Reports from the campaign trail, December 1
From Melinda Arons:
My Hometown
CLEVELAND, DEC. 1 — Kucinich was in a confident and bubbly mood at events in his hometown of Cleveland Monday, including a fundraiser attended by everyone from the guy who's printed Kucinich's election materials for all of his campaigns to the signature A-team, a group of diehard senior citizens who have been volunteering for Kucinich since he was mayor. At the event, Kucinich spoke from atop a chair and implored the enthusiastic crowd to work toward winning the Ohio primary, not exactly a sure thing for the four-term Congressman. One can tell he enjoys being surrounded by those who have known and supported him throughout his career, despite its many pitfalls. One such friend is John Ryan, the executive secretary of the Cleveland AFL-CIO, who has known Kucinich his entire political life.
Ryan sheds some light on the question almost every non-supporter asks about Kucinich, often with disdain: "Does this guy really think he can win?" To Ryan, the answer became clear on a road trip in Iowa at the very start of the campaign, on which Ryan joined Kucinich to help introduce him to local labor leaders. Ryan got a call that his mother died unexpectedly, and says Kucinich switched off politics entirely to attend to him, telling him a story about his own mother. "He told me his mother had last rites read to her seven times, and in those days you don't get the last rites read until it's really time to go." Suddenly Kucinich's persistence in the face of overwhelming odds against him made sense to Ryan, who went on to cite the unlikely local victories he and Kucinich had fought for over the years, including reopening closed hospitals and steel mills.
But even Ryan admits the odds in this race might be too much to overcome, and speculates that if Kucinich does better than expected he might be able to make a run for the Governor's seat or for Senate, but that if he does as poorly as the polls show, he will not have helped himself for any big future runs.
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