Reply #61: Kucinich is the candidate that most closely represents my views

[IndianaGreen]

I plead guilty to being among those being concerned, but not obsessed, with electability (a rather subjective topic). I was a McGovern supporter, in fact, I had the honor to meet George McGovern in person a couple of years before he ran for President.

Nay-sayers denigrate the McGovern campaign as being "too liberal" for America. I think that is an extreme oversimplification. In many respects, McGovern is a lot closer to Wes Clark and John Kerry than he is to Kucinich (or Dean for that matter). McGovern was a bona fide war hero. A highly decorated bombardier who distinguished himself with valor. It was his war record that made McGovern question war, yet McGovern was far from being a pacifist.

How did Nixon, who spend the war years playing poker at a Navy yard stateside (in NY I believe), be perceived as stronger on defense than McGovern? I don't know the answer to that question, but I am sure that even if the Democrats were to nominate Clark in 2004, that he would get cast in a similar light as McGovern was by a media that is nothing more than the mouthpiece of the Establishment. Clark may not be portrayed as a pacifist, but we may hear again the uncorroborated stories about his lack of "integrity" making the rounds. We might even see troops saying on TV that Clark was a bad soldier.

As McGovern in 1972, a war hero Democratic candidate will be shown to the public as being unstable, untrustworthy, or as a pacifist radical.

Don't count on the media being on our side in 2004. As Jello Biafra once said, we must become the media!