Posted by Elizabeth Auster But even after as fine a night as Kucinich had last Tuesday in Chicago, when AFL-CIO members swooned over his promise to withdraw from NAFTA and howled at his jokes ("There was a myth when I was growing up in Cleveland that if you dig a hole deep enough you'll get to China. We're there!"), the bottom line stays the same: There is a limit to how far candidate Kucinich can ever hope to go. Maybe he can climb a few points in the polls. Maybe he can raise a little more money. But when you're below 5 percent in the polls and have a tiny fraction of your rivals' cash, a little doesn't go far. Especially when this is your second run for president, so you can't say people aren't supporting you because they don't yet know you. No, for Kucinich the problem isn't invisibility. On the contrary, the fiery politician who became America's youngest big-city mayor when Clevelanders elected him in 1977 at age 31, proved amply in Chicago that he retains at age 60 the same knack for attracting attention that he had decades ago. But for Kucinich, the sad fact remains: He's no more likely to be promoted from congressman to president in 2008 than he was likely to be promoted decades ago from mayor to governor. Even at his peak moments as a presidential candidate, when he can compete for applause with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Kucinich's prospects are limited by the same problem that prompted Clevelanders to nearly recall him less than a year into his mayoral term. Kucinich, alas, is still known better for provoking than for leading. As mayor, he tangled not only with the city's establishment, but with his own people -- like Richard Hongisto, the police chief he proudly lured from San Francisco and fired three months later -- live on the evening news. In Congress, Kucinich is much better-mannered. But he is known best not for legislating, but for loudly promoting ideas that go nowhere -- whether it's impeaching Dick Cheney, creating a Department of Peace or getting his party to change its stance on Iraq. Fittingly, for a politician better-suited to challenging authority than exercising it, Kucinich chairs a House subcommittee that has the power to hold hearings, but not to pass legislation. U.S. voters may like politicians who bash the establishment, but unfortunately for Kucinich, they invariably elect presidents with records of working with the establishment. If Kucinich ever were to capitalize on a strong debate, he would face another problem. He would lose the free pass he gets as a fringe candidate. Kucinich got plenty of applause the other night, for example, when he made a dig at his rivals who didn't promise, in response to a question from the moderator, to pull out of NAFTA. "You asked a direct question. I think it deserves a direct answer," Kucinich said. "Nobody else on this stage could give a direct answer because they don't intend to scrap NAFTA." Later in the debate, however, Kucinich did exactly what he accused his rivals of doing: He avoided giving a direct answer when the moderator asked what each candidate would do if al-Qaida gained control of Iraq after a U.S. pullout. Kucinich, who has said he aspires to be known someday as a pacifist, simply ignored the question about al-Qaida and restated his opposition to the current war in Iraq. The moderator thanked Kucinich and moved on. Had Clinton or Obama tried that, you can bet they would have gotten a follow-up question. Kucinich doesn't have to worry much that moderators will try to pin him down. Nor does he have to worry that they'll continually pepper him with questions -- like the ones Mitt Romney gets -- about his reversals in recent years on abortion and gay rights. As long as a huge majority of Americans tell pollsters that they have no intention of voting for him, Kucinich can enjoy all the benefits of his underdog status: He can use his considerable rhetorical talents to draw attention, take shots at his rivals and warm the hearts of his fans. And he can do it knowing that no one considers him enough of a threat to bother scrutinizing him.
on August 12, 2007, 3:46 pm
24.165.168.114
For Dennis Kucinich, it doesn't get much better than this: participat ing in a debate with the leading Democratic presidential candidates before a huge crowd of union members who wildly applaud his feisty answers and roar at his one-liners, all before a live audience on MSNBC.
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