Last November when Manhasset voters left their polling places they were met by students from Manhasset High Schools who were conducting an exit poll. The pollsters were students in Elizabeth Ploeger's advanced placement government class and they elicited 1400 responses from Manhasset voters. They returned to school and entered the responses they had received into computers and then analyzed the results. One of the questions gave voters an opportunity to express their preference for a candidate for president in the 2000 election. To the students' surprise, in heavily Republican Manhasset, the former United States Senator from New Jersey, Bill Bradley, did extremely well in the poll. Mrs. Ploeger assigned the students the task of writing papers based on the poll results. The class sent one such paper to Senator Bradley and last week, to the students' delight, they received a call from the Bradley for President campaign saying that Bradley would like to come and meet with them.

About 150 juniors and seniors gathered in the Black Box Theatre to hear the candidate on Monday, March 29. In introducing Bradley, Frank McDermott, chairman of the social studies department, told the students that 86 years ago, another scholar from Princeton with the reputation for being "aloof and distant" was nominated for president, went on to win and today many people believe that Woodrow Wilson was one of our greatest presidents.

New Jersey is still a small state, Mr. McDermott said, and in Bradley we have another candidate from Princeton with the reputation of being a scholar. He added that Bradley had led Princeton to an NCAA basketball championship in 1955 before going to England to study at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He returned home and played for the New York Knicks in their glory years. Retiring from basketball he went on to serve three terms in the United States Senate. He retired in 1997 and wrote a book called Values of the Game.

Mr. Bradley then took the floor and told the students he had been attracted to Manhasset High School when he heard about the polling project. "It's a project that gets you directly involved in government," he said, "and government will have a direct impact on your future." His own involvement in government began, he said, in 1964 when he saw the tremendous effect the Civil Rights Act had on the lives of people. Urging the students to take an interest in government, he told them "We live in a time in America when volunteerism was never higher but political participation was never lower. I urge you to turn that around. You can be an enormously powerful force for change."

Addressing his own campaign he said that, since he is an advocate of campaign reform, he has no PACs (political action committees) raising money for him and accepts no major contributions. His contributors are limited to $1000 or less.

Speaking of the economy, Mr. Bradley said that of course he wants to keep the economy good "but I'd like to see the people at the bottom move up a couple of rungs. The lowest paid workers in America are child care workers and health workers who take care of the elderly and they're some of the most important people in our lives.

"I came here to salute your program, to tell you what I'm doing and to encourage you to volunteer. The Bill Bradley campaign is wide open for whoever wants to make a difference."

In a question-and-answer period that followed Bradley's remarks, one of the students asked when he decided he wanted to be president.

"In 1988 and in 1992 I considered it," he said. "I had been in the Senate for 10 years. I decided there would be four criteria. A candidate should know the country, know foreign policy, have an effective team and be able to communicate his ideas. I decided in 1988 that I was not ready. I thought I was ready in 1992 but an inner voice said no. In the fall of 1998 I decided I was ready."

Asked about the Clinton policy concerning Kosovo, Mr. Bradley said he does not support our actions. "If the objectives are as the president has described, if we're at risk of World War III, air strikes are not sufficient. If the objectives are less, air strikes are too much. I have great reservations and I doubt bombing will work. NATO can't send ground troops except to enforce a peace agreement and there is no peace agreement."

Another student asked whether Bradley believes the "Clinton scandal" will affect Democratic candidates. "I don't think so," the candidate replied, "except for people wanting to have a fresh start."

Asked about his priorities, he said that he would work for racial unity and to help low-income Americans.

In thanking Mr. Bradley for his visit, Manhasset High School Principal Mike Keany said "If they took that exit poll tomorrow your rating would be even higher."