To anyone evaluating the reaction of the forum audience, there was no question that Dennis Kucinich was the clear favorite. He received the biggest applauses from the Carson City Audience in the forum held by AFSCME and moderated by George Stephanopoulos. Other candidates received limited applause and most appeared to put the audience to sleep. Kucinich woke up the sleeping audience. Kucinich did not just receive a few thunderous applauses. He received close to a dozen thunderous applauses during his presentation. The audience was riveted and eager to shout out in unison the answer to the reason for war: "oil." The audience also repeatedly shouted out the reason why Kucinich could get through a universal health care plan for the benefit of the people instead of for the profits of the insurance companies: "no strings." Kucinich's presentation skills were similar to what one would expect from Tony Robbins. Even Sam Donaldson commented on ABC about Kucinich's showmanship. Kucinich supporters have been saying that to see him is to love him. The audience reaction to this debate seems to have proven their point.
Joe Biden asked the audience to think about which candidate was most qualified. Later, through applause, the audience clearly showed it believed that Dennis Kucinich was the most qualified of the candidates to be President. This forum was an unqualified win for Dennis Kucinich.
The Creative Youth News Team asked a student audience of viewers to evaluate the performances. Here is how the student viewing audience rated the top performances.
Best Overall Presentation: Dennis Kucinich 2nd Best Presentation: Tom Vilsack
Most Knowledgeable on Issues and Events: Dennis Kucinich
Most Believable: Dennis Kucinich
Best Plan for Iraq Withdrawal: Dennis Kucinich
Best Health Care Plan: Dennis Kucinich
Best Presentation Skills: Dennis Kucinich.
Kucinich provided the most facts in his presentation. He responded the most completely to all questions. Other candidates, except for Mike Gavel, tended to talk in terms of generalizations. Viewers tired of watching candidates explaining away their votes for the war. The forum audience response made it unequivocally clear that those present at the forum considered Kucinich (the sole candidate to vote against the war) more qualified to lead than the candidates who were having to admit that they were tricked by George Bush.
Bill Richardson received the most negative reaction from the students in the group rating the performances. Richardson's attempt to discourage discussion about candidates came across as an attempt to silence the truth about where candidates stood on the issues.
Mike Gavel started off like a college professor on the subject of war. He fizzled out with the audience when he spoke at length about supporting a sales tax. Studies have shown that students, parents and families spend disproportionate amounts of money for their income bracket and are disproportionately taxed under sales taxes.
Kucinich showed tremendous courage at the Democratic forum in openly discussing the influence of big money the Democratic Party, a party that claims to represent the people. They forum audience also applauded agreement with Kucinich's concerns about the takeover of the Democratic Party by insurance companies. Members of the Creative Youth News Team have witnessed first hand a transfer of the Democratic Party from the grass roots to to big business interests and have reported on these problems in prior articles at this site.
Though Kucinich impresses audiences who see him speak, he refuses to take corporate contributions and cannot be bought. Because of this, the corporate-owned news media tries to discount his popularity. His best chance for winning the Democratic nomination is to speak to as many live audiences as possible between now and the primaries. The election of November 7, 2006 proved the voters can overrule the big donors and the news media. If 2008 brings a repeat of 2006, Dennis Kucinich will likely be the next President of the United States.
It's a shame those students can't vote, because Dennis the Menace is polling at 2/10ths of 1 percent. Even Kucinich knows he will need ice skates in Hades before he can pick up more than a dozen delegates. Hey, wait, are those students Democrats? Hey, then they can vote! LOL
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Rev. Jim Sutter (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 9:08:30 PM
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