White, a former Democratic state House representative, said she's still unsure who she'll back in South Carolina's Feb. 3 primary.
But on Friday she had a simple question for Florida Sen. Bob Graham, the second presidential candidate to visit Jasper County this month.
"If you were president at this time with the situation in Iraq, what would you do?" she asked the third-term senator who was speaking in front of 70 mostly Jasper County residents at Jasper's Porch restaurant in Ridgeland.
Graham, who has been critical of President Bush's handling of intelligence information prior to the war in Iraq, had a simple answer.
"You've got to be honest with the American people," he said.
The senator, a presidential long shot in most pundits' books, attacked Bush for everything from an inadequate job-creation program to excessive tax cuts for the wealthy. He blamed the Bush administration's policies for dividing America.
Graham, 66, also had an answer for William Singleton, superintendent of the Jasper County School District, who denounced the federal government's increased demands on districts regardless of their economic condition.
"We don't argue about the accountability piece," Singleton said. "But when you're asking all that from poor, rural school districts like Jasper, we struggle."
"We need to recognize," Graham said, "that all students don't start with the same opportunities to be an effective student. We need to provide more Head Start programs. We need to provide smaller classes, particularly in the elementary classes, which are key to building a foundation for the future."
The presidential hopeful also said he would push for better salaries for teachers like Jasper County's, who are among the lowest paid in the state.
Singleton told Graham he was pleased to hear him shoot down a voucher program that he said would divert money from public to private schools.
But before Graham got a chance to respond, he already had Singleton's vote: "I hope you won't be offended," the superintendent said before getting to his question, "if I call you Mr. President."
Graham, who has never lost an election, began his career with two terms in the Florida House of Representatives and two terms in the state's Senate. He was elected Florida's governor in 1978, serving two terms before being elected to the Senate.
He graduated from the University of Florida in 1959 and got a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1962. He and his wife, Adele, have four daughters and 10 grandchildren.
Graham is one of nine candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination and the second to visit Jasper County in advance of the First-in-the-South primary.
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., was in the area on Aug. 9, attending a church service at New Zion Baptist Church in Mitchellville and speaking on Hilton Head Island and at Penn Center on St. Helena Island.
Democratic presidential candidates are reaching out to South Carolina's 1.2 million blacks, knowing they could make up half the voters in the Feb. 3 primary.
Graham got a positive reception in Jasper County, where 53 percent of its 21,000 residents are black and more than 60 percent of its registered voters favored Democrats for state and national offices in last year's election -- an anomaly in a state that leans so heavily Republican.
On Friday, Graham seemed to have a number of votes in Jasper County wrapped up, including that of Thomas McClary, a black County Council member.
"When you become president," McClary told Graham. "Please do not forget the small, rural communities in South Carolina -- like Jasper."
jContact Glenn Maffei at 986-5531 or gmaffei@beaufortgazette.com.