http://www.dmregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/22801776.htmlKucinich said working people like those he knows in Cleveland are doing most of the dying in Iraq - a war he strongly opposed. In making an issue of the war and the possibility of a renewed draft, Kucinich said people who hear his message "are going to find out that they have one candidate who gets it and who challenges this whole rotten system that put us there."
He also challenges the system of world trade, saying he'd pull out of NAFTA and the WTO and return to bilateral trade relationships. An America-first position on trade, however, doesn't carry over to other international relations in which Kucinich stressed the need for cooperation. "We cannot secure this nation going it alone," he said. He ticked off virtually every international treaty - including nuclear non-proliferation, the biological weapons convention, the chemical weapons convention, the small-arms treaty, the land-mine treaty, the international criminal court and the climate-change treaty - saying he'd sign them all. "I believe that we already are in a new world," he said. "America has to participate in it."
Challenging the system was a recurring theme of his remarks, and he mocked Democratic rivals who, in "a kind of warped pragmatism," won't challenge the private-sector control of health care. As if addressing the other candidates, Kucinich asked, "You want to be president of the United States, and say, "Well, you know, we have to face it - we can't really challenge this industry"? Oh, really? And what else can't you challenge? Can't challenge the energy monopolies? Can't challenge the military-industrial complex? What other challenges can't you take on, Mr. President?
"It's always instructive when I see candidates who look at the
practicalities of Washington and what we can and cannot do. I started in politics a long time ago, and I know that if you appeal to people you
can change things."