester. The forum, hosted by the Granite State Independent Living, brought together people sharing health care, mobility and civil rights concerns.

The candidates spoke about the virtues of their health care plans, and their commitment to strengthening federal support of people with disabilities. Each sought to attract members of this sizable constituency, with varying success.

Hillary Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, received an enthusiastic applause after she announced plans to restore an executive order her husband signed, committing to hire 100,000 people with disabilities for federal jobs.

"I believe that whenever anybody in America can't live up to his or her potential, it diminishes all of us," she said.

She then flattered the audience.

"I don't know anybody stronger than people with disabilities," Clinton said.

Joseph Biden, a Democratic senator from Delaware, said that he there was an opportunity born from tragedy to raise standards for care of people with disabilities. The tragedy, he said, was the war in Iraq, which would disable many thousands of soldiers.

"Traumatic brain injury, traumatic stress disorder, more amputees per capita than from any war since the Civil War," said Biden. "This is a new opportunity, for us to take responsibility, more solidly, more significantly, and more broadly than we have at any time in the recent past."

He then went on to shower praise, as Clinton had.

"You have all been soldiers," said Biden. "You have literally been soldiers in this struggle."

Compared to Clinton's speech, which was received by a close scrum of supporters, Biden's speech was received with tepid applause. Several people complained that he twice used the term "wheelchair bound" to describe people with disabilities.

Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic congressman from Ohio, pushed his not-for-profit universal health care plan. When he took the podium, he said that Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, whose son, Ted Kennedy Jr., moderated the event, had proposed a similar plan, 45 years ago. The plan would not exclude people for pre-existing conditions, said Kucinich.

"Everyone's covered. No more bankruptcies because people can't afford to pay hospital or doctors' bills," Kucinich said. "It's time in America that we establish health care as a basic human right, and make it affordable to everyone, and lift this country up."

This point, and others he made, received the strongest applause of the day. Still, some doubted the viability of his campaign.

"He knows the problem, and wants to fix it," said Peg Desiletes, of North Hampton. "I don't know if he can."

John McCain telephoned into the event, and spoke about the need to care properly for disabled veterans. No other Republican candidates appeared in person or by proxy, although all had been invited.

"The Republicans should have sent more people," said Matt Greenland, a Republican from Dover. "It shows that they don't care."

John Edwards, a former Democratic Senator from North Carolina, was represented by his campaign manager, former Congressman David Bonior. Bonior said that Edwards had introduced this election's first universal health care plan, and that he, like Hillary Clinton, would restore Bill Clinton's executive order that federal agencies employ 100,000 people with disabilities.

Carolyn Dodd, a legally blind retired teacher who won an employment discrimination lawsuit, introduced her brother, Christopher Dodd, a Democratic senator from Connecticut.

"I will never, ever, ever forget, as long as I live, that lawyer from Denver flying across the country on a moment's notice, who walked into the school board in Hartford Connecticut," said Dodd, "and say 'You're not going to fire a talented, gifted teacher because she has a disability, because she is blind.' " (next page »)