Waking Up America in Under Six Minutes

Dennis Kucinich was to 2008 what Barack Obama was to 2004 (unpronounceable name and all), in my opinion if not the country's. Then again, note during his speech how fired up the Convention hall becomes (three, count 'em, three ovations), and note the tambourine that joins in around minute four:



Incredulity runs across people's faces, perhaps as it always does when someone is just flinging himself out there, mad gestures, enthusiasm, and all (earnestness tends to make people nervous). Kucinich, perhaps best known as a vegan, UFO-spotter, and husband to a lovely woman 31-years his junior, has long supported sensible policies that, in our backward (political) world, further contribute to his craziness. But in the words of Chess:

Molokov: The man is utterly mad...a lunatic.
The Russian: That's the problem. He's a brilliant lunatic and you can't tell which way he'll jump - like his game he's impossible to analyse...you can't dissect him, predict him. Which of course means he's not a lunatic at all.

The cadences of Kucinich's speech made me think of another lunatic. In 1982, Kucinich reported $38 on his tax returns. "America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956." Kucinich advocates creating a Cabinet-level Department of Peace. "America when will we end the human war?" Kucinich calls on the U.S. to lead global nuclear disarmament. "Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb." Kucinich sees UFOs. "I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations." Kucinich would withdraw the U.S. from the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement, largely to protect American jobs. "Everybody was angelic and sentimental about the workers it was all so sincere." Kucinich is a Roman Catholic (though he became publicly pro-choice in 2003). "My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I'm a Catholic." Kucinich believes that "all life on our Earth {is} sacred." "Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch." Kucinich is true to what he believes in, popularity be damned. "I refuse to give up my obsession."

"It occurs to me that I am America. I am talking to myself again."