Reply #27: It's a question of popular support.

[MADem]

It's not meant unkindly, but the presidential nominee has to be a "package.' People can complain about that all they want, but that's the way it is.

A lot of people like some of the Gravel/Kucinich ideas, but they don't like the PERSON touting the ideas. Gravel is a crazy-old-man-crank, and Kucinich is an obstreperous elf--amusing at times, with a wife that is too hot to trot to be a first lady (I'm being frank, this is the popular perception) but not a consensus builder and TOO SLIGHT of build for the good Old USA. At least that's how the bulk of America sees them. Again, this is not meant unkindly--it's just blunt, and it is true.

See, people can SAY they like what this one or that one says, but the truth of the matter is that they don't want a loose cannon, they don't want anyone who is too far left or too far right, and they want someone who won't shame us on the international stage (that's a new requirement since the last two stolen elections--we haven't had a president this dumb since Harding--and he could put a sentence together, anyway).

If these candidates had more support, they'd have more cash on hand. But they get the weak and waffly support of the amused, who dabble in the idea of their candidacy, but then, when the curtain closes, these supporters pull the lever for a more mainstream candidate.

They don't achieve critical mass. That's why those guys never get past single digits.