No anti-Bush, Kucinich preachs hope
Originally published in the San Francisco Examiner
No anti-Bush, Kucinich preachs hope
By Adriel Hampton
Of The Examiner Staff
Published on Tuesday, December 16, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a progressive candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, brought his "peace and prosperity" campaign here Monday, the 25th anniversary of his decision as mayor to save public power in Cleveland.
That decision, which plunged Cleveland into loan default, may have cost him reelection, but he estimates it saved residents nearly $200 million under the rates of the private utility that had sought to take over Muny Light.
As he campaigned around the Bay Area, Kucinich emphasized a message of hope over fear and a multilateral vision of a united world. At a forum with ethnic media at the World Affairs Council, he heralded the capture of Saddam Hussein as a turning point for the United States to leave Iraq.
"We cannot achieve economic viability in our own country as long as we are in Iraq," Kucinich said. "My plan is to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out."
His plan calls for turning over oil assets, rebuild contracts and governance to the United Nations until the region is stable enough for self-rule.
"We should seize the moment and go to the United Nations with a whole new approach," he said.
Kucinich, who the media has relegated to the bottom tier of candidates, attacks that image with vigor. At a campaign fundraiser and forum with author Alice Walker and a number of community activists, Kucinich said, the ABCs of democracy mean not allowing ABC TV to pick the next president.
The event, packed with hundreds of supporters, was as holistic as the candidate, with a wine and cheese buffet, candlelit tables and masseurs working in the foyer. Kucinich himself quotes scripture -- the prophet Isaiah on vision and Jesus on poverty -- like policy papers.
"It's about a movement towards human unity," Kucinich said, "People saying 'We want to elect the president.'"
His touchy-feely oratory contrasts sharply to the harsher Howard Dean, the leading populist Democratic candidate, who Kucinich supporters describe as "centrist" -- and not in a complimentary manner.
"A lot of us haven't campaigned since Kennedy," said Jennifer Reese, a Far Northern California coordinator who'd brought five others from Mt. Shasta to meet Kucinich at the nighttime event at the Unitarian Universalist Church.
Reese said many in her circles are switching from the Green Party to Democrat to support Kucinich.
Kucinich, the oldest of seven children of a truck driver and a housewife, is now having to work to differentiate himself from Dean, who the media terms as liberal but many leftist activists reject. He said he knows about working class issues and the pain of war, because that's the life he's lived.
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Far Northern California For Kucinich
Posted by: jonah | January 5, 2004 12:47 PM
FAR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FOR KUCINICH
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Posted by: jonah | January 15, 2004 12:13 PM