The Kucinich campaign has posted 10 clips of the candidate’s very tall and very elegant wife, Elizabeth Kucinich, speaking in Denver at the Mercury Cafe, which has installed solar panels and wind turbines. The cafe also sponsors “bio diesel support groups.” (Insert punchline here.)
Sound Bite: “The only thing that makes Dennis unelectable is an electorate that doesn’t believe in itself.”
In Boston, Dennis Kucinich opens for Ani DiFranco. When this campaign is over, he could have a future replacing Deepak Chopra on PBS fund drives.
Sound bite: “We’re on a path of human evolution to where we can more than we are and better than we are to where we become the people we are waiting for.”
Reminded by his wife, Elizabeth, Dennis Kucinich brags that he has risen to fourth in a poll. He says he will exercise a privilege of the House and force it to vote on impeachment of Dick Cheney. Then he explains Roberts Rules of Order and how voters need to demand not to table his motion.
He takes questions from the crowd in the San Gabriel Valley.
Sound bite: “What are we going to do about Blackwater? Clean it up. This government wants to privatize everything. Privatize the military? That’s a form of fascism.”
“Kucinich TV” has a snazzy new intro — would work for a sitcom once this campaign stuff is over — and a snazzy anchor: Elizabeth Kucinich. But it’s pretty much the same old speech.
It’s a little hard to come off as serious and presidential standing behind a Disneyland sign. But at the start of a speech in California, someone in the crowd urges Dennis Kucinich to “give ‘em hell” and Kucinich proceeds to do his best, attacking the war in Iraq.
He boasts about trying to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. “Impeach Bush,” somebody in the crowd yells out. “I didn’t want to start there, because then we’d end up with Cheney,” Kucinich says. But then he says that when the president starts talking about World War III in relation to Iran, “it means that he would start it” and Kucinich argues that it is time to start talking about impeaching Bush.
In a split-screen interview, Josh Marshall treats Markos Moulitsas Daily Kos as a kingmaker and Kos doesn’t demur. Marshall quotes Kos saying that he wouldn’t issue an endorsement but then Kos goes ahead and hands down his tablets.
True to the netroots m.o., he starts with the negative. Kos has completely eliminated Biden and Kucinich. He’s “skeptical” about Clinton. Cough Cough. He has ruled out Edwards over taking public funds, capping his campaign spending. And that leaves Dodd — whom he voted for in a straw poll because “it was a way to reward his behavior in the Iraq debate” — and Obama. “I like Dodd better,” he says. He says he wants Dodd’s rhetoric in Obama’s body (if he ever said that the other way around, there’d be a firestorm). He says Dodd is running on a platform of restoring the Bill of Rights — “I mean, how much more inspiring can you get?” He acknowledges that “a vote for Chris Dodd would probably be a wasted vote.” Sounds like a tapioca endorsement of Obama. He complains that Obama is playing it safe, “which you only get to do if you’re the frontrunner.” And he’s not. “It’s very uninspiring,” Kos complains. He contrasts it with the Howard Dean campaign, which “empowered people.” Ah, those were the netroots days.
Kos acknowledges that Clinton has “run the perfect race.” Even as other candidates are getting known, she’s still surging in the polls “and that is pretty damned impressive.” He says she is “ruthlessly on-message.”
The Kucinich campaign debuts an update clip in the form of an ersatz newscast with a Stepford Wife anchor. It’s oddly relaxing — kind of like video Ambien.
Sound Bite: “Finally, today October 8th is Dennis’ birthday!”
This is a match meant to be: Dennis Kucinich and Yoko Ono. He records a long and rambling video about Yoko’s Imagine Peace tower she’s dedicating this week in Iceland.
Sound bite: “But first we must imagine peace, confidently and fearlessly. … Let us believe that peace, not war, is inevitable. Imagine. Imagine.”
Makes as much sense on video as it does on a VW bumper.
Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich visit with student supporters at Santa Barbara City College and talk about new technology and grassroots organizing. Kucinich quotes from Alice in Wonderland (always a mistake) and Elizabeth talks about how she met Dennis.
SECOND LIFE DENNIS: As dopey as you would expect. Perhaps dopier. (And where’s virtual Elizabeth?)
Bill Maher’s presence on the Huffpo/Slate/Yahoo debate added in a fresh voice but also lots of awkward moments. The candidates faced a funnyman and they thought they should laugh. So did Charlie Rose. Granted, Maher’s delivery is deadpan, but in some cases, he wasn’t trying to be funny. He asked Clinton about being fooled by George Bush and she guffawed. He asked Obama about religion — asking why there are no commandment against rape and torture but there are against swearing — and he uncomfortably chortled. He asked Kucinich about why he wouldn’t assassinate mass-murderer Osama Bin Laden and it’s Rose who tries to chuckle. Strange.
Kucinich:
Obama:
And here’s John Edwards having a big laugh about cow flatulence. “He’s such a funny guy,” Edwards says.
Then again, some of Maher’s questions bombed like a (take your pick) Iraqi scud or an Al Sharpton monologue. He asks Biden whether sugar, coal dust in the air, or terrorists are likely to kill more Americans. That’s as insipid as a (take your pick) sophomore’s poem or a VW’s bumpersticker.
Dennis Kucinich preaches on immigration, getting more worked up than I’ve seen him on YouTube videos. On top of that, he vows to cancel NAFTA and the WTO but proposes inserting himself into Mexican labor laws. He lost me there.
