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.