IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Still wringing your hands over the dispute between the Democratic
National Committee, the early states who played by the rules, and
calendar leapfroggers Florida and Michigan? Have no fear. Dennis
Kucinich is going to solve all our problems. The Cleveland
congressman, whose own 2008 presidential campaign fizzled, has
proposed allocating the Michigan and Florida delegates by the
composite results of three public opinion polls. "Simple, accurate and
cost effective, this solution is nevertheless no substitute for actual
voting," Kucinich wrote in a letter to House colleagues. "But it is
better than any other solution proposed thus far."

Labels: Dennis_Kucinich

A judge in Nevada has just ordered MSNBC to include Rep. Dennis
Kucinich in Tuesday's Democratic Party presidential debate in Las
Vegas or he will cancel the forum. I'm going to risk the wrath here.
First of all, MSNBC should have invited him and shouldn't have then
canceled on him. But even though it's buried in the language of
"breach of contract" law, does anyone else see a First Amendment
problem here? A judge has just ordered a news organization to report
the news a certain way. That's really scary, and is a greater harm
than excluding a marginal candidate from a debate.

Labels: Dennis_Kucinich

Rep. Dennis Kucinich got his name in the paper today, but not for the
reason he might like. After long-shot Republican Alan Keyes was
included in Wednesday's Des Moines Register debate, the newspaper
figured it needed to explain why Kucinich is being excluded from
today's Democratic contest… With just a few weeks to go before the
Jan. 3, 2008, Iowa caucuses, and with the race still too close to
call, we might predict that the gloves will really, really, really
come off in today's dust-up. But then again, that's what we thought
going into Wednesday's Republican debate, which evoked yawns and
groans in the press rooms packed with bloodthirsty campaign reporters.

Labels: Dennis_Kucinich

Just out of curiosity to the folks at the Des Moines Register: Alan
Keyes was a participant in today's Republican debate -- why?! Here's a
link to the Register's standards for the privilege to participate in
their debates, explaining why Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel won't be
participating. But why did Alan Keyes, Tom Tancredo, and Duncan Hunter
get to participate on the Republican side? Did all three have
offices/staff in Iowa by October 1st? Alan Keyes didn't even register
in the October Iowa Poll.

Labels: Dennis_Kucinich, Mike_Gravel

Last night, I attened a Bio-Economy Conference Forum on the campus of
Iowa State University. The event, which was held in Hilton Coliseum,
featured four presidential candidates: Senator John McCain, Senator
Joe Biden, Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Former Senator John Edwards was scheduled to also attend, but at the
last minute, had to bail out. The conference was a multi-day event and
this was, to the best of my knowledge, kind of the cap to it all. I
estimated about 250 attendees and then they allowed the general public
to sit in the seats to hear the speeches. I would estimate somewhere
between 300 and 400 people sat there. Thus, the candidates in
attendance got audiences that certainly surpassed 500 or 600 people.

Labels: Chris_Dodd, Dennis_Kucinich, Joe_Biden, John_McCain

As Ron Paul makes hit counters spin and online polls surge, his
campaign faces a crossroads. Clearly something is in the water. The
influx of small and big L libertarians into the GOP to support Paul
resembles the Greens who backed Dennis Kucinich in 2004. Only this
group is less digestible, and highly unlikely to support any of the
other Republicans. And just as clearly, Paul's libertarian outlook
won't gather a majority in the context of the current GOP. Thus we see
the odd phenomenon of a candidate who is simultaneously a sitting
Republican member of Congress and a former third-party nominee. Ron
Paul was one of the Libertarian's more successful national ticket
leaders, winning half a percent of the vote against Bush Sr. and
Dukakis in 1988. The Libertarian Party has, to date, eschewed the type
of celebrity candidacies that won the Reform Party victory with Jesse
Ventura and the Greens' notoriety with Ralph Nader. They've preferred
to nominate unknown party activists like their current crop of
candidates. But with Paul becoming a famous-for-the-Internet persona,
will the third party give him a second chance? And what would that do
to his seat in Congress?

Labels: Dennis_Kucinich, Ron Paul

The Des Moines Register has a new poll out showing Mitt Romney with a double-digit lead over McCain and Giuliani. Romney has 30%, McCain has 18%, and Rudy has 17%. The recent Zogby poll, I must point out, shows the race a lot closer. Which goes back to what I always say: take every poll you look at with a grain of salt. ... On a side note, take a look (on both polls) at Ron Paul. Notice anything? Yeah, he's not even registering. Even Kucinich, the biggest nutjob on the left in the race, is posting some numbers, so that really says a lot about how much real support Ron Paul has in the real world. ... The only people that are paying attention to Ron Paul are the people on the left…which Sullivan clearly is these days. They think he's the REAL face of conservatism in America when he's not even close. He's nothing but a parody, and a rather bad one at that, of what the left thinks conservatives are and what they believe.

Labels: Dennis_Kucinich, John_McCain, Mitt_Romney, Ron Paul, Rudy_Giuliani

... John Edwards continues to lead in Iowa, Obama and Clinton are basically tied for 2nd. The big news is Bill Richardson's jump to 10% in the poll. Richardson has been running TV ads for awhile now and they are playing well. I hope this Richardson motivation to make a greater effort in Iowa. The people I talk to are interested in Richardson, but want more information on on him. Chris Dodd is not catching on, which is a shame. He has taken some strong progressive positions, including supporting the Feingold-Reid bill last week. He is getting out polled by Kucinich and Gravel who haven't even campaigned here.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Bill_Richardson, Chris_Dodd, Dennis_Kucinich, Hillary_Clinton, John_Edwards, Mike_Gravel

For the full context of the line of questioning for Ohio Congressman/2004 Democratic presidential candidate/2008 Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, refer to this previous post. The condensed version if 2004 Kucinich backer Ed Fallon (the 2006 Democratic candidate for governor) is "doing what Dennis said to do" and backing a more "viable" candidate in 2008. So, when I had a chance to interview Kucinich this morning in the statehouse press room, I opened with Fallon's assertion. Henderson: "I've run into a lot of former Kucinich supporters at Edwards event and in fact, one person who you may know, Ed Fallon, said he was just doing what Dennis said to do, and that's go to a more viable candidate -- referring to deal with Edwards on Caucus..."

Labels: Dennis_Kucinich, John_Edwards