The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Kucinich rallies troops, envisions party of peace

The presidential hopeful tells voters in Portland his continuing candidacy can sway Iraq policy and Kerry's platform

03/27/04
JEFF MAPES

Dennis Kucinich brought his presidential campaign to Oregon on Friday night, telling voters they have a chance to push the Democratic Party toward sharper opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq.

In his speech, Kucinich also called for cuts in Pentagon spending, an end to free-trade policies, universal health coverage and the repeal of the Patriot Act.

Sporting a blue suit and yellow tie that set him apart from the casually dressed audience, Kucinich paced the stage as he tossed out lines alternately provoking laughter, cheers and hisses at targets such as the Republican president.

"We have $10 billion for a missile system that can't pass a test," said Kucinich, referring to the proposed missile-defense program, "and yet we tell our school districts that if the children don't pass tests, they're not going to get funded. . . . Figure it out -- no missile system left behind."

Kucinich argued that the United States spends enough on health care to provide coverage for everyone in the country -- if it adopted a system similar to Canada's in which the government finances medical services. Kucinich said this would strip away the costs now spent in the United States for marketing, corporate profits and other expenses he said take too much away from health care. However, when asked how such a system would be funded, he glancingly answered by saying that businesses that provided health care for their workers would generally pay less.

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