'He's making his opponents think'
Originally published in The Morning Journal
'He's making his opponents think'
MIKE SAKAL , Morning Journal Writer 08/20/2003
(Editor's note: Morning Journal writer Mike Sakal and photographer Ross Weitzner are traveling with presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich on a campaign tour of Iowa.)
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -- On the last day of his 19th campaign visit to Iowa, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland, made a few final pitches of why he should be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
The message was the same one he preached since Sunday while traveling across the state to small towns, along back country roads dotted with feed and seed company advertisement signs, to chat with people who came to see what he had to say.
''I'm the only Democrat who can beat George W. Bush,'' Kucinich told labor leaders from Iowa and Nebraska during a breakfast with local organized labor and Democratic leaders.
The breakfast yesterday was part of his heartland tour stop in Council Bluffs in western Iowa, near the Nebraska border.
''I'm the only candidate with a clear-cut plan for putting Americans back to work, national health care, funding education and Ôre-regulating' public utilities. We're at a turning point here. We need to take our country back or continue to serve special interest groups.''
Kucinich remained near the bottom percentile in various polls among 10 Democratic hopefuls. He is above the Rev. Al Sharpton and Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.
Kucinich also has gained some ground on U.S. Rep. John Edwards, D-N.C., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who are near the middle of the pack. U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, still are the front-runners in Iowa.
All the candidates are heavily courting Iowa because of the Iowa caucuses in January, the kickoff of the presidential races. The results of the Iowa caucuses are a strong measure in determining strong candidates.
Since April, Kucinich also has campaigned in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Minnesota.
He and his camp will be campaigning in New Hampshire this week, and he plans to campaign in all 50 states, said a spokeswoman at his office in Cleveland. ''He has offices in 42 states,'' the spokeswoman said.
''We're building a strong base, and this is what this period has been about,'' Kucinich said after the breakfast. ''The only way to do it is to reach out to the people, and that's why we're crisscrossing the state.''
Kucinich also will return to Iowa for Labor Day weekend when country singer Willie Nelson will perform a benefit concert for him in Des Moines.
At the foundation of Kucinich's platform is a concrete support for organized labor and keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States, as well as a universal health care system providing medical care for all and cutting military funding and putting the money back into education.
''Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction,'' Kucinich said. ''Overpaying for health care is a weapon of mass destruction.''
About 20 people attended the breakfast and applauded Kucinich when he said he would repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization laws as his first act as president. However, he knows repealing those laws won't be easy to get through Congress.
Kucinich knows he will need a more sympathetic Congress, one that doesn't cater to corporations and special interest groups. ''I've seen grass growing in parking lots at plants where American steel was once made, cars were manufactured and bicycles were made,'' Kucinich said. ''Those jobs have gone to places like Mexico and Canada, and those people aren't even making a good enough wage to support their families.
''Even Henry Ford understood you had to pay your workers enough so they could afford to buy the cars they made,'' Kucinich said.
Jack Lassiter, president of Transport Workers Local 223 of Omaha, said he isn't sure who he will support as president.
''For me, the jury is still out,'' Lassiter said. ''I would characterize Dennis Kucinich as a dark-horse candidate who is infusing some good ideas into Democratic platform, like national health care and getting rid of NAFTA. He's making his opponents think.
''I don't think NAFTA can be totally repealed, but some things in it will have to change,'' Lassiter said.
John Kretzschnar, director of the labor studies program at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, said he supports Kucinich and believes NAFTA will ultimately have to be eliminated.
''NAFTA is free trade, but it's not fair trade,'' Kretzschnar said. ''There are human rights concerns on the job, as well as wage issues. Kucinich is my favorite, but he won't be able to repeal NAFTA alone.''
Kucinich will be back in Cleveland today and plans to hold a press conference regarding Thursday's blackout, which may have originated at a FirstEnergy plant in northeast Ohio, in or near Kucinich's 10th District.
Kucinich is quick to point out that it was the same utilities company that he refused to sell Cleveland's Municipal Light to when he was the 31-year-old mayor of Cleveland in 1978 -- the youngest mayor ever to be elected in a major American city.
Kucinich's refusal to sell Municipal Light sent the city into default and cost him the re-election.
''When elected president, I plan to Ôre-regulate public utilities,''' Kucinich said. ''Utility deregulation set off a wave of mergers and consolidations that did not repair or maintain the systems they had. Utility companies need to provide affordable costs for the people, provide a good service and be safer for its workers."
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