Reply #5: No, there isn't, really. So the question poses itself: are those of us who [View All]

[RichM]

see how great DK's ideas are, willing to take him as he is? How much of his great platform is one willing to trade away to get someone more telegenic?

DK himself has said that of all the candidates, the one that he's friendliest with away from the campaign trail is John Edwards. This seems to me to be no accident, because Edwards is truly an unusually decent guy. It's wrong to characterize him as "just a pretty face with Southern charm." Edwards is charming because he has inner decency, which doubtless is related to his own working-class family roots.

However, on policy, he's not DK. Kucinich is special -- a very unusual person, IMO. He's already taken brave positions that will naturally expose him to charges of being a "lunatic leftist," etc. These charges should really be seen as compliments. They mean: he wants to take troops out of a fraudulent war & illegal occupation, he wants to cut the Pentagon budget, rescind the Bush tax cuts, & spend this money on universal health care & education. THAT is what it means to be a "lunatic leftist."

I say it's time to take the guy with the best ideas -- and to hell with how telegenic he is. It's too bad he doesn't look like JFK, but it's time we all grow up and give primacy to substance.