The Democratic Presidential Candidates

Published on November 17, 2007 By Artysim In Politics

A few nights ago I was sitting in my hotel room flipping through the channels and I happened to catch the democratic presidential debate on CNN. It was a complete gong show in which Wolf Blitzer would continually try to cut off the candidates in mid-answer and the questions were framed in such a way to try and force them to boil everything down to simple yes or no answers. "Are you saying that human rights are more important than national security?" is one such gem he asked. While the question was valid, it over-simplifies everything far too much. The voting public is not comprised of 6 year olds, and so they deserve questions and answers a little more complicated than that, thank you very much. A presidential debate should be providing a forum for the candidates to discuss their opinions properly. To their credit, many of the candidates took exception to the questions and took the time necessary to really answer them while Wolf squirmed and bleated to try and shut them up. I enjoyed that part. Despite my misgivings with the debate I still feel that I gained some valuable insights from it. I was most impressed with Dennis Kucinich, and I hope that he gets to run as the democratic contender. Sadly, I do not think that will actually happen (the media seems to have decided that it will all come down to Hillary or Obama) With that said, these are the reasons that I would like to see Kucinich in the presidency:

1) He voted against the Iraq war

2) He voted against the patriot act

3) He is pro-union. In a country in which only 13% of the workforce is unionized, I would love to see more brothers and sisters join the ranks of organized labor. As a union man myself, this would make me happy.

4) He went against the wishes of the democratic party leadership and has introduced articles of impeachment against Cheney, with the reasoning that the VP played a critical role in manipulating intelligence and deceiving the good people of the USA into believing that Iraq had WMD's and posed a threat. While this will undoubtedly be killed or starved in endless committee, it is the right thing to do.

5) He is also for impeaching Bush. Although with Conyers going back on his word, he probably won't be able to get enough support to actually get the legislative ball rolling

6) He is for universal healthcare (that's right the evils of socialized medicine, run for the hills!!)

7) He has expressed his solidarity and support for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who I personally admire a great deal.

Comments

Moderateman

on Nov 17, 2007

1) He voted against the Iraq war,* big deal he is anti-war, so am I would you vote for me?*

2) He voted against the patriot act, *Stupid act, I keep hearing about loss of rights, what rights have you lost? not in ether in reality, rights you have actually lost.*

5) He is also for impeaching Bush. Although with Conyers going back on his word, he probably won't be able to get enough support to actually get the legislative ball rolling * see above*

6) He is for universal healthcare (that's right the evils of socialized medicine, run for the hills!!)* Help the very poor I am all for that* Help people that make 75,000 a year, hell no!*

7) He has expressed his solidarity and support for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who I personally admire a great deal. *You support a dictator, I do not care if he was elected Democratically, so was Hitler*

SanChonino

on Nov 17, 2007

With the exception of his support of Hugo Chavez (who, the more I understand, the more I detest - the man has massacred his own people, for crap's sake), I have always liked Kucinich, and I agree with many of your other points.

joe-pro-photographer

on Nov 17, 2007

I was about to write pretty much what San Chonino wrote, except I was going to add that Chavez is a publicity wiz and his sending heating oil to poor Americans a couple of years ago was a stroke of political genius Clinton himself would be proud of. That one made me smile; the rest of his record, not so much.

The media hates K. That's just how it is. They hated Ross Perot, too. They never much liked EEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW man, now head of the DNC, Dean. You see where that got him. Nope. Face facts, like it or not, it will be either: H and America's Mayor, or H and the Reagan wannabee. Unless something happens in Iowa to propell Breck Boy (I do love that from Limbaugh, sorry) or Obama to the top. Then the fickle press would love to see H go down in flames. They were peeing their pants after Philadelphia. (THE BEEEAAAATTTCH IS VULNERABLE!) But, anyone else, well, if I was a betting man, I wouldn't be putting my bills on them.

Mind you, I am not an H fan, though I don't hate her, either. I'm not a Breck Boy fan -- in fact, I like him less than H. I like Obama, but I just don't think he has enough experience. I like the Delaware Plagarist, but he's hated by the press. I like the Mexican Mayor (it's the best I could do, sorry), but he's ignored. And K? He looks too much like Perot. Tough break.

Dr Guy

on Nov 18, 2007

Well, this is going to be fun, as the 7 reasons you like Kucinich are 7 of the reasons I would never vote for the man! I think a couple have already slammed Chavez. He really is just another tin pot dictator. Dont forget, many of them had to get elected before they seized power. And the seizure was not done with force of arms, but through glad tidings that got the people to love him, and hate the opposition.

But the biggest reason I would never vote for Kucinich has less to do with your 7 and more to do with how he ran Cleveland. maybe for Canada, running a going concern into the ground is good, but not for America.

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