The ground in presidential politics shifted in Carson City, Nevada, on Feb. 21, 2007. That's when Congressman Dennis Kucinich, at a Presidential Candidates Forum, openly ridiculed those presidential aspirants who supported the Iraq War, and declared the current health care debate "one of the biggest frauds that's been put on the American people," and a "fault line" within the Democratic party.
Kucinich's principled stands on those two issues, the Iraq War and national health care, in that sequential forum (where only one candidate was on stage at a time) are the reason, in my opinion, that those other candidates suddenly had "previous engagements" and ducked out of both the April 5 CNN debate and the Fox News/Nevada Democratic Party debate scheduled for next August. They were not prepared to respond to those bold truths, and knew they would be forced to if they found themselves on the same platform with Dennis Kucinich.
The Carson City event was sponsored by the American Federation of State, City, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and was hosted by George Stephanopolous. It was attended by every Democratic presidential aspirant except Barack Obama.
CNN had started tooting its horn in January, proclaiming that network would be hosting the first Presidential debates in New Hampshire the first week in April. But last week the Republican contenders found they had "other engagements." And then last weekend the monied Democratic contenders, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, decided they also had better things to do with their time.
It would seem the candidates with the most money do not want to go anywhere near a level playing field. They will only appear before microphones they've paid for and have full control over. It remains to be seen if they will be showing up in New Hampshire in June, when CNN has rescheduled that debate.
About the same time last week, those same candidates bailed on the debate scheduled in August that had been sponsored by the Nevada Democratic Party and Fox News, declaring they could not support that right-wing network by presenting their cases to its conservative audience. Kucinich would have none of it, and in a press release blamed the Fox cancellation on "manipulation by some candidates who would rather run and hide than defend their records and their positions on the war."
"If you want to be the President of the United States, you can’t be afraid to deal with people with whom you disagree politically," Kucinich said. "No one is further removed from Fox’s political philosophy than I am, but fear should not dictate decisions that affect hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of others around the world who are starving for real leadership. The public deserves honest, open, and fair public debate, and the media have a responsibility to demand that candidates come forward now, before the next war vote in Congress, to explain themselves. I’m prepared to discuss the war, health care, trade, or any other issue anytime, anywhere, with any audience, answering any question from any media. And any candidate who won’t shouldn’t be President of the United States."
If the conservative bias of the programing on Fox News was the sole reason for not attending that venue, I have to ask, why did those other Presidential aspirants likewise duck out of the CNN debate? What did Kucinich say in Carson City that was so damaging?
Well, how's this for an opening remark: "You know, it must be really tough for candidates for President to come before the American people and to claim that they were tricked, deceived, mislead ---by George Bush." (Video here. Or read the transcript here.)
The Ohio Congressman, who voted against the 2002 Iraq War resolution and against every war-funding bill since, took aim directly at Sens. Clinton, Biden and Edwards, all of whom voted for the 2002 resolution, and Obama, who was not in the Senate in 2002, but who has voted to fund the war since his election to that office. Edwards has since apologized for his vote, Clinton has refused to do so, Biden said his vote was a mistake, and Obama claims he has been against the war since the beginning.
"Now think about the consequences when you're tricked, deceived, or mislead by George Bush," Kucinich continued at the AFSCME conference, "because this becomes serious. This becomes very serious, because we have 3,100 of our brave men and women who have died in this war. Tens of thousands injured, some permanently. Over 650,000 innocent Iraqis perished. Hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps trillions, spent on this war.
"When someone wants to be President of the United States, they have to have the clarity of vision and the judgment and to be able to make the right decisions on life and death matters. I organized 125 Democrats -- almost 60 percent of the Democratic Caucus -- against the war in Iraq. And I saw the same information all these other candidates saw. I studied the same reports that they studied. I came to a different conclusion, because everything I saw indicated that there was no proof that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 or had weapons of mass destruction. People are looking for a president who has the ability to do the right thing when it matters the most, and I've demonstrated that," Kucinich concluded.
Then came the discussion of national health care. John Edwards, speaking in the program before Kucinich, had proposed national health INSURANCE, and said anyone who says you don't have to raise taxes to do it is not to be believed.
This is what Dennis Kucinich had to say to Stephanopolous about national health care:
"This health care debate is one of the biggest frauds that's been put on the American people, and I'm going to explain why. George, for two times in a row -- the 2000 Democratic Platform Committee and the 2004 Democratic Platform Committee -- I brought forth a proposal, Medicare for All. It's embodied in the Conyers-Kucinich Bill. [HR 676] It provides for covering everyone. The big difference between what I've been talking about and all the other candidates are talking about is that my plan doesn't provide for a role for for-profit insurance companies, okay?
"This is one of those fault lines in the Democratic Party. Our Party really isn't legit on the issue of health care because, whenever you talk to these candidates, there's always a role for the for-profit insurance companies. Do you know that almost 31 percent of the spending that goes for health care goes for the for-profit system: corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork. The Center for Medicare Studies, today, released a report saying that by 2016 we'll be spending four trillion dollars a year on health care in the United States. Now, if all that money went for care for people, we would have enough to cover everything: for dental care, mental health, vision care, long-term care, prescription drugs. But because a good chunk of that money goes for the for-profit system, we have 46 million Americans without any health insurance whatsoever, we have people losing their homes, spending their life savings, giving up everything they own so somebody can get health care.
"My plan recognizes we're already paying for Medicare for All, a universal plan, a single-payer plan; we're just not getting it. And so what I say is, the American people can have it if they have a president who doesn't have strings attached, a president who can challenge the insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical companies, and that can challenge his own political Party. Because this is really a fight inside the Democratic Party. We're the Party of the people. I believe that; that's why I'm a Democrat. But let me tell you, our Party has been the Party of the insurance people when it's come to health care, and that's going to change when I'm the nominee, because I'm going to campaign all over this country so that everyone is going to have health care."
Those are fighting words, impossible to refute. And next to the vague concepts touted by the other candidates, Kucinich's plans are not only solid, they are embodied in actual bills that are now up for consideration by Congress. His plan to get out of Iraq is HR 1234. The Conyers-Kucinich Health Care plan is HR 676. Check them out.
And don't be led astray by the so-called left-wing bloggers who chastised the Nevada Democratic Party and any candidates who seemed inclined to take up their invitation to appear on Fox News. Those folks are afraid their candidate(s) can't take the heat, or the supposed spin of Fox Network.
I'm with Kucinich on this one -- if candidates can't take the heat dished out by Fox News after a Presidential debate, they don't belong anywhere near the White House kitchen.
