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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Staying In The Race
Anti-war candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich said the surprise result of the New Hampshire presidential primary shows the race is far from over.
"I'm the only one who voted against the war, who voted against funding the war 100 percent of the time," he said as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, of New York, won Tuesday's Democratic primary and Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, the Republican race.
Despite finishing a distant fifth in the Democratic primary, the Ohio congressman said he will continue his presidential campaign but also will run for re-election to Congress.
"This election's been a roller coaster," he said. "This election will continue to be unpredictable, and the very unpredictability of it leaves the door open for a candidate like myself pressing issues like health care."
Kucinich has stood out for backing a single-payer health-care system.
...
Kucinich's rhetoric against free-trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement – which President Clinton pushed through Congress in 1993, but which now draws criticism from even Clinton's wife – has been adopted by the leading candidates.Still, none of his 2008 rivals or fellow Democrats in Congress has embraced Kucinich's latest liberal cause: the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.
Actually, I think it would be inappropriate for presidential candidates to call for impeachment. Dennis can because he's in the House and has a bill currently getting squashed by Pelosi and Conyers, but the Senators should steer clear of the subject so I don't expect them to pick that up on the campaign trail.
If Dennis can stay in at least through Super Tuesday, if not all the way to Denver, maybe some of his other ideas might creep into the rhetoric and any delegates he picks up could help drive things at the convention. Hey, Edwards! What about universal health care?
ntodd
January 9, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
all that aside, i hope you and rin tin are feeling better.
Posted by: whaleshaman | Jan 9, 2008 4:45:58 PM
By mid-May, when primary day comes here, I figure it'll be Hillary and Dennis left. Hmmmmm... which one has the spouse who's done more for me?
Clearly, I'll get to vote for Dennis.
Posted by: Kevin Hayden | Jan 10, 2008 6:42:24 AM
If Dennis can stay in at least through Super Tuesday, if not all the way to Denver, maybe some of his other ideas might creep into the rhetoric and any delegates he picks up could help drive things at the convention.
i wonder if that really can work with the kucinich campaign. i mean, i know there is this theory that other minor candidates can help a raise by bringing issues into the campaign that other candidates ignore. but that only works if the other candidates don't ignore the minor party candidate. and i wonder if kucinich's issues aren't getting less play in the campaign because they are associated with kucinich, who (wrongly in my mind) is branded as a crackpot.
or maybe anyone who takes a strongly liberal position will be dismissed as a crackpot. if that's true, then kucinich's campaign won't hurt progressive causes, but it won't help either.
Posted by: upyernoz | Jan 11, 2008 9:01:58 AM
Well, certainly starting with the debate in Iowa he's been locked out of official things, but he still has a following and having them invested in the process is a good thing. Also, any delegates he can pick up means some modicum of influence at the convention (just look at all the hue and cry when he admonished his pissant 1% support to Obama). Of anybody in the race, Edwards is the most likely to pick up on DK's themes, particularly universal, single-payer health care.
Posted by: NTodd | Jan 11, 2008 12:35:56 PM
Buy me stuff off my 
