Kucinich Dismisses Polling in N.H. Campaign
Originally published in Reuters
Kucinich Dismisses Polling in N.H. Campaign
Sat January 24, 2004 04:14 PM ET
By Ellen Wulfhorst
NASHUA, N.H. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich is registering barely a blip in the polls and scarcely a mention in the media but, he says, he is not the one with problems.
"People in New Hampshire are trailing in health care. They're trailing in jobs. They're trailing in hopes for the future," the Ohio congressman said on Saturday after a campaign stop. "I should worry about trailing in polls?"
The latest polling showed Kucinich, the most liberal of the candidates campaigning for Tuesday's Democratic primary vote, with 2 percent. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry led with 31 percent, while Rev. Al Sharpton, who is not campaigning in the state, came in last with 1 percent.
Like his political rivals crisscrossing the state, Kucinich puts in long days speaking to senior citizens, college students and church groups.
Unlike his rivals with their brightly painted buses, large staffs and crushing media coverage, the pale, slight Kucinich slips quietly in and out of no-frills events in a minivan, an aide at the wheel.
A tiny handful of reporters took notes at his Saturday appearances. A lone television cameraman stopped him afterward only to ask about his low standing in the polls.
Kucinich said he deplored the "horse-race" approach to covering the race to challenge President Bush in November.
"It shows you the vacuousness of journalism today," he said. "It's a very simplistic, vacuous approach which deprives readers of any sense of the gravity of these issues.
"I don't see it so much as my problem as I see it as a problem for a democratic society," he said. "It's really a dumbing down of what elections ought to be about."
Kucinich wants voters to hear his views on the Iraq war, which he calls "an illegal occupation," on education, which he thinks should be fully funded from preschool through college, on defense spending, which he thinks should be slashed, and on trade arrangements like NAFTA and the World Trade Organization that he calls unfair to workers.
Nashua retiree Tom McAndrews, who listened to Kucinich speak at a local college, said he was "impressed" but unconvinced by Kucinich's proposals.
"They used to call that socialism," he said. "It's a little out of control." [ed. note: with all due respect, this person doesn't appear to know much about socialism as an economic system if he thinks that Kucinich's platform represents "socialism". Socialism is about nationalizing the means of production in the economy]
Kucinich also has proposed a Cabinet-level Department of Peace.
"He's the only one who talks about peace and that's what young people need to hear," said supporter Harry Bubbins from New York, who was handing out small cards imprinted with Kucinich's photograph.
"It's a magic Dennis card. It'll get us to the White House," he said to passersby, bidding them "peace and love" as he waved a "Kucinich for President sign.
Subscribe to this blog's feed