Underdog Dennis Kucinich brings his message to area
Originally published in the Springfield News-Sun
Underdog Dennis Kucinich brings his message to area
By JERRY GAULDING, News-Sun Assistant City Editor
YELLOW SPRINGS — "What better place than Yellow Springs to talk about a new message?"
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich made two stops Wednesday in this historic village, bringing his presidential campaign themes of peace and love to a {M6highly appreciative crowd of almost 200 supporters in front of the Epic Book Store and then addressing an assembly at Yellow Springs High School.
He also visited Dayton
The Cleveland Democrat is trying to stir up a big turnout in the March 2 Ohio presidential primary and create an upset that would remake the Democratic nomination landscape.
"Is Kucinich electable?" he asked the crowd at the bookstore. "I am if you vote for me."
The "new message" Kucinich hopes to send is for "a new role for America in the world," an end to the unilateralism of the Bush administration and a return to international cooperation, and to "end the fear" both of terrorism and of the current administration's anti-terror initiatives that he said have eroded Americans' civil liberties.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is now considered the odds-on favorite for the nomination, with Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina his only remaining serious challenger.
Kucinich has polled in the double digits once so far this year, in Maine, when he garnered 16 percent of the vote. In Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, he collected only 3 percent of the vote, with Kerry winning 39 percent and Edwards 34 percent.
The former Cleveland mayor and now-congressman made it clear to his bookstore audience that the Ohio primary is of primary importance, appealing to the crowd to sign up as volunteers.
Later he insisted that Ohio will not be a make-or-break for him.
"I hope to pick up delegates in Ohio," he said, but added that he thinks he can also collect delegates in other states, mentioning California, which also holds its primary March 2, and Texas, which comes up a week later.
"It's a big country. I think I have a chance to get delegates all over the country," he said.
As of Wednesday, CNN.com counted Kucinich as having two delegates pledged to him. Kerry has 608 and Edwards 190. It takes 2,161 to win the nomination.
Kucinich's message is distinct from other Democratic contenders. The only aspirant to vote against the resolution that gave President Bush approval to go to war against Iraq, Kucinich continues to denounce the war and the administration's handling of the aftermath.
The United States should bring in the United Nations and work with other countries to rebuild the country, he said.
He also promises to pull the United States out of the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement and resume a system of bilateral trade agreements with other countries. International trade should be based on workers' rights and guarantees of good wages in all countries.
The WTO and NAFTA allow multinational corporations to conduct a "race to the bottom" in wages, rights and the environment, he said, as companies move jobs out of high-wage countries to developing nations, where wages are low and regulations lax.
He advocates universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care; tuition-free college educations for all students who want them and creation of a Department of Peace that would serve to defuse international conflicts before they become violent.
Asked if he intends to target supporters of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who suspended his campaign Wednesday, Kucinich said, "You might look for something along those lines in a few days."
Subscribe to this blog's feed