Dennis Kucinich and Thursday's Iowa Debate

Dennis Kucinich is first in the online vote taken by The Nation Magazine a few weeks ago, with 35%, nine points above Barack Obama, and 22% points above John Edwards.  (Edwards polled 13% to Hillary Clinton’s 5%.)

In last month’s Democracy for America poll, Kucinich received almost 32% of the 150,000-plus votes cast, more than Edwards and Obama combined. He polled first in 47 states, including both Iowa and New Hampshire.

He polled first in the Progressive Democrats of America online poll of its membership last week, with 41%.  Broken down by states, in that poll he came in first in 46 states, including both Iowa and New Hampshire.  Edwards was second with 26%, topping out in four states, beating Kucinich by one vote in Utah and two votes and the District of Columbia.

And when people go to various sites, non-partisan internet issue sites -- several of them are out there – internetstrawpoll.com/ , dehp.net/candidate/ , Minnesota Public Radio --
where you can list your issues and find out which candidate most closely matches your own ideas and ideals, Dennis Kucinich has consistently come out as the leading candidate, as the candidate whose views are most closely aligned with the vast majority of Americans.  Not second, third, fourth, or fifth.  First.

So why do you only hear that Dennis Kucinich is polling in the single digits in national or statewide polls?  I don’t know.  You tell me.  

I do know the mainstream media does not report it when Kucinich wins these other polls.  They want to foster the idea that he is "unelectable" because they don’t want him and his "radical" ideas to be front and center in the White House:
– like protecting Social Security
– like establishing a Department of Peace,
– like his Works Green Administration plan for energy independence, a revitalized manufacturing base and a sound infrastructure,
– like national health care,
– like competency and accountability,
– like protecting the Constitution,
– like rejecting war as an instrument of foreign policy.

One traditional poll last week said that 55 percent of Iowa voters are undecided in this race.  Fifty-five percent undecided less than a month before the Iowa caucuses. Perhaps it’s that way because the media has yet to focus on the issues of this campaign.

I would love it if Dennis Kucinich suddenly decided to go to Iowa tomorrow (Thursday) and show up at the debate site.  I want him to accept their implied invitation, since he did not have an actual invitation to accept. I’d love to see what the Des Moines Register would do about that.

And here’s what I want you, the voters in Iowa, and across the nation, to do.  

I want you to protest the exclusion of Dennis Kucinich from this debate.  Write letters to the Des Moines Register.  Email them. Give them a call.  Give them a piece of your mind.  Also contact Iowa Public Television, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, C-SPAN 3, who are all televising this debate.

And, even more importantly than this one debate, I want you, Iowa voters, to stand for Dennis Kucinich in your caucuses on Jan. 3.  I want you to send the nation a message that you will not tolerate this manipulation of our political system.

The caucus system is fascinating and complicated.  It’s what my sixth grade math teacher called a "story problem."  You caucus-goers know what I mean.

So, in those caucus rooms, I want you to stand for Dennis Kucinich.  But, if the numbers in that particular room are such that he falls short of a delegate, or a second delegate, stand for "uncommitted."  

I’m asking you to vote Kucinich or to vote uncommitted.  Work to get as many of either as you can.

You see, if, on the second round, you vote for another candidate instead of uncommitted, the impact of the support for Dennis Kucinich disappears.  

The way the caucus system in Iowa works, those people you elect to be uncommitted delegates will get another chance to vote, at the Iowa county caucuses on March 15, after much of the dust has settled in this race.  

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