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Just in time for the Democratic National Convention, Dennis Kucinich gets some press in the New York Times, a friendly howdy from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Among the highlights of Deborah Solomon's Q&A:
Solomon: Before you ended your quixotic bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in January and continued on as a congressman from Cleveland, did you believe you could really be president?
Kucinich: No one runs unless they think they can.
Solomon: But you’re a vegan. Do you think America is ready to elect a non-beef-eating president?
Kucinich: I think America is ready for a president with a blood pressure of 90 over 60 who could beat most people half his age in a sprint [Deborah Solomon, "The Wild Card," New York Times, 2008.08.22].
Even my man Dennis can fall into some macho posturing. But it's not macho B.S.: 62 years old, no beer gut, still sporting that slim runner's build... put Dennis and any random sampling of Americans on a track, and he just might come out in the top 3 every time.
Of greater interest is Kucinich's worry that the Bush Administration may use the Georgia-Russia conflict to boost the McCain campaign:
Solomon: Are you saying the Bush administration is likely to declare war soon just to help Republican candidates pick up some votes?
Kucinich: Well, you know, they increased the funding to Georgia a while back for military purposes.
Solomon: You think President Saakashvili of Georgia was encouraged, possibly by the American government, to cry victim?
Kucinich: Look. Saakashvili had an American lobbyist who is now part of the McCain campaign, and I am sure he was given advice. The idea of striking during the Olympics would have to come out of Madison Avenue. We have to be able to see through this. And the one thing I have shown an ability to do is to cut through the b.s.
Kucinich's comments here complemented a discussion I heard on Friday night's BBC world news broadcast. Alexander Nekrassov, Russian investigative journalist, BBC commentator, and former Yeltsin advisor, sees the Bush Administration manufacturing the Georgian conflict to promote U.S. interests and blowing the crisis out of proportion to scare Americans into voting for John McCain to keep them safe in a new Cold War. Stay tuned on that one....
Solomon also notes that Kucinich is speaking to the DNC Tuesday. I don't see his name on the official schedule yet, but he's a superdelegate, so hey, Joe Prostrollo! Get me a Dennis photo!
I will say this for Kucinich.
ReplyDeleteHe had the guts to appear on Fox News and be on Hannity's radio show a number of times. Kucinich was always civil, good-humored, and didn't engage in angry name-calling.
Other rather extreme leftists should follow his example.
About the Georgia thing...I have found it interesting that Wes Clark sounded a lot like McCain when it comes to that. Maybe that's why Clark has no role in the Dem convention (according to the Huffington Post...if you can believe the HuffPost). Big mistake on Obama's part. Clark should have been the VP pick.
Just think about how much better life would be if we would've had Elizabeth Dole as the Republican candidate eight years ago.
ReplyDeleteWe can discuss politics all day about what if's, but we really aren't in control...are we.
To sign the impeachment petition, visit http://kucinich.us. And,to check out the Congressman Dennis Kucinich Action Meet-up of Georgia (you don't need to live in Georgia) visit http://denniskucinich.meetup.com/319/.
ReplyDelete"Solomon: Are you saying the Bush administration is likely to declare war soon just to help Republican candidates pick up some votes?"
ReplyDeleteGibilisco: Not a chance. American involvement in another war would broadly damage the Republicans and reduce McCain's chances in November to nil.
"Solomon: You think President Saakashvili of Georgia was encouraged, possibly by the American government, to cry victim?"
Gibilisco: He might have gotten that idea, yes. The American government might have encouraged him with the notion that it would make Russia look bad.
"Kucinich: Look. Saakashvili had an American lobbyist who is now part of the McCain campaign, and I am sure he was given advice. The idea of striking during the Olympics would have to come out of Madison Avenue. We have to be able to see through this. And the one thing I have shown an ability to do is to cut through the b.s."
Gibilisco: What does striking during the Olympics have to do with Georgia?
"Heidelberger: Alexander Nekrassov, Russian investigative journalist, BBC commentator, and former Yeltsin advisor, sees the Bush Administration manufacturing the Georgian conflict to promote U.S. interests -- "
Gibilisco: Manufacture it? I don't think so.
" -- and blowing the crisis out of proportion to scare Americans into voting for John McCain to keep them safe in a new Cold War."
Gibilisco: That I am willing to believe.
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ReplyDeleteHey, Anon 7:49 -- that sounds like defeatism! Who says we're not in control? I'm gonna keep trying! I hope you will, too!
ReplyDeleteStan: On war timed to the Olympics, my friend Dennis might have been reaching, but I can see how if I were going to manufacture a foreign policy crisis, there might be some marketing benefit to piggybacking on the patriotic sentiment tied to the Olympics.
On blowing the crisis out of proportion, Nekrassov noteed on BBC that there's nothing the U.S. can or will do to alientate Russia, since all the big problems we have to solve (he mentioned climate change and organized crime) require U.S.-Russian cooperation. Plus Russia has a whole heck of a lot of oil. We're not going to go to war (not even Cold) with Russia now any more than we're going to go to war with Saudi Arabia.