Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, one of numerous candidates in the Democratic presidential primary, addresses members of the Rotary Club of Nashua on Monday.

NASHUA – America needs leaders who “focus solely on the mission of service” envisioned by the nation’s creators to cure the “hyperpartisan divisiveness” that is stalling progress in Washington, D.C., Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard told Rotary Club of Nashua members on Monday.

Chicago-based Real Clear Politics shows Gabbard currently polling at 1% nationally, but around 5% in New Hampshire.

Monday, Gabbard brought to Nashua her message of reuniting an increasingly socially and politically divided nation. She followed her Rotary Club appearance with a visit to The Telegraph offices before hosting a meet-and-greet at the Arbor Restaurant in downtown.

Gabbard, 38, was elected to the U.S. House from Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in 2012. In doing so, she became the first practicing Hindu and first Samoan-American member of Congress.

A major in the U.S. Army National Guard, Gabbard entered basic training in 2003, and served two tours of duty – in Iraq in 2004-05 and in Kuwait in 2008-09.

Her desire to serve America grew stronger with the beginning of her military career, Gabbard said. “From day one of basic training, we had people there from all over the country, and we were all there for one reason: to dedicate our lives in the service of our nation,” she told Rotarians.

She was asked at one point about how, if elected, she would deal with the federal budget deficit, head off potential future Social Security shortfalls and keep Medicare and Medicaid programs viable.

One of the biggest concerns “we all share,” she said, is the “short-sightedness of leaders across party lines,” where “decisions are made for the here and now … the latest headline, or what’s trending on Twitter,” rather than considering long-term consequences.

In 2012, when she was one of 83 freshmen legislators elected to Congress, Gabbard said she remembers clearly the advice that “very experienced Washington politicos” began offering once she took office.

“I was told I should not even try to pass legislation because I’d never get a vote,” she said. Instead, it was suggested the “best way I could serve my constituents” was to give speeches on the House floor.

“Otherwise, just sit around and wait until the Democrats take over,” Gabbard said her party leaders told her.

“That was not acceptable advice for me, so I said ‘thank you’ and left it behind.”

She finally settled upon “the universal language – food” to break the ice with her new colleagues.

She called upon her mother, who “makes amazing Macadamia nut toffee,” to whip up 434 boxes of the treat, which she distributed with a brief note that ended in “I look forward to serving with you,” Gabbard said.

As for the national debt, Gabbard said she has “made foreign policy the central focus of my campaign,” based on her “personal experience as a soldier who served two deployments to the Middle East,” along with her seven years on the House Foreign Relations Committee. She also served on the Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.

Gabbard cited the “Afghanistan papers” story the Washington Post broke on Monday after a lengthy investigation into the war in Afghanistan.

“The papers show that leaders in our own government have been lying,” she said, about the progress, or lack thereof, of the 18-year campaign.

Post reporters obtained a “confidential trove of government documents,” according to the Post, which “reveal that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan … making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false, and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable,” the story states.

Gabbard called the Afghanistan campaign “a futile mission that has been wasting tremendous amounts of taxpayer dollars, and even more egregiously, (taking) American lives.

“And for what?” she said rhetorically.

“To accomplish what objective?”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, or at dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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