Another week, another Democratic candidate who trails Hillary by a light year throwing a fit for attention. Last week, former Sen. John Edwards (D-Your Wallet) promised to give free health care, education and ice cream to every American, legal or not. You've got to admire Fluffy's pluck, despite Hillary's huge lead and the demise of the Soviet Union, he still thinks he can become President and bring back Big Socialism. As Elizabeth no doubt says to him every time he heads to the salon, "You go, Girl!"
This week's "Daddy I want an Oompa Loompa and I want him now!" fit comes from our favorite live-action Hobbit, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-The Shire). There's more distance between Kucinich and Hillary in the polls than there is between Bill and Hillary in bed. He also trails Joe Biden and Bill Richardson. I swear, they're both running for president. Real Clear Politics doesn't even put him on the chart they use to track poll averages. Good news: he consistently runs a solid third place among voters in his own home.
Clearly, Kucinich is in need of doing something to get noticed. Nothing gets things going in a campaign like a good battle cry. But a battle needs an enemy. Who did Denny pick? Al Qaeda? No. Iran? Uh-uh. Oh wait, I know, greenhouse gases! Nope. Denny stomped his furry little Hobbit feet and decided that Dick Cheney needed to be impeached.
It's this kind of frivolous politicking that makes it hard to take Denny seriously about anything. His supporters, such as they are, don't help. Most of the modern day Democratic power structure is made up of hippies who eventually found their ways into a shower, then college. The Kucinich Fringe seems to be made up of the ones who chose to remain stoned and earthy. Every time I see a car with a Kucinich sticker on it the thing looks as if it could be used in the background of a period movie about Woodstock.
Kucinich seriously believes that trying to take down a sitting Vice-President is good for the country and his campaign. After all, removing Cheney will keep us from bombing Iran, right? Actually, removing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would do more towards that end than removing Dick Cheney. While trying to be outlandish so he can be noticed, Hobbit Boy is still toeing the Democratic party line that our only real enemies are to be found in the G.O.P.
That's why he's irrelevant. It should be why the entire crop of Democratic hopefuls this year is irrelevant. It's like the terrorists have put some sort of spell on the Democrats that make them incapable of recognizing an enemy outside our borders. Until they get a leader who opens his or her eyes after this spell wears off we need to vote and make sure that none of them get to play with the grown-up stuff.
Cross posted at Grizzly Groundswell
|