Harley Sorenson on Kucinich, Edwards, and Kerry

[GreenPartyVoter]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0223-04.htm

[goodhue]

1. good read

thanks for posting

[Desertrose]

2. Good one...

Published on Monday, February 23, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle
Kerry, Edwards Care More About Polls Than Character
by Harley Sorensen

 <snip>

The polls made 'fraidy cats out of nearly the entire Democratic establishment. Its members decided to follow the leader (Bush), with the result that the voters decided they weren't capable of leadership. They voted the me-too Democrats out of power.

Interestingly, a handful of Democrats had the strength of character to stand up to the president and the polls. One was Paul Wellstone, the senator from Minnesota, who died in a plane crash shortly thereafter.

Another was Dennis Kucinich, the congressman from Ohio, who is running for the Democratic nomination.

Kucinich isn't doing very well. He is suffering the fate usually reserved for third-party candidates. The press has marginalized him almost into oblivion.

You'd think the press would adore him. He has definite ideas. He has a plan to end the war within three months. He has a plan to kick the insurance-company profiteers out of the health-care industry and provide first-rate health care for all Americans.

Kucinich's health-care plan may be why television doesn't like him. If the parasitic insurance-company odds makers were run out of business, they wouldn't be around to advertise on television any more. The television corporations, aggressively in the pursuit of money, would end up making less.

Horrors!

So, squeeze out Kucinich, and get Ted Koppel and Tim Russert to offer rational-sounding explanations for it. They're good at that.

Besides all that, Kucinich, at 5-foot-7, is two inches shorter than the average American male. We can't have that. Everyone knows how important it is for our president to be tall. So, the TV corporations protect us from the short man, making sure he doesn't get any more face time on TV than absolutely necessary. Give a guy like Kucinich too much exposure, and people might start to figure out he makes sense.

So, we on the liberal side are stuck with the hardcore career politicians, who in many ways are no better than George W. Bush.

It's true that no president, Democrat or Republican, could ever match Bush for wrong decision making, but it would be nice to have a liberal or middle-of-the-road president who wouldn't sell out at every tick of the polls.

<snip>

AMEN!

Peace
DR

[diamondsoul]

14. "Everyone knows how important it is for our president to be tall."

Every time I hear that stupidity I wonder just what the hell is on the top shelves in the Oval Office that is so damned important?!

[MaggieSwanson]

3. Well put, Harvey!

:hug: Thanks for posting, GreenPartyVoter.

[redqueen]

4. Thanks for posting this!!!!

God bless sane people everywhere, and the publications that have the courage to share their viewpoints.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Yep. Got to appreciate writers like Sorenson and websites like CD. :)

[Zinfandel]

6. Right on the money, good insight, good simple writing style, right to

the point!

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Welcome to DU, Zinfandel :^)

[revcarol]

8. Why do we forget about character?

"If I don't demonstrate any character, I'm no good for anybody."

Kerry: Bush lied but we gotta keep plundering Iraq.

Edwards: I'm against NAFTA but don't mind giving American jobs to China.

Character, the forgotten virtue. Compared to the hype of electability, it's in the basement.

[Eloriel]

9. OMG-- the headline says it all

Do I even need to READ the rest of it?

[snoochie]

10. Great op-ed

He says it all so well.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. Some will pay most attention to the criticism of Edwards and Kerry,

some will love the praise of Kucinich, which is right on target, but everyone needs to heed the last two paragraphs:

"As a California primary voter, what all this means to me is, although I like Edwards, I'll vote for the man with good ideas and a semblance of character, Dennis Kucinich. And, in the end, I'll vote for the Democrats' choice, no matter who he is. "

"I thought Bush's response to Sept. 11 was appropriate, but not a lot different from what any president would have done, and I greatly admired his defense of Arab Americans after Sept. 11. That was classy. Other than that, I can't think of a single thing the man has done right. So, even a so-so Democrat like Kerry will be preferable to him."

[LWolf]

12. Wow.

As a California primary voter, what all this means to me is, although I like Edwards, I'll vote for the man with good ideas and a semblance of character, Dennis Kucinich. And, in the end, I'll vote for the Democrats' choice, no matter who he is.

Me, too.

[Armstead]

13. Kickity

:kick:

[diamondsoul]

15. Kick n/t