I am proud to say my daughter’s video “Nancy calls for Impeachment” won!!
fredsays
I’m Canadian and I don’t watch television news, so I have no idea why Kucinich is not a front-runner. He doesn’t sport a $400 haircut, he doesn’t show any cleavage, his middle name is not Hussein: is it because he’s short?
CalGeorgesays
Ohmygosh!
With the right haircut, and a program of regular muscle bulk-up exercises, he’s the perfect candidate!
While Kucinich often uses language that is a little too woo-woo for me, when it comes down to it, the policies he pushes with his woo-woo words are generally the most sensible and reality-based. Conversely, the so-called “serious candidates” seem to be playing in Bush’s fantasy realm and are more concerned about upgrading their RP characters than about the world falling to pieces around them.
RamblinDudesays
Jim D: Kudos to your daughter. Very nicely done.
D.S. Ellissays
I’m a big fan of Mr. Kucinich and his message. As it stands, he’s the only candidate that’s saying what needs to be said. Unfortunately for him (and us) truth, honor and dignity are not high priorities among the postion protectors and pocket stuffers that fill the seats of Congress.
Despite the long list of proveable and impeachable offenses committed against this country by the current admistration, it’s going to take some dramatic example to shake us out of our collective apathy and make Americans realize that the only way to stop a bully is not to ignore him, but to stand up to him.
Good Luck, Mr. Kucinich. You have my vote and (if you feel you can use it) my voice.
A ticket of Kucinich and Russ Feingold would be interesting.
One Eyed Jacksays
What’s the message here? Bruce Wayne for president? OK, I’m in.
When the nation is threatened, we can send in Batman to round up the villains in 30 minutes. For the really tough ones you might have to tune in next week… same bat-time… same bat-channel!
OEJ
Pablosays
“What’s the message here? Bruce Wayne for president?”
No, Adam West.
He’s already got mayoral experience.
“I love this job more than I love taffy. And I’m a man who loves his taffy.”
Dustinsays
I could probably get behind Kucinich if he wasn’t completely batshit insane in his off-hours. Chopra-woo is one of my turn offs along with leaving the toilet seat up and checking out other girls while we’re out on a date.
Mrs. Peachsays
“Chopra-woo is one of my turn offs along with leaving the toilet seat up and checking out other girls while we’re out on a date.”
I guess I’m more concerned about the war and the constitution… and what a president does when he’s running the country.
Kucinich has my vote.
Dustinsays
I guess I’m more concerned about the war and the constitution… and what a president does when he’s running the country.
Right message, wrong messenger. I’m afraid we here in Greater Cleveland are just a little too familiar with Dennis. I wouldn’t hire him to run a booth at the fair, let alone a country.
Oldersays
Polls indicate that Dennis is more like the majority of Americans in his positions than any other candidate. This is probably why he “cannot be elected,” as the important folks like to say. The important folks of course are those who decide which candidate is going to get the media backing and the money, and they are definitely not planning to give Dennis any, because they are not really interested in the opinions of “most Americans.”
Mr. and Mrs. Kucinich are hard workers in the cause of peace and justice. They’ve been to my smallish city half a dozen times. I never miss them. It is so good to hear someone say what needs to be said. And eventually enough people may hear and understand to make a difference. If everyone would stop saying “Well, I agree with him, but he can’t be elected,” and just vote for him, he would be elected.
Spauldingsays
Anyone recognize the song at the end? I kinda dig it.
Jamessays
The song is called Memorial Day by The Perceptionists.
Paretosays
Kucinich is a moron when it comes to economics. Then again, so are most (all?) of the Democratic candidates. The Republican candidates are either also morons, or unethical (possibly both), except Ron Paul.
Chrissays
I’m going to have to disagree with keeping Ron Paul out of the moron category. I’ll take Kucinich, thank you.
It figures that the wingnuts would come out. There is a liberetardian who support Paul. There is a Clevelander who doesn’t even know the history of his town.
Kucinich was a target of assassination attempts because he refused to bend over for the business and banking criminal interests by privatizing the city’s electrical system. This is a guy who actually put his life on the line.
What a change from chickenhawk Rethuglicans like deserter-in-chief Bush and wimp 5 deferments Cheney.
Even though they are complete assholes, the only Rethugs who have any credibility are McCain and Hunter. They seem to be the only ones whose children have actually enlisted to save the American way of life.
The Republican candidates are either also morons, or unethical (possibly both), except Ron Paul.
Yes, but instead of Deepak Chopora woo, it’s Militia Conspiracy woo. So has he repudiated his New World Order conspiracy theories yet, or is he still claiming that a “ghostwriter” was responsible for “The Ron Paul Survival Report”?
Steve LaBonnesays
Bernarda, do you know enough about Cleveland and Dennis to also know that he in past has shamelessly played the race card to a attract white ethnic West Side voters, both in his mayoral campaign and his subsequent Congressional comeback?
I yield to few in my disdain for the parasitic Cleveland business “elite”. Better someone who opposes them than someone who licks their boots, to be sure. But better still an effective opponent which Dennis was quite incapable of being.
Steve LaBonnesays
For those who have a clue, Ron Paul’s doctrinaire libertarianism is an integral part of his general insanity.
And I think professional economists would be very amused by Mr. “Pareto”‘s apparent notion of himself as an expert on economics.
Kseniyasays
I’ll gladly take a little Chopra-woo after eight years of faith-based, teach-the-controversy, god-told-me-to-invade, born-again good-ol-boy Dubya-woo.
FWIW – I am not from Cleveland, but a good friend of mine is a Cleveland native, and she’s a moderal-Liberal with very little love for Kucinich. I think she used the word “opportunist”. Again, FWIW. None of the candidates are without flaws. Sigh. That’ll always be true, regardless of whatever white-knight fantasies we may harbor…
Steve LaBonnesays
We desperately need a left-liberal candidate who can actually run a viable campaign and reach mainstream voters. Dennis just isn’t that guy. It’s not just a matter of “flaws”, it’s that though he talks a good game (sometimes, on some issues) he’s really a deeply unserious person.
Kseniyasays
Then his deep unseriousness IS his flaw.
Kseniyasays
Err… what I really mean is, “Steve, I hear ya!”
bernardasays
steve and ksenyia(my friend says), am I right or wrong about the business and banking interests trying to assassinate Kucinich?
Why is it that liberals always have to be holier than the Pope?
With that attitude, we will continue to get real fascist criminals like Bush and Cheney.
You guys disgust me.
Steve LaBonnesays
So if somebody tries to kill you you automatically become a great man? Do you apply that test to Reagan?
No Bernarda, as long as our choices are limited to Hillarycrats and flakes like Dennis, we’ll continue to get fascist criminals. I had some hopes for Edwards who seemed to be trying to mainstream some left-liberal ideas, but the combination of his less than ept campaign management with successful Goring by the Washington Good Old Boy Reporter’s Club seems to have left him dead in the water. I may yet even vote for Dennis in the primary, but without illusions.
David Marjanovićsays
I’ll gladly take a little Chopra-woo after eight years of faith-based, teach-the-controversy, god-told-me-to-invade, born-again good-ol-boy Dubya-woo.
Let me second and third that.
David Marjanovićsays
I’ll gladly take a little Chopra-woo after eight years of faith-based, teach-the-controversy, god-told-me-to-invade, born-again good-ol-boy Dubya-woo.
Let me second and third that.
Kseniyasays
steve and ksenyia(my friend says), am I right or wrong about the business and banking interests trying to assassinate Kucinich?
I have no reason to believe you’re wrong. Does it matter?
Why is it that liberals always have to be holier than the Pope? With that attitude, we will continue to get real fascist criminals like Bush and Cheney. You guys disgust me.
*blink*
Huh?
Ok, I take it back, He’s fucking perfect, and everyone from Cleveland who’s been watching Dennis for years knows absolutely nothing about Him, and by expressing any reservations whatsoever, they’re ruining this once-great country of ours. Sorry to have caused you any cognitive dissonance.
HPsays
he’s really a deeply unserious person — Steve LaBonne
“Unserious”? “Unserious?” What a stupid, vapid, content-free, meaningless buzzword to throw around.
When I was an undergrad, I took a Shakespeare class which involved daily writing assignments. The professor made a rule on day one: Any daily paper that uses the word foreshadowing for any reason gets an automatic F. You can’t make a critical argument by throwing empty words at text.
Hey, maybe you’re right about Kucinich, Steve (though I doubt it). But you get an F anyway.
When get my own damn blog, my killfile is going to be triggered by a list of words that don’t mean anything and never contribute to the conversation. Unserious is going to be on it, right between politically correct and electable.
Kseniyasays
If electable has gotta go, can we also dump presidential, charismatic, experienced, and visionary? :-)
David Harmonsays
“Not electable” is Mass-Media code for “not if we can stop him, and we can.”
Kseniyasays
Maybe so, but it’s personal-conversation code for “I don’t think this person is electable.”
tonysays
Whoa, bernarda… ripping on Kseniya & Steve for a minor disagreement…. WTF are you capable of if someone is *really* on your bad side!
You’re only the second person I’ve seen get that kind of response from Kseniya (and,BTW, that’s not a compliment)
Whether he ever runs in a viable campaign or not, Kucinich needs to stay in the race through the convention again. Last election, even as it became obvious that Kerry had wrapped up the nomination (before we in Minnesota had any input at all) Kucinich stayed in to try to put pressure on the centrist DNC to get Kerry to at least acknowledge the Democrats needed at least a modicum of liberalism in their message. The DNC didn’t give him time to speak. At All. But his continued campaign up until the convention gave progressives like me a rallying point; not necessarily because of the man himself but becaue he was working and trying to get the progressive voice out there.
Sadly, it was ignored. I want a Demoncratic president, because the Democrats for all their faults, are not Republicans. I want someone in the debates trying to put pressure on the candidates to call for criminal investigations, if not impeachment, of members of this administration. Personally, I like impeachment.
Henry Waxman, who did all that invesigation as the chair of a minority committee in the last Congress into the mis-uses of science in this administration is now not willing to sign on for impeachment of either Chenguin or Shrub. Why not?
Practicality, Agenda, etc etc. C’Mon Democrats. Be the loyal opposition, but make more emphasis on the word opposition. And if it takes Kucinich out on the trail to make noise on it, I am glad he is in the race whether people think he is electable or not.
I’d vote for him, even if the nomination were wrapped up before the precinct caucuses. (The interesting race in the caucuses in Minnesota is going to be between Ciresi and Franken, anyway.)
Kseniyasays
Thanks for the support, Tony, honestly.
However, I’m getting a strong Uh-oh feeling, and I think I should listen to it.
I may have been a little too snarky there, and though I confess I did feel somewhat abused, I apologize for it nonetheless. I also feel it’s my responsibility to try to stop this from spiraling out of control. Bernarda has long been someone whose name I’ve always been glad to see pop up on the boards here, and I see no reason for that to change over a single disagreement, a minor and passing one at that. I can only hope Bernarda agrees.
(Call me crazy, call me weak, but burning bridges just ain’t my thing.)
Mike: That’s actually the precise reason I voted for Kucinich in the last Democratic Primary. While I preferred Howard Dean, He was knocked out of the election by the time Californians could vote, and I hoped that even a symbolic “bring on the lefty!” vote might influence Kerry’s campaign somewhat.
Foolish hope maybe, but let’s face it, the way the primary was set up, my vote was pretty much useless by the time I got to cast it.
HPsays
Kseniya @35: Absolutely. It’s a long and growing list.
However, I find the word charismatic occasionally useful. Charismatic politicians scare the shit out of me. (I’m looking at you, Obama.) Charismatic usually means “my kind of demagogue.”
Charismatic is also a handy term of art for describing certain demented strains of Christianity, especially since it hasn’t been as deracinated as fundamentalist (a good candidate for my forbidden words list, since people have lately rendered fundamentalist devoid of meaning).
Steve LaBonnesays
LWF- we may face much the same situation by the time the Ohio primary rolls around next year, in which case I might well conclude that voting for Dennis is the best thing to do.
Louissays
Is it just me or does “impeach” sound a lot like getting a large peach and then ramming it….
Either way, I am massive supporter of impeaching Bush, Cheney, Blair (I know I know) etc
Preferably impineappling them too.
Louis
bernardasays
kseniya, I agree with you and in the past I have agreed with you.
But in this case, I don’t understand this demand for perfectionism on the part of one candidate whereas none of the others approach it either.
The religious site Belief Net has interviews with the candidates and so far Kucinich has best avoided the trap of kowtowing to the religious vote.
Who cares if a particular candidate may be cynical and manipulative(which ones aren’t?)if he/she says and does the right things? Every one plays to their base in one form or another.
Try checking out the 35 percenter’s website and their videos on youtube. Oh, it is not in-depth analysis I know. One good thing I have seen is that it seems that Kucinich is having the effect of drawing Clinton and Edwards away from flirting to much with the rightwing agenda.
In the end, I will undoubtedly support the Democratic candidate, unfortunately without much hope that they will rollback Bushism and Neo-conism like they should. We have already seen Democrats cave on Iraq and FISA. No reason that should change.
It seems that the best we can expect is that a Democratic administration will stop things from getting worse, which is not a very exciting prospect.
Kseniyasays
I realize now what has happened, though it has nothing to do with some expectation of demand of perfection in a candidate. This brief banging-of-heads with you (Bernarda) has shaken loose something in my head that wasn’t fully aware was there, something I don’t need or want: a predisposition to dismiss Kucinich based mostly on the opinions of my friend(s) from Cleveland.
This predisposition was formed way back in ’03 and ’04 when he first showed up on my radar here in New England, and I haven’t given Dennis much credence since. That doesn’t seem like the best way to go about forming my own opinion of the man, now, does it?
Eric Paulsensays
I Don’t know about superheros, but I have decided that Kucinich is my pick in the primaries. I am just so gorram sick of “impeachment is off the table” spineless Dems. So what if he looks like a Keebler elf? He’s got more guts than the rest of the field put together.
The run for the presidency shouldn’t be a rutting beauty pagent… You wan’t another Miss Crawford running the country?
Kathleen Kainsays
Obviously, the voters in Kucinich’s district think highly of him. His margins of victory in congressional elections approach those of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. I knew a guy from Cleveland who was critical of Dennis. He also encopuraged his kid to enlist in the armed forces to build his character. I’ve also met a Clevelander who went to school with Dennis and supported him all the way in 2004. People in Cleveland can be just as wrong headed about a good candidate as people in the rest of the country. Look–Kucinich is the only candidate who has consistenetly opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq; AND is willing to cancel NAFTA; is calling for universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care; AND is speaking up for impeachment; and calling for the repeal, rather than the amendment, of the PATRIOT Act. That should be enough to persuade any person hungry for peace and justice to vote for him in the primaries and to contribute everything they can to his campaign. Wake up! He’s the best chance Americans have to salvage their security, economy, and reputation among other nations. By the way, he’s not a financial idiot. He has the clarity to realize that money spent on weapons nets less real profit than money spent to create jobs and to educate workers who can do those jobs.
Wow. Kucinich really is great. Hard to believe he calls himself a Democrat.
Democrats.com ran a Dump Dick Day video contest at http://www.democrats.com/dump-dick-video-contest-poll
I am proud to say my daughter’s video “Nancy calls for Impeachment” won!!
I’m Canadian and I don’t watch television news, so I have no idea why Kucinich is not a front-runner. He doesn’t sport a $400 haircut, he doesn’t show any cleavage, his middle name is not Hussein: is it because he’s short?
Ohmygosh!
With the right haircut, and a program of regular muscle bulk-up exercises, he’s the perfect candidate!
While Kucinich often uses language that is a little too woo-woo for me, when it comes down to it, the policies he pushes with his woo-woo words are generally the most sensible and reality-based. Conversely, the so-called “serious candidates” seem to be playing in Bush’s fantasy realm and are more concerned about upgrading their RP characters than about the world falling to pieces around them.
Jim D: Kudos to your daughter. Very nicely done.
I’m a big fan of Mr. Kucinich and his message. As it stands, he’s the only candidate that’s saying what needs to be said. Unfortunately for him (and us) truth, honor and dignity are not high priorities among the postion protectors and pocket stuffers that fill the seats of Congress.
Despite the long list of proveable and impeachable offenses committed against this country by the current admistration, it’s going to take some dramatic example to shake us out of our collective apathy and make Americans realize that the only way to stop a bully is not to ignore him, but to stand up to him.
Good Luck, Mr. Kucinich. You have my vote and (if you feel you can use it) my voice.
I just hope Cheney goes out with a “Blurp” too.
Bob
A ticket of Kucinich and Russ Feingold would be interesting.
What’s the message here? Bruce Wayne for president? OK, I’m in.
When the nation is threatened, we can send in Batman to round up the villains in 30 minutes. For the really tough ones you might have to tune in next week… same bat-time… same bat-channel!
OEJ
“What’s the message here? Bruce Wayne for president?”
No, Adam West.
He’s already got mayoral experience.
“I love this job more than I love taffy. And I’m a man who loves his taffy.”
I could probably get behind Kucinich if he wasn’t completely batshit insane in his off-hours. Chopra-woo is one of my turn offs along with leaving the toilet seat up and checking out other girls while we’re out on a date.
“Chopra-woo is one of my turn offs along with leaving the toilet seat up and checking out other girls while we’re out on a date.”
I guess I’m more concerned about the war and the constitution… and what a president does when he’s running the country.
Kucinich has my vote.
You’re right. It isn’t like there’s anyone out there who won’t take care of those without the Chopra-woo. And since there isn’t one level-headed candidate with connections to people who have already worked in a highly effective presidency, there certainly aren’t two of them. Kucinich it is! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the mall and meditate for world peace.
Right message, wrong messenger. I’m afraid we here in Greater Cleveland are just a little too familiar with Dennis. I wouldn’t hire him to run a booth at the fair, let alone a country.
Polls indicate that Dennis is more like the majority of Americans in his positions than any other candidate. This is probably why he “cannot be elected,” as the important folks like to say. The important folks of course are those who decide which candidate is going to get the media backing and the money, and they are definitely not planning to give Dennis any, because they are not really interested in the opinions of “most Americans.”
Mr. and Mrs. Kucinich are hard workers in the cause of peace and justice. They’ve been to my smallish city half a dozen times. I never miss them. It is so good to hear someone say what needs to be said. And eventually enough people may hear and understand to make a difference. If everyone would stop saying “Well, I agree with him, but he can’t be elected,” and just vote for him, he would be elected.
Anyone recognize the song at the end? I kinda dig it.
The song is called Memorial Day by The Perceptionists.
Kucinich is a moron when it comes to economics. Then again, so are most (all?) of the Democratic candidates. The Republican candidates are either also morons, or unethical (possibly both), except Ron Paul.
I’m going to have to disagree with keeping Ron Paul out of the moron category. I’ll take Kucinich, thank you.
Thanks, James!
There’s an mp3 here.
It figures that the wingnuts would come out. There is a liberetardian who support Paul. There is a Clevelander who doesn’t even know the history of his town.
Kucinich was a target of assassination attempts because he refused to bend over for the business and banking criminal interests by privatizing the city’s electrical system. This is a guy who actually put his life on the line.
What a change from chickenhawk Rethuglicans like deserter-in-chief Bush and wimp 5 deferments Cheney.
Even though they are complete assholes, the only Rethugs who have any credibility are McCain and Hunter. They seem to be the only ones whose children have actually enlisted to save the American way of life.
The Republican candidates are either also morons, or unethical (possibly both), except Ron Paul.
Yes, but instead of Deepak Chopora woo, it’s Militia Conspiracy woo. So has he repudiated his New World Order conspiracy theories yet, or is he still claiming that a “ghostwriter” was responsible for “The Ron Paul Survival Report”?
Bernarda, do you know enough about Cleveland and Dennis to also know that he in past has shamelessly played the race card to a attract white ethnic West Side voters, both in his mayoral campaign and his subsequent Congressional comeback?
I yield to few in my disdain for the parasitic Cleveland business “elite”. Better someone who opposes them than someone who licks their boots, to be sure. But better still an effective opponent which Dennis was quite incapable of being.
For those who have a clue, Ron Paul’s doctrinaire libertarianism is an integral part of his general insanity.
And I think professional economists would be very amused by Mr. “Pareto”‘s apparent notion of himself as an expert on economics.
I’ll gladly take a little Chopra-woo after eight years of faith-based, teach-the-controversy, god-told-me-to-invade, born-again good-ol-boy Dubya-woo.
FWIW – I am not from Cleveland, but a good friend of mine is a Cleveland native, and she’s a moderal-Liberal with very little love for Kucinich. I think she used the word “opportunist”. Again, FWIW. None of the candidates are without flaws. Sigh. That’ll always be true, regardless of whatever white-knight fantasies we may harbor…
We desperately need a left-liberal candidate who can actually run a viable campaign and reach mainstream voters. Dennis just isn’t that guy. It’s not just a matter of “flaws”, it’s that though he talks a good game (sometimes, on some issues) he’s really a deeply unserious person.
Then his deep unseriousness IS his flaw.
Err… what I really mean is, “Steve, I hear ya!”
steve and ksenyia(my friend says), am I right or wrong about the business and banking interests trying to assassinate Kucinich?
Why is it that liberals always have to be holier than the Pope?
With that attitude, we will continue to get real fascist criminals like Bush and Cheney.
You guys disgust me.
So if somebody tries to kill you you automatically become a great man? Do you apply that test to Reagan?
No Bernarda, as long as our choices are limited to Hillarycrats and flakes like Dennis, we’ll continue to get fascist criminals. I had some hopes for Edwards who seemed to be trying to mainstream some left-liberal ideas, but the combination of his less than ept campaign management with successful Goring by the Washington Good Old Boy Reporter’s Club seems to have left him dead in the water. I may yet even vote for Dennis in the primary, but without illusions.
Let me second and third that.
Let me second and third that.
I have no reason to believe you’re wrong. Does it matter?
*blink*
Huh?
Ok, I take it back, He’s fucking perfect, and everyone from Cleveland who’s been watching Dennis for years knows absolutely nothing about Him, and by expressing any reservations whatsoever, they’re ruining this once-great country of ours. Sorry to have caused you any cognitive dissonance.
he’s really a deeply unserious person — Steve LaBonne
“Unserious”? “Unserious?” What a stupid, vapid, content-free, meaningless buzzword to throw around.
When I was an undergrad, I took a Shakespeare class which involved daily writing assignments. The professor made a rule on day one: Any daily paper that uses the word foreshadowing for any reason gets an automatic F. You can’t make a critical argument by throwing empty words at text.
Hey, maybe you’re right about Kucinich, Steve (though I doubt it). But you get an F anyway.
When get my own damn blog, my killfile is going to be triggered by a list of words that don’t mean anything and never contribute to the conversation. Unserious is going to be on it, right between politically correct and electable.
If electable has gotta go, can we also dump presidential, charismatic, experienced, and visionary? :-)
“Not electable” is Mass-Media code for “not if we can stop him, and we can.”
Maybe so, but it’s personal-conversation code for “I don’t think this person is electable.”
Whoa, bernarda… ripping on Kseniya & Steve for a minor disagreement…. WTF are you capable of if someone is *really* on your bad side!
You’re only the second person I’ve seen get that kind of response from Kseniya (and,BTW, that’s not a compliment)
Sheesh!
Whether he ever runs in a viable campaign or not, Kucinich needs to stay in the race through the convention again. Last election, even as it became obvious that Kerry had wrapped up the nomination (before we in Minnesota had any input at all) Kucinich stayed in to try to put pressure on the centrist DNC to get Kerry to at least acknowledge the Democrats needed at least a modicum of liberalism in their message. The DNC didn’t give him time to speak. At All. But his continued campaign up until the convention gave progressives like me a rallying point; not necessarily because of the man himself but becaue he was working and trying to get the progressive voice out there.
Sadly, it was ignored. I want a Demoncratic president, because the Democrats for all their faults, are not Republicans. I want someone in the debates trying to put pressure on the candidates to call for criminal investigations, if not impeachment, of members of this administration. Personally, I like impeachment.
Henry Waxman, who did all that invesigation as the chair of a minority committee in the last Congress into the mis-uses of science in this administration is now not willing to sign on for impeachment of either Chenguin or Shrub. Why not?
Practicality, Agenda, etc etc. C’Mon Democrats. Be the loyal opposition, but make more emphasis on the word opposition. And if it takes Kucinich out on the trail to make noise on it, I am glad he is in the race whether people think he is electable or not.
I’d vote for him, even if the nomination were wrapped up before the precinct caucuses. (The interesting race in the caucuses in Minnesota is going to be between Ciresi and Franken, anyway.)
Thanks for the support, Tony, honestly.
However, I’m getting a strong Uh-oh feeling, and I think I should listen to it.
I may have been a little too snarky there, and though I confess I did feel somewhat abused, I apologize for it nonetheless. I also feel it’s my responsibility to try to stop this from spiraling out of control. Bernarda has long been someone whose name I’ve always been glad to see pop up on the boards here, and I see no reason for that to change over a single disagreement, a minor and passing one at that. I can only hope Bernarda agrees.
(Call me crazy, call me weak, but burning bridges just ain’t my thing.)
Mike: That’s actually the precise reason I voted for Kucinich in the last Democratic Primary. While I preferred Howard Dean, He was knocked out of the election by the time Californians could vote, and I hoped that even a symbolic “bring on the lefty!” vote might influence Kerry’s campaign somewhat.
Foolish hope maybe, but let’s face it, the way the primary was set up, my vote was pretty much useless by the time I got to cast it.
Kseniya @35: Absolutely. It’s a long and growing list.
However, I find the word charismatic occasionally useful. Charismatic politicians scare the shit out of me. (I’m looking at you, Obama.) Charismatic usually means “my kind of demagogue.”
Charismatic is also a handy term of art for describing certain demented strains of Christianity, especially since it hasn’t been as deracinated as fundamentalist (a good candidate for my forbidden words list, since people have lately rendered fundamentalist devoid of meaning).
LWF- we may face much the same situation by the time the Ohio primary rolls around next year, in which case I might well conclude that voting for Dennis is the best thing to do.
Is it just me or does “impeach” sound a lot like getting a large peach and then ramming it….
Either way, I am massive supporter of impeaching Bush, Cheney, Blair (I know I know) etc
Preferably impineappling them too.
Louis
kseniya, I agree with you and in the past I have agreed with you.
But in this case, I don’t understand this demand for perfectionism on the part of one candidate whereas none of the others approach it either.
The religious site Belief Net has interviews with the candidates and so far Kucinich has best avoided the trap of kowtowing to the religious vote.
Who cares if a particular candidate may be cynical and manipulative(which ones aren’t?)if he/she says and does the right things? Every one plays to their base in one form or another.
Try checking out the 35 percenter’s website and their videos on youtube. Oh, it is not in-depth analysis I know. One good thing I have seen is that it seems that Kucinich is having the effect of drawing Clinton and Edwards away from flirting to much with the rightwing agenda.
In the end, I will undoubtedly support the Democratic candidate, unfortunately without much hope that they will rollback Bushism and Neo-conism like they should. We have already seen Democrats cave on Iraq and FISA. No reason that should change.
It seems that the best we can expect is that a Democratic administration will stop things from getting worse, which is not a very exciting prospect.
I realize now what has happened, though it has nothing to do with some expectation of demand of perfection in a candidate. This brief banging-of-heads with you (Bernarda) has shaken loose something in my head that wasn’t fully aware was there, something I don’t need or want: a predisposition to dismiss Kucinich based mostly on the opinions of my friend(s) from Cleveland.
This predisposition was formed way back in ’03 and ’04 when he first showed up on my radar here in New England, and I haven’t given Dennis much credence since. That doesn’t seem like the best way to go about forming my own opinion of the man, now, does it?
I Don’t know about superheros, but I have decided that Kucinich is my pick in the primaries. I am just so gorram sick of “impeachment is off the table” spineless Dems. So what if he looks like a Keebler elf? He’s got more guts than the rest of the field put together.
The run for the presidency shouldn’t be a rutting beauty pagent… You wan’t another Miss Crawford running the country?
Obviously, the voters in Kucinich’s district think highly of him. His margins of victory in congressional elections approach those of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. I knew a guy from Cleveland who was critical of Dennis. He also encopuraged his kid to enlist in the armed forces to build his character. I’ve also met a Clevelander who went to school with Dennis and supported him all the way in 2004. People in Cleveland can be just as wrong headed about a good candidate as people in the rest of the country. Look–Kucinich is the only candidate who has consistenetly opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq; AND is willing to cancel NAFTA; is calling for universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care; AND is speaking up for impeachment; and calling for the repeal, rather than the amendment, of the PATRIOT Act. That should be enough to persuade any person hungry for peace and justice to vote for him in the primaries and to contribute everything they can to his campaign. Wake up! He’s the best chance Americans have to salvage their security, economy, and reputation among other nations. By the way, he’s not a financial idiot. He has the clarity to realize that money spent on weapons nets less real profit than money spent to create jobs and to educate workers who can do those jobs.