The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Last Call for Kucinich
This candidate's "call to conscience" passes the progressive litmus test

by Maureen Turner - March 4, 2004
COURTESY OF DENNIS KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT
More for meds, less for guns: Dennis Kucinich would pay for universal health care by trimming the Pentagon's budget.
One thing was abundantly clear from Dennis Kucinich's appearance at UMass last Wednesday morning: He respects his listeners' intelligence.

There was no warm-up, no audience pandering, when the Ohio congressman and would-be Democratic presidential nominee took the stage at a campaign rally in the Campus Center Auditorium.

Kucinich immediately launched into his fast-paced speech, in short order calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, for U.S. troops to be pulled out of Iraq and replaced by UN peacekeepers, for the nation to restore its damaged international reputation -- and calling George W. Bush a liar for the claims he made in his zeal to send the country to war.

"This administration took us into a war that the U.S. didn't need to get into," Kucinich said. "Iraq had neither the ability nor the intent to attack the U.S. ... This administration led the country into war based on lies and for that reason alone should be kicked out of the White House."

Kucinich has the moral authority to condemn Bush's war record because -- unlike Sen. John Kerry, the front-runner in the Democratic race, and Sen. John Edwards, who's running a distant second -- he voted against giving the president the power to declare war.

That's not the only thing that distinguishes Kucinich from Kerry and Edwards. He advocates gay marriage, the U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, and the abolition of the Patriot Act. He proposes universal, single-payer health care and would cover the cost by trimming the staggering military budget.

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