Kucinich makes case to enthused crowds
Originally published in the Dayton Daily News
Kucinich makes case to enthused crowds
He's in nomination race to end, he says
By Jim Bebbington
Dayton Daily News
Thursday, February 19, 2004
DAYTON -- U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich vowed to stay in the campaign for president until next summer's Democratic convention and told Dayton-area voters Wednesday he is the only realistic opponent to Republican President Bush.
Kucinich, a four-term congressman and former Cleveland mayor, is only slightly daunted by having finished no higher than a distant third in the 16 Democratic primaries and caucuses held so far. To have some leverage during the convention, he said he must win "a block of delegates" March 2, when Ohio, California and eight other states hold primaries and caucuses.
"Is Kucinich electable?" he asked his audience. "I am if you vote for me."
Kucinich made his case here Wednesday, first addressing a packed house of students and supporters at the University of Dayton, then later in Yellow Springs, before a highly appreciative crowd of nearly 200 at the Epic Book Store, and finally at an assembly at Yellow Springs High School.
"I was inspired," said Sarah Szumnarski, a senior at Wright State University, who attended the UD event. She was among an overflow crowd that crammed a small auditorium to hear Kucinich answer questions for about 45 minutes, and then complimented him with standing ovation.
Not everyone was as enthusiastic.
"He's not going to get elected," said Andrea Anderson, 21, of Dayton. "Bush has created a dynasty. (Kucinich) has a lot of good ideas but he didn't say how he's going to fund anything." [ed. note: actually, Kucinich has set out clearly how he plans to pay for his plans; perhaps Anderson missed that part]
Kucinich positioned himself as a clear, stark choice for voters leery of Bush administration policies.
He said he would pull U.S. troops out of Iraq within 90 days of taking office, transferring peacekeeping duties to the United Nations. He would work for a single-payer, national health system. He would create a Department of Peace. He would direct the U.S. to work through the U.N. and international groups to rebuild a common bond among nations that he said has been frayed by the Bush administration's unilateral decision to go to war in Iraq.
But, he also would pull the U.S. out of the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The trade agreements produce a "race to the bottom," in which firms are forced to move jobs to countries where workers earn the lowest wages and with the worst working conditions, Kucinich said. "The WTO is what creates the super-highway for jobs out of this country," he said. "It's not an academic issue. What we're talking about is intra-corporate transfers. That's the way the system is set up and no one gets it."
Kucinich said the U.S. should craft trade agreements nation-to-nation, insisting on civil, worker and human rights reforms in other countries in return for their having access to our markets.
Kucinich traveled from Yellow Springs to a fund-raiser in Cincinnati on Wednesday night.
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