[2269] in peace2
Re: Anti-War speech from Potential Presidential Candidate
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (it is his custom to be helpless)
Mon Feb 24 09:40:33 2003
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:34:48 -0500 (EST)
From: it is his custom to be helpless <krevice@sub-zero.mit.edu>
To: laurita@mit.edu
cc: peace-announce@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <1045434069.3e500ed564135@webmail.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0302240932550.20226-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
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is kucinich better than howard dean?
i am pretty excited about dean and questionable on kucinich
http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml
---
02.18.03
HOWARD DEAN'S WORST NIGHTMARE: Today's quickie Washington
Post profile of Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich, the
latest addition to the Democratic presidential field,
fingers Dick Gephardt as the first-tier candidate who
stands to lose the most from a Kucinich campaign--because
of both men's strong ties to labor. But given the way labor
has been acting lately, it's not at all clear that that's
right. After all, labor has made no secret of the fact that
a major--if not the major--factor behind who it decides to
support is which of the Democratic candidates has the best
shot at winning. Among other things, this attitude seems to
have motivated public employees union chief Gerald
McEntee's recent praise for John Kerry (though McEntee was
quick to emphasize that his comments were not an
endorsement). And in an early January New York Times
article, former AFL-CIO political director Steve Rosenthal
basically cited this as the reason labor was having doubts
about Gephardt, it's longtime client. As Rosenthal told the
Times, "People will be saying, 'We love Dick, but can he
win?' ... He's really got to prove over the next several
months that he's got a strategy that can move him to the
White House. Nobody should assume that Gephardt will get
the endorsement--that's a very, very tough, uphill fight."
Now if a mainstream pol like Gephardt has to struggle to
prove to labor that he can win, it's hard to believe
Kucinich stands much of a chance--or poses much of a threat
to the candidates in the running for labor support.
The real loser in all of this has to be Howard Dean. As the
Post also points out, Kucinich will be making the very same
anti-Iraq case to Iowa activists that Dean has been making
for months--only without Dean's tortured qualification
about supporting war if there were convincing evidence that
Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, or whatever Dean is
saying these days. And Kucinich also steps on Dean's
unconventional-liberal schtick. Dean supporters spend a lot
of time playing up their man's fiscal conservatism and his
opposition to gun control. Kucinich, it turns out, opposes
abortion and has voted for a constitutional amendment to
ban flag-burning. The more you think about it, the more it
seems like Dennis Kucinich leaves Howard Dean without a
constituency.
UPDATE: It turns out Kucinich actually renounced--er,
"expanded"--his earlier position on abortion in Iowa
yesterday, having apparently concluded that a progressive
campaign that alienates abortion rights activists won't, in
the end, make much progress. What's interesting about
Kucinich's "expansion" is that it's ... well, totally
incoherent. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
Kucinich argued that his change of heart came about because
the narrow cast of the abortion debate in Congress leaves
little room for addressing "the needs of poor families"
(the Plain-Dealer's words). According to one Iowa activist
who heard Kucinich speak and later paraphrased his
explanation for the paper, "He said it very clearly that it
is hypocritical for those who say they are for life, if
they are not willing to support the baby after it comes out
of the womb."
Maybe we're missing something, but what does this have to
do with Kucinich's position on abortion? Or, to put it
another way, since when is being anti-abortion incompatible
with deploring hypocrisy in general, and with favoring
greater support for newborn babies and struggling families
in particular? Clearly Kucinich could have stuck to his old
position on abortion while making the same critique of the
abortion debate in Congress. This isn't an "expansion" of
an earlier position. It's a non sequitur.
posted 4:00 p.m.
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On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 laurita@MIT.EDU wrote:
>
>
> A man committed to peace announced today he's organizing an exploratory
> commitee for the presidential elections of 2004. This might sound premature to
> you, but personally, I'm already looking forward to having Bush and his
> bloodthirsty hounds elected out of office. I believe the best time to begin
> making sure he won't get re-elected is now, as he plots out the best way to
> ignore our anti-war protests. If we begin calling the name of the peace-loving
> man who will confront him in the 2004 elections, we may bring Bush closer to
> the reality that while he may ignore us once, we'll never give him the chance
> to ignore us again.
>
> Following are three links --the most important link being the 3rd link. The
> first one is CNN relaying the news he plans to run for office (the news were
> published today), the second is an article he wrote against the war, and the
> third one is the best anti-war speech you'll ever hear from a presidential
> candidate (he gave this speech on november 2002).
>
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/15/kucinich.president.ap/index.html
>
> http://www.progressive.org/nov02/kuc1102.html
>
> http://www.draftkucinich.com/ -- You have to scroll down and click where
> it says "A Prayer for America - RealPlayer Video" underneath the
> section: "Watch and Listen to Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich." He starts the
> speech singing and with some general remarks. Stick with it or jump to the
> middle to hear the best speech against the war and against violating civil
> rights you'll ever hear from a presidential candidate.
>
> If you like what you hear, please send the link to the speech to all the peace-
> supporting people that you know (and even those that don't). ;)
>
> Sincerely,
> Laura.
>
>
>
