"Kucinich is, like, The normal laws of physics don't apply to me.'"
Dead Man Running
BY LESSLEY ANDERSON
http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2004-02-25/bayview.html/1/index.html Kucinich has not fared as well as a presidential candidate. The $6.2 million he has raised has been dwarfed by the campaign war chests of John Edwards ($14.4 million) and John Kerry ($28.2 million). Kucinich complains that he's been virtually ignored by the media, although the New York Times recently ran a front-page profile of him. He is not telegenic -- at a doll-like 5-foot-7, he had to stand on a chair at a recent San Francisco rally to give a speech -- nor is he particularly media savvy. (In a debate on National Public Radio, he brought along a pie chart to illustrate a point.) What he is, however, is tenacious -- Kucinich has vowed to stay in the race until the end.
At a time when "electability" and "anyone but Bush" have become Democratic mantras, Kucinich backers maintain they're not throwing their votes away. Rather, they're hoping their candidate will garner enough votes to send delegates to the Democratic convention in July. In that way, they argue, Kucinich's progressive politics could have an impact on the party's platform. Among their key reasons for supporting Kucinich: He says he would immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq if elected president. Unlike Kerry and Edwards, he believes in repealing NAFTA, not just amending it. He also advocates withdrawal from the World Trade Organization. (Indeed, he was the only candidate to take part in the raucous 1999 WTO protests in Seattle.)
"I'd like someone to vote for, rather than just holding my nose and voting for someone else," says Kucinich volunteer Lindasusan Ulrich, a San Francisco technical writer. "This guy's my dream candidate."
Bay Area supporters are also attracted to Kucinich's touchy-feely spiritual side. After losing his re-election bid for mayor of Cleveland in 1979, Kucinich traveled to New Mexico and adopted some Age of Aquarius visions of the universe; today, he peppers his speeches with expressions like "inner knowingness" and "heart connection."