MECHANIC FALLS – They met Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire over the weekend and showed up at school Monday in campaign T-shirts and big smiles.

Three sixth-graders at Elm Street School met their presidential choice at a political rally at Merrimack Valley High School in Penacook, N.H., on Saturday.

At the end of the rally, Clinton invited the girls – Adriana Stone and Susan VanArsdale, both 11, and Brianna Linscott, 12 – onto the stage. The girls gave Clinton a Maine license plate that read: “NXT PREZ.”

A photo of Clinton holding the plate high, flanked by the girls, appeared in the New York Times and on the Web site of MSNBC, among other news outlets.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you come up on stage?’ So we walked up on stage,” Adriana said Monday. Clinton explained to them she had seen them during the rally, but saved them for last.

As they handed her the plate, Clinton asked their names and where they were from. “When Susan said we came all the way from Mechanic Falls, Maine, just to see her and give her this gift, the crowd went crazy,” Adriana said.

“Photographers yelled out, ‘Girls, look over here.’ It was kind of scary,” Brianna said. “There were so many people there.”

Reporters wanted to know why the girls liked Hillary Clinton for president. Adriana said Monday that she wants Clinton to be president “because she wants to stop the war.” Brianna admires Clinton’s environmental positions. Susan likes that Clinton is interested in health care and “how people aren’t being fair with insurance. I just want to know I’ll be safe and healthy.”

Adriana’s father, David Clifford, said he asked his daughter a while back who she wanted for president. She told him Hillary Clinton. He began giving her newspaper stories about Clinton.

Regardless of who wins the New Hampshire primary, Adriana, Brianna and Susan said they’re inspired to see a woman run for president. “We have this saying, ‘It takes a woman to do a man’s job,'” they said in unison.

They don’t know if political careers are in their futures.

“I’ll probably do what Hillary Clinton does” by promoting health care, Susan said. “I’ll vote and stuff, but will not become the president or run for it. I’ll be politically involved.”

Online:
To see a New York Times photo of Mechanic Falls girls with Hillary Clinton: go to: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/05/us/20080105CAMPAIGN_2.html

To see an MSNBC photo of Adriana Stone with Hillary Clinton:

http://www.ms