Are we Mythologizing Dennis Kucinich?

I love this man. He's an honorable, brilliant, forthcoming, and moral candidate. But he's not superhuman. And he's not going to win the nomination.

The generous grandeur that some posters assign to this man seems an unreasonable burden, not just on him, but a leap of faith as to how much he can accomplish given the current disastrous state of the United States.

I'm no stranger to mythology, since I suppose I have mythologized Gore as the man who could save the world.

Kucinich has a role to play in our country's tragedy and rehabilitation, but have you ever considered the possibility that he is totally ill equipped to deal with the day to day burdens of being the President? My personal feeling, which is just an opinion, is that he's not assertive enough or certain enough of his own abilities to do daily battle with the Congress and Senate.

I'm just voting for him.

It would be silly not to since I agree with him on most of the issues.

K+R

Whatever he accomplishes in his race for the WH, he's keeping the focus on moving our country forward, fixing its problems and speaking out for those who don't hold the levers of power.

We need him out there, speaking truth and forcing our leaders and candidates to pay attention to the issues they would rather ignore.

To me, that is his great contribution. He is present. He knows what is going on. He is going to keep some of the other candidates honest, or at least more honest than they otherwise might be.

That is how I view Biden as well.

They definitely serve an important purpose; in fact, not important but CRUCIAL.

trying to decide how to vote in the primary. I want to reward courage like that demonstrated by Kucinich and Biden, but I have doubts about how much the front runners pay attention to the messages of a vote like that.

but I'm probably going to vote for Dennis. I don't see people doing what you claim you might be doing. Who are the others?

He gives me hope and he inspires me but I was ready to jump ship over Ron Paul after supporting DK for years. That is just liking a particular candidate and what they stand for. I agree that sometimes all voters get too involved, it happens with all candidates. Of course he can do it. Shit, GWB is getting a massive agenda done with the majority supposedly against him, granted only for the last year but many of them were still going along with most of his crap even before last year.

I think it's very important to vote the way you want to vote.

I'm not trying to convince anyone not to vote for DK. There's a large probability that I may still vote for Biden, for the same reason many people will vote for Dennis. I struggle with this conflict every day: whether to throw my vote to Edwards or Obama or vote for my unlikely candidates.

I respect that right, and anyone who chooses to vote for a candidate who is unlikely to win.

People are capable of great things, and he has a wife who believes in him. I am sure that does wonders.

I've been feeling very out of place here because I'm not all starry-eyed about Kucinich. It's true that he's the most liberal of the lot, but I've always thought he was too absolutist and inflexible to be in charge. He's too convinced of the rightness of his ideas to ever engage in the messy compromises that are sometimes necessary to at least move *toward* a goal instead of standing still with a "my way or the highway" attitude. Don't get me wrong, we need absolutists to stand up and try to hold the line, or we'll get run over... but as part of the mix, not the one in charge.

I've seen people call Hillary the "George Bush of the left" but, IMHO, her flaw is the opposite... she's TOO willing to compromise, rather than not willing enough. If anybody deserves the appellation "George Bush of the left" (and none of them do, imho, I'm just saying if anybody does), it's Kucinich.

Great guy, great ideas, but not suitable for the Presidency, IMHO.

(hmm, maybe "recall" isn't the best word) what he was like as mayor of Cleveland.

I think he's on the right side of a lot of issues, but I agree that he's too absolutist and inflexible. He's like a liberal version of George Bush...absolutely, completely convinced he is right, everyone else is wrong, and damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. And that much conviction is not a good thing, even from an anti-Bush. A leader needs both deep conviction AND the ability to persuade others to consider his views, AND the humility to be able to listen to others and their side of things, in order to get things accomplished. Kucinich has the first, but I am not at all convinced he has the second or the third.

There are other reasons to doubt him, also. Some of his constituents would tell you he spends so much time campaiging he doesn't pay attention to their concerns. For me, he's become a bit too Congressman Moonbeam-y, a little too spacey New Agey. I tend to mistrust people like that. I admit it's a bit superficial, but to me it's not that different from thinking Tom Cruise is weird because he's a Scientologist.

I'm not at all convinced he could use his deep convictions to actually accomplish anything. He had a hell of a time trying in Cleveland...he was given to namecalling his political enemies and railing about how they were "against the people" and he was "for the people," rather than trying to figure out how to try to work with the powers that be and stop polarizing them against him to the point where he became an antagonizer.

I know a whole lot of people on DU are enraptured with Kucinich because he seems to share all their political opinions and (come on, let's admit it) they think he's got to be some superhuman man to have persuaded a gorgeous 20something English redhead with a tongue stud to marry him at practically first sight. But he's not. When I look at him, part of me still sees the "boy mayor" of 1978, who saved the public utility, but threw the city into default in the process and turned my home area into a laughingstock. And I guess I can never quite forgive him for that.

but haven't given him much consideration this cycle. I've been mildly uncomfortable with him and I think you explained why.

Digging in one's heels makes it hard to move forward.

.. because even though I agree with his politics I've never for even a second thought that he has even a 0.01% chance of ever being president.

Not gonna happen.

yeah, he's a mythological super-being alright...

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