Reply #33: Kucinich more electable than Dean

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

A good case can be made that Kucinich is more electable than Dean. Kucinich's most "radical left wing" position is his support of gay marriage, not too different than Dean's. His economic policies appeal across the spectrum - as I said, from Buchanan to Perot to Wellstone, the kind of populist economic policies than Kucinich supports is supported by a wide diverse group of people. Dean's centrist, business friendly economic policies are popular in the corporate media, but not among most Americans.

Kucinich has won elections in a district that is probably a whole lot more representative of America than Vermont. Kucinich has federal experience that Dean does not have. Kucinich has appealed aross cultural lines that Dean has not. Perhaps Kucinich is more electable than Dean?

Of course Dean is the one that's likely to win the nomination, and Kucinich is not.

Early on, here and on MoveOn.Org, the refrain I heard from Dean supporters was that he's not that liberal, but moderate enough to be electable. It's obviously not the fault of Dean supporters that Kucinich's campaign didn't grow, but there were PLENTY of Dean supporters that have posted on this site, other sites, and told me personally that they loved Kucinich but wanted to run a "moderate" in the hopes of winning the election.

That kind of attitude meant that the "left" - and I'll include plenty of Dean supporters that I know - compromised a lot of their platform away for the sake of "electability" early on.