Reply #15: I like Kucinich... he has good ideas, but he is an idea man. [View All]

[TLM]

He is not one who I think would be able to get elected in the first place, and if by some perfect storm chance in hell he did win, he'd not be able to enact most of his ideas and goals.


That is exactly what I really like about Dean is that he's the kind of guy who can figure out a way to get stuff done, he's a passionate realist, not an ineffectual idealist. He can get things done, and frankly pragmatic progress is much more important to me than idealistic failure.

I got a chance to talk with Joe Conason the other night about this and he said something that I thought was really spot on... the right has spent 20-30 years inching this government to the right, like some giant boulder. The idea that someone can simply pick that thing up and in one election take it back to where it was is foolish. We as dems have to start inching that boulder back.

Kucinich is trying to pick the boulder up and carry it back to the left... Dean is trying to get tons of people to all push back to start that boulder moving back to the left. That’s the difference between idealism and pragmatism... Kucinich's methods, I fear would result in a lot of strain and a lot of noise, but no real movement or change. Whereas Dean's methods would make less noise and would make for much less of a show, but I think it would set that boulder in motion and lay the groundwork to keep moving it over time, even more effectively than the republicans have.

The key to moving anything heavy is to reduce resistance. Dean reduces resistance via his pragmatic moderate approach. Kucinich creates resistance by trying to be so absolute and so far left of most folks.


I like that Kucinich is in the race because he gives voice to things that the others can't really say. Kucinich and Sharpton are like the drunk uncles at the family reunion who are pissing everybody off because they're telling the truth and letting family secrets slip.

But I wouldn’t want DK as president… not just because I think he’d be ineffectual, and divisive, but because he’s also too religious for me. I do not like super religious folks leading the country… I’m just personally not comfortable with that.

But I would like to see him in some roll where he can present his ideas and policy to the Whitehouse and the public effectively because he does have some great ideas.