Dennis Kucinich on the Trail

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) doesn't have much chance of winning the Democratic nomination but I like his spirit and his reminder of the Democratic Party's big tent. Keep in mind that a cynical media doesn't have much respect for any candidate not in the top three or four in campaign fundraising and that's wrong. In 1860, four or five candidates were ahead of a guy named Abraham Lincoln.

In 2000, the media should have exposed George W. Bush for the mediocrity that he is long before he wrapped up the big money. The other thing the media has forgotten is that the campaign for both parties is a chance to try out ideas even if those ideas don't catch on for that election cycle. Sometimes our best ideas have come from one or two earlier election cycles. Maybe Kucinich has some great ideas and maybe he doesn't but let's hear some different voices.

Bonnie Adler of the Westport Minuteman has a story on a recent visit by Kucinich; here's an excerpt:

Kucinich ... campaigned in Westport last weekend at the Westport library, where about 50 people gathered for a campaign stop that ran one hour late and lasted no more than 30 minutes.

Kucinich, elected as mayor of Cleveland in 1977 at the age of 31, said he was looking for a return to the values that he grew up with when he and his six siblings were raised in and around Cleveland in a family that always lived on the edge of poverty. Saying he lived in 21 places before the age of 17, Kucinich vowed he would never forget the struggles of the poor.

Kucinich said America should never have entered into a war in Iraq, that Congress has the ability to stop the funding for the war and that the United States must withdraw its troops immediately. ...

This time around Kucinich may have to work on creating a little more buzz. And he needs to show that he has some fresh ideas.

The Mahablog has a somewhat friendly critique of Kucinich and explains at length why he probably has no chance of winning and why he probably would not make the best president:

I want to say upfront that I’m happy there’s a Dennis Kucinich. I’m happy he’s in the Democratic Party. I’m happy he’s in the House of Representatives. I’d be happy if he ever got into the Senate. But he’s not a viable presidential candidate, and I am hugely skeptical he’d make a good president. I am skeptical not because he is a liberal, or a lefty, but for reasons specific to Dennis Kucinich, the individual.

(snip)

On the whole I agree with Kucinich’s ideas — not all of ‘em, but many of ‘em. But people can have good ideas and be bad presidents. (I have a lot of good ideas — I happen to think all of my ideas are good — and I will tell you frankly I’d make a terrible president. They’d probably ship me off to an asylum less than a week after the inauguration. Even so, I’d do a better job than Bush.)

Well, Kucinich would also make a better president than Bush. Now Kucinich has said that he is a 'practical idealist'; to pass the other Democrats, he needs to show how that characterization of himself is real, though undoubtedly it's more real than Bush's characterization of himself as a 'compassionate conservative' (though maybe all along Bush really meant to call himself a compassionate reactionary).

Kucinich is a good man but if he wants to have an impact in 2008, he needs to find a way to step it up.