Have you been yearning for a DIFFERENT kind of Presidential candidate?

Question

Are you one of the people (like I was) who has been asking for a better Presidential candidate? Someone OTHER than the same old/same old?

I admit it - I have been "supporting" Senator Clinton really mostly because I had resigned myself to her being the Democratic nominee.

I was wrong to be so lazy. I have always liked Kucinich, but never gave him serious support because he was simply too idealistic.

Well? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT??

I now declare my total support for Dennis Kucinich, and passionately believe that we have time to work towards making him the Democratic candidate.

Do you know any particulars about him?

“Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Rep.
Dennis Kucinich, D.-Ohio, said voters in the January caucus really need a
choice between the Democratic and Republican candidate.*

Kucinich's speech to a small gathering at Democratic Party headquarters
Wednesday night set her husband well apart from other candidates. She spoke
about a resolution to impeach Vice-President Dick Cheney, an initiative for
public funding of elections and trading community service for a free college
education, ideas well out of the mainstream discussion in the 2008 campaign.

*"This whole morphing of the Democratic Party into the Republican Party,
trying to align them so closely that there is no choice, there is no
difference, it's not working. It's weakening the party and strengthening the
Republicans, " Kucinich said.*

A native of Great Britain, Kucinich exhibited much of her idealism from the
days when she volunteered to work with Mother Teresa in India in 1996 and
worked for an advocate for regional development in Tanzania after receiving
her Masters degree at the University of Kent.

*"We don't want more of the same. We don't want it wrapped up in a blue
banner as opposed to a red banner," Kucinich said.*

None of the other candidates talk about a non-profit health care system,
withdrawing immediately from Iraq, canceling the North American Free Trade
Agreement and replacing it with an agreement protecting workers rights and
the environment, she said.

America has been told by the media we're "between a rock and a hard place"
in Iraq, we have to stand in what she called an illegal occupation or leave
and create a vacuum. Kuchinich said there's plenty of middle ground, an
international peace force should be formed, including Moslem armies, to
replace American troops that leave.

Kuchinich charged a benchmark set for the Iraqi government, promoting the
sharing of oil revenue between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq was really
a document about letting international oil interests get their hands on
privatizing Iraqi oil. The doctrine of "peace through strength" is really
about pre-emptive strikes, unilateralism, undermining international law,
isolating America from the rest of the world and not engaging in diplomacy,
Kucinich charged.

Voters need to break the hold insurance companies and corporations have on
the fiscal process, including health care, Kuchinich said.

"The way to do that is to elect someone who really will pitch for an
amendment to the constitution which calls for public financing of
elections," she said.

Other candidates talk about health care reform, but she charged it was
merely subsidizing private insurance company plans. There would still be
premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Kuchinich's plan would have the
government as a single payer.

"You have 2.9 percent taken out now for Medicare, a couple more percent
taken out of your salary and that will cover your whole medical expenses,"
Kuchinich said.

Kucinich said her husband's 12 point plan includes a Works Green
Administration, similar to the Works Public Administration of the Depression
years. She talked about an ambitious plan to retrofit American homes with
wind turbines and solar panels. Mass transit systems are also desperately
needed, she said.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) should be put to
work on these projects, instead of sending people to the moon, Kucinich
said. America should take the fat out of the Pentagon budget, she said.
The peace through strength policy should be turned on its head to strength
through peace, she said.”

Answer 1

I'm currently pulling for Kucinich. However, Mike Gravel fits my political philosophy more closely. My dilemma is whether to vote for Kucinich in the primary or Gravel, who most likely won't win.
I know I'm supposed to vote my first choice, but I think a vote for Kucinich will go father.

Answer 2

I like Lil Cleveland Dennis, but not as much as Gravel.
Kucinich wasn't able to do a thing about the horrendous vote fraud in '04 in his own district (Cuyahoga County) and throughout Ohio. Then, in response to the tragic college shooting rampage, Kucinich called for an assault on the 2nd Amendment, which facts say, would be the opposite of a preventative measure. Until we can melt down all the guns, tighter gun laws will always favor the criminals.

For me, I definitely want change, as do a huge majority of Americans. Unfortunately, a lot of those people think Hillary or Obama will do it. They won't. They're both acquisitions of the same ol' PTB. Yet Kucinich flounders near the bottom of the Dem pageant, with Gravel way behind him!

So, the only answer is Ron Paul. He's more charismatic than Kucinich or Gravel, has raised a lot more money, and IMO, has a real chance of winning the nomination. He and Gravel the only strict constitutionalists, which we desperately need right now.

Answer 3

I am yearning for a candidate that is not beholden to special interest. This standard pretty much precludes anyone emerging from either major party- whether Democrat or Republican. Both groups have become so mired in appeasing lobbyists, that no candidate in either the Democratic or Republican camps can emerge victorious in the primaries, without catering to these special interest groups.

That is why I have pretty much given up hope in supporting candidates from either party. Granted Dennis Kucinich does seem to be for bold reforms, and so does Ron Paul on the Republican end, but neither will have a chance if they don’t bow down to special interest groups on either side of the political spectrum, and this act of appeasement will ultimately betray the hope and trust of the American people, as it has invariably in the past.

Remember how anti-war John Kerry was during the beginning of his campaign, for the 2004 Presidential bid, and by the end of the campaign his rhetoric wasn’t that much distinct from Bush, with the exception that his rhetoric was better articulated.

Ultimately, the only hope for the American people to get their needs addressed, without getting obstructed by special interest is if a strong third party candidate arises who has no ties to big business.

Answer 4

I, too, have always admired Kucinich. I have read some of his writings and they are great, revealing a grasp of the Constitution most candidates don't seem to have.

He won't win, unfortunately, because he doesn't have enough money. In today's world, money counts. It pays for those Blitzkrieg's of Ads, the travel, the staff, etc. Without all of this, it seems to be impossible to win.

Whatever happens, look at it this way. I am going to be satisfied with a new President who will stop the War. I don't expect miracles. I don't expect jobs to pop up all over, nor the country to pay off its debts.

But an end to the war in Iraq will satisfy me, for now. Then I'll worry about Health Coverage, the Homeless, the Jobless, etc. If it's Clinton, Obama, Kucinich, Richardson....so be it!

One step at a time and we will eventually return to sanity.

Answer 5

His policies are perhaps the most progressive among the Dems, but for me, if Kecinich got the nomination, I'm afraid it would be a gift to the Repukes and perhaps an electoral re-run of the 1972 campaign. McGovern won 1 state. If we can't win AFTER Dictator Dumbya disaster, then when?

Answer 6

I FOLLOW AND HAVE FOLLOWED THE ISSUES OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS FOR YEARS. BYRON DORGAN FOR PRESIDENT. SENATOR NORTH DAKOTA. BEST CHOICE.