Kucinich
The other day, Kam mentioned Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, "who leads opposition to the war in Iraq within the House," according to his official Congressional web page. He's a Democrat from Ohio, and he's running for President in 2004.
Nobody much seems to be taking him seriously. A Washington Post article takes what I read as a sort of indulgently patronizing tone, but I admit that I have a hard time imagining this guy getting the nomination, much less becoming President. And anyone who agrees with him politically is probably a lot more aware of "former Vermont governor Howard Dean, the antiwar Democrat who has drawn widespread attention recently." Still, Kucinich is one of the few mainstream politicians I've encountered whose views (what I've seen of them) are anywhere remotely in the same ballpark as mine:
He envisions a world, not so far away, when "war is not seen as inevitable ... but as a failure of diplomacy."
..."Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction," Kucinich says. "Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Hopelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. No health care is a weapon of mass destruction."
Yeah, okay, he's talking in sound bites. But as sound bites go, those aren't bad—he practically sounds like one of them whacko Greens or something. And the fact that he's a Representative makes clear that he's not completely unelectable. I'm not ready to go work for his campaign or anything, or even to become a Democrat, but I'm certainly intrigued.
I do wonder where he was when Barbara Lee was the sole Congressperson to oppose the blank-check-to-GWB resolution, though. I could probably find out with some judicious Googling, but I need to go read subs and then go to sleep.
