What issue makes Kucinich not electable?

[penguin7]

I think Kucinich is electable. Isn't Kucinich mainstream on the Iraq war, health care and Nafta?

[NMDemDist2]

1. sad to say, he's too short

:shrug:

[DemBones DemBones]

38. Did you notice Hillary was standing on a box so as to appear taller?

I backed up my TiVo to make sure that it was what I thought I saw. It was. A little platform the color of the floor or carpet, looked to be 2-3" high. I had been wondering why she looked taller in relation to Obama.

[Robson]

45. Do we really want Karl Rove like shrewdness?

Hillary is shrewd and very smart, and she and her advisors are truly "politicians personified". They rarely say the wrong thing absolutely, when the right thing could be said as absolute fluff. Is that good or bad? My candid opinion is that Americans are becoming disgusted and disallusioned by "politicians personified".

We want real people with real ideas of their own.....not someone who believes they can out maneuver and out shrewd us because of their ties to the media or because they have a "Rove like" advisor.

[abq e streeter]

47. Hurts to agree

because an old undergrad friend (whom I haven't seen in decades) is one of her advisers. But I don't trust her, and pray that she won't be the nominee.

[polichick]

2. Great question!

I've been wondering the same thing ~ what is it really? No corporate sponsorship?

[Totally Committed]

3. He can't be bought.

And he doesn't care who knows it.

TC

[alteredstate]

41. I agree! n/t

[stellanoir]

4. I love Kucinich

Perhaps there are not enough Leprachaun loving Celts in this world.

[LWolf]

5. No issue makes him unelectable.

His lack of corporate support is the key.

The very factor that should make him MOST electable. Go figure.

Of course, there is the shallow contingency who base their vote on inconsequential bullshit like height, too. :shrug:

[CK_John]

6. He did a terrible job as Mayor of Cleveland. n/t

[Nitrogenica]

9. Why?

[polichick]

10. I've heard this from people who lived there...

What did he do as Mayor that people disliked so much?

[LWolf]

31. He put the city in default when he refused to privatize the

city power company.

<snip>

31-year-old Dennis Kucinich became the youngest-ever mayor of a major American city when he was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1977. A feisty liberal Democrat from a blue-collar background, Kucinich soon made waves by refusing to sell the city's municipal electric system to private competitors during a budget crisis, thereby pushing the city into temporary bankruptcy. (Though it was a controversial move at the time, saving the "Muny" has since become a positive cornerstone of Kucinich's image.)

http://www.answers.com/topic/dennis-kucinich

[penguin7]

17. He didn't cave to corporate interests as mayor

The banks pressured Kucinich to sell the city's electric company. The banks then forced the city into default. The negative publicity from the default basically ruined Kucinich's political career.

Kucinich let his integrity stand in the way of his political career.

Kucinich made his political comeback in part because it has now become obvious that refusing to sell the electric company was the correct decision.

[1monster]

46. No. He didn't . The whole "terrible job as mayor" senario rests on the fact

that he refused to be intimidated into selling the city own power plant to a commerically owned power plant.

When Kucinich refused to sell, the bank (which did business with the commercial power plant) threatened to call Cleveland into default on loans that Kucinich had not taken out and which were being paid.

Kucinich didn't fold and the bank put the city into default.

There was actually a contract out on Kucinich because of this issue.

The city being in default caused many problems and you can be sure that the bank and the commercially owned power plant and the mob all laid the blame at Kucinich's feet.

He lost his political career due to this.

Funny thing though, fifteen years later, all of the people who bought power from the commercially owned power company were paying much more for their electricity than those who were buying from the city owned power plant.

The people of Cleveland realized that Kucinich had been more than right and his political career was rebuilt.

Check it out yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z0rk5RoP2U&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20sRFPAbDQw

[Dawgs]

7. Because you can't change all of those things alone - and that's not a compliment.

[Robson]

8. With all due respect Hillary, Kucinich and Paul and Gravel are readily electable.

I don't buy the notion that anyone in the USA is un-electable. The MSM likes to tell us which of the candidates are not electable. The MSM has their own agenda.

[polichick]

11. "The MSM has their own agenda"

That's something we should never forget in watching or reading anything they put out ~ including polls.

[melody]

12. He's not an alpha male

Primates opt for alpha males as leaders.

Hillary might eek by with a lot of help from the GOP being screwed.

[polichick]

16. Probably, but it's too bad...

Just look what a mess all those big apes have gotten us into!

[melody]

50. Of course, but I was giving the reason, not my preference n/t

[polichick]

53. I know...

Just couldn't miss the opportunity to call certain leaders big apes! :)

[TheBaldyMan]

21. you mean like the pampered prince in the Whitehouse?

Dubya is the antithesis of an alpha male, he is the clinical description of a dry drunk.

[polichick]

26. Yeah, but he fooled a lot of people...

...with that faux cowboy swagger!

[TheBaldyMan]

28. he still had to get Daddy's friends to steal it for him n/t

[polichick]

29. True dat! nt

[DemBones DemBones]

42. He didn't fool anybody. The media constantly talked about how

likable Bush was and how "wooden" Gore was. They told outrageous lies about both of them, positive lies for W, negative ones against Al. The media fooled people into voting for Bush.

Check out

http://www.dailyhowler.com

You can go back to the archives of columns from the 2000 campaign and read all the crap they pulled, all the lies they told.

[polichick]

43. Well, I won't argue about the media annointing King George...

But his redneck strut and Bible bluster fooled a bunch of folks too. What a major scam!

[melody]

49. This is for me the best proof that 2000 and 2004 were stolen

W. was not the alpha either time.

[melody]

48. He wasn't the alpha male either time -- Gore and Kerry were.

Kerry was much taller. Gore had much more experience.

Yet more evidence that Bush stole the elections. He is far, far, far from an alpha.

[TheBaldyMan]

51. Truly studly dudes, both of them.

Both are Nam Vets, both accomplished intellectually, both decent family men.

Dubya is a cowardly deserter, dumb as a post and he seems to come from a family of sociopaths.

[melody]

54. And those are some of his nicer qualities lol n/t

[rinsd]

13. Well there are superficial reasons but I'll take this from a campaign perspective. I have 2 reasons

1) He has trouble raising money. This is beyond taking only individual contributions. Its his fudnraisers and his online presense(though his new site look good). Without money, not enough people know who Kucinich is and what he is about.

2) He has an inexperienced campaign staff. The only experience most of his staffers have is from his last campaign. You end up with stupid gaffes like earlier this campaign season when Kucinich ripped Dems for skipping the FoxNews/CBC debate when he skipped several debates with his opponents while running for Congress. Another example would be his website which was a holdover from 2004. Kucinich has a fairly lively audience on the web and the inability to harness that early inthis election has cost him.

[penguin7]

It is still early

[rinsd]

22. Yeah its early but I don't see the situation improving.

Yes they finally unveiled the new website (and it looks good) but Dennis was the 1st one to declare. He should have been mining the web from the start. Kucinich could run a perfect campaign and come in towards the back of the pack. By not running a good campaign, he assures himself of that position.

[Exultant Democracy]

14. fund raising?

[Yael]

15. Reparations

There is no way that will make the general.

On the how-superficial-are-we-all front, he isn't "TV-friendy". Sad to say, but this country has been taught to worship mindless stage actors. Its what sells to Joe Six-Pack and Suzie Dark-Roots out in Middle America who put more emphasis on Brangelina's opinion of the candidates than on the issues they stand for.

I heard today that the biggest complaint for HR 676 (DK's most excellent bill) is that people are afraid that they will be paying into a system that others will use more than they do. ***What? My tax dollars supporting to detox a crack ho!? Oh the horrors***

I just shake my head. My taxes pay for the fire department, which I have never needed, but if my neighbor's house catches ablaze, I will certainly not begrudge them for using MY portion of the resources.

Whatever.

[DemBones DemBones]

44. People are selfish as hell. Once their kids are grown, they

complain about having to pay school taxes when they don't have children in school, forgetting that when their kids were in school, older people without children in school paid school taxes that supported the schools.

The fire department analogy is a good one. Everybody expects help from the fire department, which is socialized fire protection, but balk at the thought of single payer health care, griping that it's socialized medicine.

[RFKJr4PRES]

18. Kucinich is supported by the majority of people

on Iraq, Iran, universal health care, ending NAFTA, repealing the Patriot Act, ending the drug war, Impeachment

The media is lying, creating a manufactured reality that we are supposed to just go along with because they said so.

If you want to help fight it, go to the new site and start connecting with people and taking action. The corporate media can only control us if we let them. They have already lost their credibility and people are searching for the truth on the internet in droves. That is where we come in...

[Stevepol]

19. The thing that will hurt him is the wedge issues. They won't ask him the big questions.

He's got by far the best health care proposals.

He's got by far the best approach to ending the war.

He's got by far the best approach to the economy, getting out of NAFTA and re-invigorating the industrial base in the US which is practically gone now, bringing the jobs back to the US.

He's got the best approach to maintaining peace.

But while I was watching, maybe I missed it, he wasn't asked about these issues where the American people are entirely with him and where he could make progress against the others.

But what questions does he get asked? As soon as there was a YouTube question about gay marriage, the moderator turned to him and he was asked to give his opinion. They ignored him on the other questions. He was honest as usual and gave a good answer, but the American people I'm afraid as a whole aren't at the point of accepting gay marriage as a national policy and won't be for the foreseeable future. This is why the Repubs love this issue. It's a wedge issue that breaks off the supporters of Dems who are really in spirit much closer to the Dems than the Repubs. If DK could have just used a little more diplomacy in the answer he might have deflected it as some of the others would have I suspect. He's just too honest and doesn't have a good ability to bob and weave maybe.

I didn't see the whole debate, but I suspect when questions about abortion or prayer in the schools or evolution in the public school curriculum were ventured, he was the one asked about those questions.

He needs to challenge the moderator a little more. He's just too nice a guy maybe. I'll say this, I'm with him completely and I plan to support him with money and in every way I can until he drops out or loses the nomination, but for now the powers that be do not plan to give him the mike when the truly critical issues come up, the ones that will decide the election, where he is leaps and bounds ahead of every other candidate in the country. They want to stereotype him and marginalize him I'm afraid. He needs to come out swinging against this kind of journalistic crap and demand to be heard on every issue, not just on the ones the others are afraid to handle.

[Yael]

34. Indeed on the selection comment. That is why I mentioned reparations

First Q out of the gate last night was a guy from Boston asking about reparations. Edwards and Obama both said, "No -- we have better plans" (education funding, etc...). Third up was DK who smiled into the mike and basically said, "YES!! I will start cutting checks on day one!"

Why I said that would never make the general. There are very few people in this country that would support that over an Edwards/Obama plan/answer.

[Sherman A1]

39. Agreed and Well Said.

I will support him in the primary and whoever gets the nod for the general

[rainy]

20. Lookism. He doesn't look presidential.

[JANdad]

23. The short answer is:

He is the Polar Opposite of GWB.

The long answer is, most progressives/liberals recognize the need for a compromise and DK is un-compromising. A perfect example is, while mayor of Cleveland, he fired his police chief on live TV. Another example is his insistance on canceling NAFTA his first day in office...do you have ANY idea what this would do to our economy?

I quoted this movie on a similar thread last night, but I think it bears repeating:

"Uncompromising men are easy to admire. He has courage. So does a dog. But, it is exactly the ability to compromise that makes a man noble." - Braveheart

[polichick]

27. Very interesting post and quote...

I think you might have something there!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

24. I think he can win too

the MSM ignores him, that's mainly it.

[CK_John]

25. He doesn't have what Romney has. n/t

[MGKrebs]

30. Inability to organize an effective campaign.

Your question pre-supposes it is an "issue" that keeps him from being electable.
He can be perfect on all issues, but if he can't even organize a staff and a strategy to articulate those positions, how the hell is he going to run the whole government?

[More Than A Feeling]

32. His lack of statewide experience.

[antiimperialist]

33. Sadly, his appearance.

Don't count me among those who vote based on appearance, but there are many dumb Americans who vote based on physical appearance, or whether or not the candidate has been a movie actor in the past.

[EndElectoral]

35. What makes him not electable? The media and your believing them he isn't electable.

[MonkeyFunk]

36. it's not an issue

it's personality and perception.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. &#12288;Everyone thinks that other people won't vote for him

:shrug:

[polichick]

40. That's certainly true, as far as the Dem nom. goes...

I can't count all the people who have told me that Kucinich is the one who says what they want to hear ~ and yet they don't think he can win the nomination. If everyone who agrees with him actually voted for him, he could win among Dems ~ but the GE is another issue.

[Connie_Corleone]

52. It's not the issues. It's him. nt

[tech3149]

55. Reason #1, the MEDIA, reason #2 THE MEDIA, reason #3 THE MEDIA

Beyond that,there is that issue of people who think it's an effing popularity contest and would make a choice without the most vague idea of the principles and policies of the candidates.

[TheFarseer]

56. Ministry of Peace?!?!

I mean, maybe it's not a bad idea, but it sounds too wussy when we're "at war"