AP reports Kucinich still could be factor in presidential race . . .

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/8165732.htm

Posted on Fri, Mar. 12, 2004

PERSPECTIVE: Kucinich still could be factor in presidential race

MALIA RULON

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A long shot in the presidential race, Rep. Dennis Kucinich may yet be a player in the Democratic Party's bid for the White House.

Ohio is widely seen as one of the most important battleground states for the 2004 election. Cuyahoga County, which includes Kucinich's hometown of Cleveland, is a must-win region because it boasts the state's highest percentage of Democratic voters.

* * *

Kucinich still hasn't quit his own race in the presidential primary, but said his ultimate goal is helping the Democratic Party regain the White House.

"The issue now isn't of who the nominee is. The people have spoken. Now, the issue is what does the Democratic Party stand for?" Kucinich said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.

* * *

and now he has a national following to call upon as well. Not bad for a first longshot darkhorse campaign.

is this, in my opinion:

Beyond Ohio, Kucinich still could have a role in the race because he's able to attract the most liberal voters in the Democratic Party, including the ones who are most likely to splinter off and vote for independent candidate Ralph Nader.

Nader ran as a Green Party nominee in 2000 and has been widely criticized for siphoning votes away from Gore. Kucinich is ideologically similar to Nader on economic and social issues.

"His new prominence ... is going to help with those folks who are concerned that we've left those progressives behind," said Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Dan Trevas. "Dennis will be outstanding with that."

But the party needs to help allow his voice to be heard in order to accomplish this.

Even if all he does is affect HOW this race is run. I believe he has already helped the Democrat Party by bringing many people back to their liberal roots, and shattering the Naderites claims that there's no difference betw the 2 major parties. (Although Bush has already DEMONstrated how evil the right can be)

Then by all means, his contribution has been worth every drop of sweat we have given.

How ya doin Zombyson??

I am so sad for Spain...I know you are too...
:hug:


Hey, why not DK for VP....hell of a sight better than McCain...McWho??? :crazy:

:loveya:
DesertMomma

typoedit

prize, DR, I totally agree. Certainly the only way Kerry is going to get my vote is either by undergoing a massive spiritual conversion (I won't hold my breath!) or via my vote for DK as the VP.

DK in November, check-off or write-in!

This nutcase will have as much influence on the Democratic Party as me. None. Zip.

Time for DK and his supporters to grow up and stop living in Neverland.

The Democrats will not be held hostage to DK and his 38 delegates.

is a "Dem" who doesn't recognize a large part of the Democratic party.

Nighty-night.

Kanary

Another Delusional Diehard for Dennis!!

Kucinich 2004!

post #6 adds nothing to the conversation...

:hi: Kanary....let me know when the goodies arrive

DK has much to give...IMHO Kerry should pick him for VP if he wants to keep the progressives!!!


Peace
DR

but insults and division

Agriculture? Health and Human Services? Many possibilities, all for the better. He can effect change at the executive level. But... as long he stays in Congress, he will continue to be voice for progressives beyond his constituents, much like Wellstone was.

Thanks for the :hug: Mom! :loveya:

The care package arrived today! Wheeeee! It's better than choklit cake. ~~gigglesnort~~

Now, if you can just manage to come to my first houseparty.... :)

Mucho megalo mahalo!

Kanary

Another Delusional Diehard for Dennis!!

Kucinich 2004!

is that Kerry will need Kucinich's active support to win Ohio. Nothing nutty about that. I don't think you read the story.

Just wanted to make that clear.

November when Bush wins another turn after the Democratic Party rejects its progressive wing again.

get real Sharpton has more delegates than this Jerry Brown wannabee.

...keep it up. It's people like you that make me look more closely at Ralph Nader ;).

voting preference? Would you actually go into the booth and vote for some candidate to spite an individual? If that's the case, .....forget it- never understood the thinking behind that, oh well.

....I said this was PEOPLE LIKE that particular poster that is influencing me. What I'm saying is that if I, as a progressive, feel hostility in the Democratic party, would consider moving on and explore other options.

Of course, if you noticed, I had the wink smilie face ;) in my post. It was meant as a jokey,pointed commentary. I was basically kidding, but also giving a warning. A warning that I think is valid:

DEMOCRATS, DON'T TURN YOUR BACKS ON THE PROGRESSIVE WING!!!!!

giving both Kucinich and Sharpton more say regarding the minority planks in the platform. If Kerry is willing to agree to some of the requests of Kucinich and Sharpton, they can agree to jointly release their delegates to Kerry.

Kerry is in FULL CONTROL of the convention. Sharpton and DK delegates will be less than 1 percent of the delegates at the convention. You think that the Democratic Party is going to be held hostage to the left fringe outsiders of the Party?

now considered "left, fringe outsider" values. Keep it up a-hole.

Our party is one that welcomes a variety of perspectives, rather than driving them out! Planks embracing IRV, making election day a national holiday, and supporting a plank calling on the end of the occupation of Iraq..these are not fringe ideas, just democratic ones.

If Kucinich and Sharpton hope to be treated seriously they must combine their strength at the convention, and be willing to work as a team.

Through and through.

Was it just me that caught the bit or maybe I imagined it when at one point Sen. Kerry started up with "The way they went into Iraq was wrong..." and Congressman Kucinch jumps in with,"And what was the right way?" and JFK stops for a second, just a second and you could almost see Kerry's mind trying to think of a rebutal to that but then he dismissed the thought and went on with his sanitized Neo-con version of events.

Kerry was clearly pissed-off.

But the point of this AP story is that Kerry will need Kucinich's active support to (1) win Ohio and (2) keep some progressives in party instead of voting Nader.

If Kerry were to stay pissed-off at Dennis it will only hurt Kerry.

I'm sure Kerry realizes this and that at some point this summer there will be some sort of understanding reached between Kerry and Kucinich.

If not, then Kerry will have (1) less likelihood of winning Ohio and (2) may loose more progressives to Nader.

It seems as though the people have spoken, and they stand for what John Kerry stands for. (On most issues)

I really hope that Dennis is not going to try and hold the party hostage. Again I will say, the tail should not try and wag the dog.

I think the people may not have heard much about Kucinich. And, if they knew about him, they decided to go with "can beat Bu$h" more than anything else. Aside from that, what does Kerry stand for? What has he been campaigning on?

based on your reply to me, if you have bothered to read Kerry's positions on a wide range of topics on his website.

I also wonder if you have paid attention to his answers to questions at the dozen or so debates he has participated in.

Although people haven't heard much about Kucinich, Kerry has been out there dominating the print and electronic media.

And yet, you don't know what he stands for?

Are you trying to learn?

Kerry still hasn't said what the right way would have been to invade Iraq. He still implies that we should have gone into Iraq. He needs to come out clearly and strongly that it is never right to lead Americans into war on the basis of lies.

As for DK being "the tail"--in my conservative Democratic precinct, I was the only one who brought resolutions forward--DK resolutions. The response from the other attendees was, "Wow, why hadn't we gotten these?" Most of the resolutions passed, and the ones rejected were rejected on wording, not on the spirit of the resolution.

I don't think the dog is the breed you think it is.

have ideas worth adopting by the party. All I am saying is that I don't want to see him withholding support for Kerry at this point, or further down the line, to force his agenda on the Kerry campaign. It would be counter-productive.

And I'm not saying that Kucinich is the type to do such a thing. It was Kucinich himself, who said on the Imus show a few weeks back that the people have spoken, and that he trusts the will of the people.

I WOULD hope that he and Kerry can have a meaningful dialogue on matters close to Kucinich and his supporters, which will lead to better relations, better understandings, and maybe an adoption of a few Kucinich ideologies.

Having said all of this, I have one last thing to say. Kucinich has fewer than thirty delegates to this point. No matter what breed of dog you think it is, Kucinich is still the tail, and Kerry is the Great Dane.

Doubt it. A lot are like that guy in California who allowed as how he thought he'd vote for that 'Jim Barry' fellow. No one speaking for Kerry at my caucus said jack shit about any issues, only about 'electability.'

At my precinct caucus, I was the only person in a room where 16 precincts met who had brought any resolutions. All were enthusiastically adopted, and the pre-eminent Kerry supporter in my precinct sez "We may be divided on candidates, but it's the issues that unite us as Democrats."

I pointed out that every single one was straight out of the Kucinich platform. I was too polite to point out that the anti-Patriot Act resolution she strongly supported contradicted the actual vote of her own preferred candidate.

On the issues, Kucinich is the dog, and Kerry is the tail.

It's too bad you don't get what Dennis is doing for YOU.

But, since you don't get it, and REFUSE to get it, I really don't understand what you get out of heckling Kucitizens.

We don't go to your threads and confront you. Could you please return the favor?

If you don't get by now that we're all in this together, then... that spells out part of the problem, don't you think?

You aren't winning any friends or Kerry supporters with your tactics.

Time to try some peace, instead.

Adios.

Kanary

Another Delusional Diehard for Dennis!!

Kucinich 2004!

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/8165732.htm

"Cleveland is key, and within Cleveland, Kucinich is key," said John Edgell, a former chief of staff for Kucinich who is now a Washington lobbyist.

The state's longest-serving Democratic member of Congress agreed.

"Turnout in Cleveland is critical and I think Dennis Kucinich and (Cleveland Congresswoman) Stephanie Tubbs Jones are essential in that," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo.

Kerry asked the Ohio lawmakers to help his campaign in a closed-door meeting with members of the U.S. House on Thursday, Kaptur said.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/8165732.htm

Kucinich agreed that Cleveland will play an important role in November and pointed to Democrat Al Gore's strong showing in that area before the former vice president decided to pull out of the state in the 2000 race.

"Historically, you've got to come out of Cuyahoga County with a huge vote," Kucinich said. "That's my back yard. That's me. That's where I'm working."

Paul Beck, a political science professor from Ohio State University, said that if Kucinich can provide any kind of advantage to the Democratic nominee in Cleveland, they'll have to court him.

"They obviously would want to approach him and try to get his help," Beck said.

...then why do so many jump on these DK posts and bash away at him? Are they really that afraid of the co-Chair of the largest subcaucus in the House?

Something really doesn't match up, eh?

Thanks for pointing out the obvious!

Soul searching time, folks.

Give it some REAL thought.

Kanary

Another Delusional Diehard for Dennis!!

Kucinich 2004!

DU is a forum mostly for liberals. On DU, Dennis Kucinich is seen as somebody who is a bit to the left but has great ideas. In the real world John Kerry is portrayed as an extreme leftist and Dennis Kucinich is considered a complete nutball.

Kerry just needs to toss us progressives a small bone and we'll help him w/ money and more importantly TIME. Just toss us a bone and we'll work really hard for him and Ralph Nader will be a total non-factor. Don't make the same mistakes Al Gore did.


Dennis Kucinich will deliver for the Democrats come November. Will the Democratic Party establishment deliver for him???

thus catching the political winds in primaries requires a ship having sensitive sails more than one with a familiar name. O8)

and I don't think he will expect the world in return. They've both been in politics a long time, without their daddy buying their way in, so they know about working together with former opponents for the common cause.

She had the yard signs and bumperstickers for it too. I told her I wouldn't be needing mine until July.

Dennis forever!!

What Dennis has started will continue. There is too much there to turn our backs on, and there are too many of us who have been deeply affected. Something powerful will come of this!

Kanary

Another Delusional Diehard for Dennis!!

Kucinich 2004!

Maybe he can get some more.

Since Dennis' stance is 360 degrees away from Kerry's when it comes to almost every issue (Nafta and the WTO, Iraq, Healthcare, etc.), is it possible that the Nader factor plus any write-in votes for Kucinich this November could cost Kerry the election?

I am sincerely hoping that there will be some move towards the DK/progressives in creating the Dem platform.

Again...can you blame anyone who is so disillusioned with the Dem nominee for voting for someone clsoer to their beliefs? I mean ...is there a law that says we must give our vote to a certain person??

Why must it be phrased "cost Kerry the election"...thats a lot of blame put on voters who for the other 364 days in the year...are lefties, fringe and marginal voters who don't count enough the rest of the time for the dems to even listen to.....


I think we will come to regret- sooner rather than later- that we as a nation, didn't choose Dennis Kucinch to be president.
Peace
DR

My point is for Dems to unite behind our nominee. I didn't mean to sound accusatory. I voted for Edwards in the primary. I was disappointed he dropped out and will not get the nomination. The bottom line is Kerry is going to be our nominee and we should, at least in my opinion, unite so we don't suffer another four years of Bush, Inc.

I heard it from the horse's mouth. He has no desire to split the party in any way. Like most dems, he understands that the most important thing now is to take back the WH.

Kucinch considers Kerry to be a good friend. He said you can't have traveled around together for the last year and not become friends.

Kucinich has every intention of continuing his run to get reelected to Congress and I am sure if Kerry asked him to play some role in his campaign/administration Kucinich would be happy to do it.

This is encouraging.

made the same promise to each other.