Kucinich lacks Charisma!

Why we should vote for him anyway.

By: Sidney Gendin,  Leonard Carrier, and Dusty Schoch

(Gindin’s opening piece was featured on a DI sister blog-  Watching Politics;  DI’s In-House Historian and philosopher, Len Carrier contributes his comments here and there. Following Len’s addendum to Gendin’s article, Dusty adds a short endorsement. By the way—All three contributors champion Kucinich as the best Democratic candidate.

Sidney (Gendin) Says:

Always keeping in mind the frailty of human beings and the curious lust for power and glory that obsesses those who seek high political office, Watching Politics nevertheless endorses Dennis Kucinich to be the next president of the United States.

Will Kucinich live up to all his campaign promises? Certainly not. Will he remember most of them? WP thinks he will, and that is about as good a start as we can hope for. Dennis is easily the most liberal of all the Democratic candidates and we think that is a good thing. Dennis is not very charismatic, and that is an unfortunate thing but it is only a superficial failing. What he lacks in charisma he makes up for in solidity, honesty, consistency and forthrightness.

If you share the view of WP then you must support and vote for Dennis Kucinich. The worst thing any voter can do is say to himself, “He can’t win so I must vote for second best, a person who has a chance.” This approach is the heart of self-fulfilling prophecy and there comes a time when those who take it deeply regret doing so.

It is only the past record of each candidate and his potential to serve our country well that should weigh with the voter; he must never allow himself to be swayed by “He has no chance”. In truth, each candidate’s chances are dependent only on the faith his supporters place in him. At WP, we ask you to put your hopes and faith in Dennis Kucinich.

LEN AGREES AND ADDS:

I wish to add my voice to that of Sid Gendin in support of Dennis Kucinich’s candidacy for president. I had the privilege to shake Dennis’s hand when he visited Asheville recently. I told him to keep on doing what he was doing, which is to be the conscience of the Democratic Party and of the American people.

Not only will Dennis end our occupation of Iraq, but he will institute a single-payer health care system for all Americans. His detailed positions can be found on his website.

Democrats, Republicans, and Independents will all benefit from a Kucinich presidency. We should all remember that the only poll that counts is the one that issues from the voting booth on election day.

DUSTY DITTO’S AND ADDS:

Dennis may be “charismatically challenged”, but so have been many of our great leaders. The thing that impresses me most about Kucinich is what I noticed in his most recent debate with Democratic running mates. It was near midway in the debates and both Clinton and Edwards had done skillful jobs of damage control on their original endorsement of Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Hillary mostly avoided her initial hawkish jumping in line with the pre-emptive neo-con warriors hammering the “fact” that she would, when elected, make expeditious moves to bring the troops home “with honor”, yadayadayada.   Edwards pounded the “fact” that he, along with others had been misled by false “intelligence” and touted the fact that he was the first Senator he knew to publicly admit that “I was wrong”.

Dennis finally got the talking stick on another issue and craftily steered his response (about health care) into the general area where his frontrunners (Hillary and Edwards) had done a laudable job of turning their bad mistakes into “lessons” that made them stronger through admitting their mistakes and endeavoring to undo them with confession and remedial action.

Dennis began by noting that “admitting one’s errors is commendable”, especially when one is occupying high office with his profile constantly in the firing line. But—he added—this positive feature overlooks one thing: What the American people need, especially when it comes to war, is a president who “gets it right the first time” (noting that he opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from the get-go…and stuck by his guns of peace).  The audience had reacted to Clinton’s and Edwards’ slick rationalizations with warm applause.  For Dennis K’s righteous (in fact---near-angry) defense of his own consistent (and non-erroneous) track record in the pursuit of peace, the audience cheered more loudly than at any point in the debates.

I shouted bravo at another point in the debates just as loudly. The moderator turned the subject to party solidarity, because the mud slinging between Hillary, Obama and Edwards as front-runners is getting the Party pretty soiled in the public view. So every candidate was asked in turn to respond to the question of whether they would back the Democratic candidate who wins the Democratic Party nomination. Dennis answered near the end.  Every single one from Hillary, Edwards, Biden on down said words to the exact same effect.  Most in fact used either the word “certainly” and/or “absolutely”.  All except Dennis, God love him.  Bringing back memories of the “buck-stops-here” individuality and integrity of Harry Truman, Dennis said—and let’s never forget it—“Yeah, I’ll endorse the Democratic nominee, IF AND ONLY IF HE’S GOT THE INTELLIGENCE AND INTEGRITY TO PUT ASIDE FOREVER OUR CLAIMED RIGHT TO WAGE UNPROVOKED, PREEMPTIVE AND INTERNATIONALLY ILLEGAL WARS AND A DETERMINATION TO KEEP PEACE AND THE EARTH’S ENVIRONMENT AHEAD OF PARTY POLITICS.” (words to that effect; not an exact quote).  The crowd clapped and shouted approval. I screamed it.

Kucinich is most clearly (and in this race uniquely) his own man. So far in the race, he’s also mine.

Dusty
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