CLEVELAND, OH (Talon News) — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) proudly has boasted being the most “progressive” candidate among the field of Democrat contenders for the White House. Late last week, he began the call to Greens and Nader voters to help his long-shot campaign.
In an open letter published last Thursday in Common Dreams, the online newspaper for progressive politics, Kucinich asked Greens and supporters of Ralph Nader to support his presidential bid.
“We all know we will do better if we work together,” Kucinich wrote in the letter. “Perhaps we can find common ground on issues and principles. I would like to open up that possibility. And I would like to ask that you give serious consideration to my candidacy for President. Because a better world is still possible.”
Kucinich co-chairs the Progressive Caucus and reminded the liberal Greens and Nader supporters that he shares their view on such topics as: opposition to the World Trade Organization, opposition to the war in Iraq, opposition to the Patriot Act, opposition to the death penalty, support for Canadian-style national health care, and support for voting reforms for ex-felons.
“We stand together in demanding that publicly-owned clean water is a human right. We stand together in demanding that the developing world’s debt be forgiven, as if it were still the Jubilee Year; and that we act seriously to build a world in which arms sales decline, hunger declines, poverty declines, and human rights increase,” Kucinich attested.
“We stand together on rejoining the rest of the world, and signing the Kyoto Treaty, the International Criminal Court Treaty, the Land Mines Ban Treaty, and all the rest of the treaties and agreements and working relationships that the current Administration has so cavalierly tossed aside,” the former Cleveland mayor reminded the liberal activists.
Kucinich, who has taken to comparing his long-shot bid to unseat President George W. Bush with Seabiscuit’s underdog Kentucky Derby victory, could use the support. In national polls, he has garnered only limited support among likely Democrat voters. The latest Quinnipiac University Poll conducted between July 17 and 22 placed him dead last among the nine major Democrat candidates, scoring 2 percent of the vote.
Likewise, the most recent Time/CNN Poll also rated him as finishing behind his rivals in the primary horserace. Respondents to the Newsweek Poll placed his presidential bid last among the field. The most recent ABC News/ Washington Post Poll scored his campaign at receiving 2 percent and finishing last.
Kucinich’s campaign is likely hoping the summer recess will allow the candidate time to catch up to the others. Kucinich, unlike the other Democrat presidential hopefuls, only campaigns when Congress is not in session. He will be joined on the summer campaign trail by singers Willie Nelson, Michelle Shocked, and Ani DeFranco.
His campaign developed fliers that supporters were encouraged to distribute outside movie complexes which showed Seabiscuit this past weekend.
The campaign flier states, “During the Great Depression of 1938, a hero emerged in the unlikely form of a small, unknown, crooked-legged horse. Derided by the experts as a long shot with no chance of winning, Seabiscuit went on to victory, inspiring a Nation.”
The flyer continues the Kucinich/Seabiscuit comparison, “Amid these troubled times comes another dark horse, a presidential candidate who the media pundits deride. Some in the media who went along with the dishonest Iraq war resent this candidate because he led opposition to the war in Congress, consistently and effectively — from the beginning.”
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