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Posted
Tuesday, January 01, 2008 5:08 PM
| By
Chadwick Matlin
The
Peace Train has pulled into Obama station-temporarily. Dennis Kucinich
has endorsed Barack Obama in the Iowa caucuses, but only if he's declared unviable.
We've been advising fringe-minded
Iowa causcusgoers how to vote if their first-choice is declared unviable at
their caucus meeting. (See advice for Biden
and Richardson
supporters.) But Kucinich's endorsement of Obama seems to go against his
platform. He acknowledged as much in a press release, but said, "Sen. Obama and
I have one thing in common: Change." Issues-wise, here's why Kucinich is
supporting the wrong mainstreamer:
Health care:
Kucinich wants a single-payer, universal health care system. We're talking
tax-funded, government-administered,
mandates-aren't-necessary-because-it's-automatic health care. Kucinich is such
a pinko on health care that Michael Moore endorsed his
plan.
Obama, meanwhile, has a plan
that's been derided by lefties
as being too conservative. Adults aren't even mandated to get health care, so
either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards deserves his health-care focused
constituency. But even Kucinich says
all their plans suck.
Trade:
While Obama says the usual NAFTA-is-a-no-no talk, he voted
for a free trade deal with Peru (as did Clinton). John
Edwards is the only one of the Big Three to come close to jiving with
Kucinich's lefty trade talk.
Iraq (PDF):
Bill Richardson really deserves the support here, but he isn't
guaranteed viability, either. Given that, Kucinich and Obama do share some
similarities on Iraq. They didn't want it to happen in the first place and
they've voted against funding it in the future. So, on the war, Kucinich's
support of Obama seems defensible.
It's important to note that Iowans don't vote for
Dennis Kucinich. He pulled in 1.3 percent of the primary vote in 2004 (some of
his support went to the (relatively) more electable Howard Dean, another
anti-war candidate). The latest Des
Moines Register poll shows he's
pulling in one percent this year, as well. A state that nicknames its residents
the Hawkeyes seems inherently opposed to the Department of Peace.
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