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Kucinich - Oh, what a ride!
By Zoe Calder

http://belfast.villagesoup.com/Community/Story.cfm?StoryID=20545

BELFAST (Feb 7, 2004): Oh, what a ride it was as the bus zigzagged down the highway from town to town carrying presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and a large posse of supporters and reporters. People gathered on a sunny Wednesday in January from Orono to Portland screaming his name and stamping cold feet in anticipation of the long-shot Democrat's standing-ovation speeches.

He's no rock star. About as pretty as Abe Lincoln, with his asymmetrical face, black hair and pale skin, he nonetheless inspires extraordinary admiration. Women flutter around him like butterflies about a baobob tree. Men gaze at him intently, like wildebeests waiting for the herdmaster to signal the next direction toward which they will thunder. Young people in nose rings and purple striped butch cuts become dewy eyed like so many Bambis glimpsing a noble father far across the meadow.

Observing Kucinich as the bus rolls along Route 1, one sees a man comfortable with people and with himself. Throughout the trip people swirl around him, but he remains improbably calm, not so much like a sunset, but more on the order of the eye of the hurricane.

With B.C. Cheney, his hulking, black-clothed assistant, discreet yet firm, Kucinich rides the highway attentive to everyone. He leaves no one out, including the bus driver. He is invariably soft-spoken and polite, a slender listener who responds with an uncommon totality to anyone who wishes to speak with him. His answers are given in simple words, without procrastination or embellishment. As he speaks to an individual, so does he speak to a crowd. There is nothing of the bombastic orator about him, nothing phony, nothing devious—another thing he has in common with Abe Lincoln, as many of his supporters are quick to point out.

In Belfast, people listen to him as if he were speaking aloud their thoughts. There is the same atmosphere in Rockland. The general buzz isn't bad in Portland as representatives for other Democratic candidates take their turns at the podium, but the unabashed cheers, grins, and chants of "DENNIS! DENNIS! DENNIS!" as Kucinich walks down the center aisle shoot the mood to a new high.

Hyperbole? Read on. Women are three times as likely to agree with Kucinich's positions than they are with the other candidates. According to a recent study detailed in The Mercury News, "The prized voter of next year's Presidential election could be single women." The article goes on, "Polls show they not only are the most dissatisfied with the country's direction, but they think their concerns about education, jobs and healthcare are routinely ignored." Tending to earn less than $30,000 a year, they are often not courted by the average candidate. Single women look askance at the huge budget for "Star Wars" and trips to Mars.

Kucinich has said, "Women instinctively get what's important in life." Women have returned the compliment by writing over 100 earnest letters to a New Hampshire website put up to find the twice-divorced Kucinich a wife.

Perhaps part of Kucinich's appeal is his boyishness. A woman on the bus said, "There's an innocence about him that's not naive, but wise."

Most of the women who work for the Kucinich campaign echo what Kennebec County coordinator Patty Engdahl of Winthrop says. "Dennis has vision, intelligence and compassion. He's a true leader, always wanting to include all the people rather than the mind set that has a ‘them vs. us' attitude." She adds, "He's authentic."

But men who support Kucinich are every bit as smitten. Paul Cunningham from Portland, who describes himself as a "college graduate house painter," and who drives an old Mercedes powered by vegetable oil, signed on with Kucinich because, "Dennis went into the desert and struggled to find peace inside himself. Now he understands what true peace is. He's incorruptible."

Others, too, have shared that belief, which is why Kucinich's home district in Ohio went from being 54 percent Republican to 73 percent Democrat during the time he has represented it. In fact, when people point out to Kucinich how difficult it might be to beat George W. Bush, he reminds them that he has a solid record of defeating incumbent Republicans.

A local admirer of Kucinich, Kent Price, who is running for the State Legislature in the newly created District 41 which includes Searsport, enthuses, "I was completely blown away when I heard his ‘Prayer For America' speech. I was supposed to give a talk that night, but instead of my prepared speech, I read his."

Kucinich's ‘Prayer For America' speech is one of the most requested items on the Kucinich website and his book by the same name, a collection of his essays, is on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Price is also in agreement with Kucinich's stands on NAFTA, the WTO and the environment. Kucinich has said he will sign the Land Mine Treaty as well as the Kyoto Accords. He is adamant his first act as president will be to withdraw from NAFTA and the WTO "the very first week I'm in office."

Kids have their own take on Kucinich. Ian Engdahl is only 15 but he is "Keen on Kucinich." He took off a day from school to accompany his mother on the Kucinich bus tour and learn a little about history in the making. He intends to give a presentation to his classmates on his experiences. "I wish I could vote," he states fervently. "It makes me kind of mad when older kids who can, don't." Ian is especially interested in Kucinich's promise to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, and makes the complaint common to many that "most politicians are so vague." He nods his head, a look of purest trust on his face. "Dennis is so concise on what he's gonna do."

These are the common themes among young Kucinich supporters: plain speaking, peace, and integrity. Tim Boland, 19, from Sanford, festooned with a faceful of metal, says "My favorite issue is the Department of Peace that Dennis wants to create. He thinks outside the box." Boland also declares of Kucinich, "He says what he thinks and he means what he says. He's not bought off."

Indeed, Kucinich is the only candidate in the race who refuses corporate and special interest money. His campaign is the only grass-roots movement going.

Websites by the hundreds are springing up to support and write about Kucinich, most done by teens and 20-some things. A lot of them refer to him as, "The Kooch," a designation that originated on a well-visited, amusing site from Dallas, Texas, www.thekooch.com. A more serious website can be found at www.kids4kucinich. org.

Songs have even been written about him. Gil Raviv has created a 10-song CD which in cludes the spiffy inquiry, "Got Dennis?" Bonnie Raitt also sings his praises and Willie Nelson recently wrote for Kucinich, "Whatever Happened to Peace On Earth?" One verse goes:

But don't confuse caring for weakness.
You can't put that label on me.
The truth is my weapon of mass protection,
And I believe truth sets you free.

There's another side to Kucinich that is brought up often, if only in hushed tones. It's his spiritual side. Although born a Catholic, he tends to be more "holistic" in his thinking. He has said his politics are grounded in "a spiritual sense of the interconnectedness of the world." He's long on gratitude and short on fear. "I begin every day with a heart full of gratitude," he says. "I don't waste my time with fear."

Kucinich enjoys ridiculing Homeland Security's color- coded warnings, joking, "Orange at Christmas? It gives a ‘white' Christmas a whole new meaning." He continues, "These color codes are all about fear. We are not a fearful people! We used to turn on our televisions or radios to find out the weather report. These days instead of weather, we get a fear report."

He walks his talk. He was the only Congressman to vote against the Patriot Act and in July 2003 joined with two others to offer a bill to withhold funding for "sneak and peek" searches. It passed, making it the first practical rollback of Patriot Act abuses. This was the same year he won the Gandhi Peace Award.

Some background: born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1946, to Frank (a truck driver) and Virginia (a housewife), Kucinich was the oldest of seven children. Poor enough to have to live in their car, every day was a struggle. This experience made him unusually self-reliant (Emerson's essay, "Self-Reliance" is a favorite and frequently quoted from), so much so that at age 17, still in high school, he left his crowded family (with whom he had moved 21 times), got a job and settled into his own apartment. This independence didn't surprise his classmates for at age 14, standing 4'9" and weighing 97 pounds, he insisted on joining his school's football team, and suited up as a third-string quarterback.

People laughed when he told them he would be Mayor of Cleveland and some day President of the United States. However, at age 31 he became the nation's youngest mayor of a major city. The glow didn't last. He refused to sell his city's 70-year old municipally owned electric company to the banks, saying it belonged to the citizens and wasn't his to sell. The banks gave him an ultimatum: sell to private interests or we will not roll over the city's debt. "Dennis the Menace" as some called him, stood firm and the city went into financial default. It was goodbye Kucinich.

Downhearted and exhausted, he left Ohio and ended up in California, then New Mexico. He did indeed go to the desert. After a few years of heat and a great deal of soul-searching, he returned to Ohio a changed man. By then he was hailed as a hero, for his refusal to sell the city's utilities had resulted in a savings to the people of over $220 million. The city council gave him an award "in recognition for his courage and foresight."

He's said often "corporations are on notice that I will put the public interest ahead of corporate greed and power." He has also promised to "roll back Bush's tax cuts for the rich and cut middle and working class taxes by closing some corporate loopholes and tax shelter abuse."

The road to the presidency rounded the curve in February 2002. Kucinich gave a largely unpublished speech which so impressed an audience member that he put it out on the Internet. In short order Kucinich received over 23,000 e-mails urging him to run for president. Then Studs Terkel, the venerable writer and working man's man, wrote an article in "The Nation" suggesting Kucinich as a candidate. That did it. Says Kucinich, "I have this sense of an unarticulated consciousness that exists in this country that has been waiting for representation."

When people point to a poor early showing, Kucinich reminds them both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were written off in January of the year they both won the nomination. He's not a quitter. He believes this is his time and America is ready.

He also reminds people that he is the only candidate who is not a millionaire. In fact, as evidence, he loves to tell audiences he still lives in the house he bought for $22,000 in 1971.

Another bus passenger, Julia Emily Hathaway of Veazie, echoes the evidence, saying, "I feel he's the only candidate for whom working people are not marginal." She continues, "Dennis's promise of a single-payer healthcare means a lot to me. My husband and I can't afford health insurance. We had three children and every one of them were delivered by C-section. My oldest daughter was in middle school before we were able to pay it all off."

All over the country chat room e-mails tell the story. Wrote Laurie to her pals, "I had never heard of this guy, but I looked him up on the web and wow! This is the guy we've all been waiting for!" That's what Dennis Kucinich thinks, too.