Never Say Die

Rubber tree plant: The odds are against him, but Dennis Kucinich still tries to move voters.

The pretenders gone, Dennis Kucinich still insists he has a shot.

by Daryl Gale

Call Congressman Dennis Kucinich a flaming liberal and he'll probably just smile. Mention that he's being outspent and outmaneuvered by President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, and he'll shrug it off. Just don't tell him he doesn't have a chance in hell at the Democratic nomination for president.

Nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" because of his penchant for taking on big business and monied interests, Kucinich continues to scramble for the nomination despite holding only 27 convention delegates, 2,350 fewer than Kerry, according to USA Today. Still, his "Fear Ends. Hope Begins" campaign brought him to Philadelphia a week before the Pennsylvania primary.

At this moment, Kucinich is bouncing around in his campaign vehicle as it maneuvers around, and through, the city's famous potholes. He has just completed a speech at Haverford College, where the audience full of underclassmen in Marshall Auditorium was riveted by his singsong cadence and machine-gun attacks on the Bush administration. With a wide spectrum of potential supporters, he's en route to an appearance at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Germantown Avenue near Girard in North Philly.

Unlike the fancy, bunting-festooned private jets, flag-draped limousines and brightly painted tour buses that Bush and Kerry use to crisscross the country, Kucinich's campaign fleet consists of a dented green Subaru wagon and the cramped Dodge minivan in which he's simultaneously giving an interview to a Portland, Ore., radio station by cell phone, flipping though reams of loose papers with his notes scribbled on them, and talking to his driver, a security man and a newspaper reporter. As the minivan lurches and bottoms out with spine-jarring regularity, Kucinich bristles when asked about Kerry's front-runner status.

"That phrase "presumptive nominee' sounds like an affliction," grouses Kucinich, who became the youngest big-city mayor in U.S. history when he was elected at 31 to lead Cleveland in 1977. "Only a fool presumes anything where the outcome is uncertain. Kerry may well end up with the party's nomination, but I don't see that written in stone just yet."

It's not that Kucinich has deluded himself about his underdog status; he just refuses to acknowledge it.

"I am just going to do what I set out to do in this race, which is get my message out to as many people as I can, for as long as I can," he declares.

Kucinich spends a lot of time these days talking about Iraq. Staunchly antiwar, he's equally critical of Bush and Kerry on the issue.

"President Bush is taking this country down a path of fear," he rails. "We've alienated the world community and put thousands of American lives at risk for oil. That's right, this war is all about oil, and someone should have the guts to stand up and say it. I challenge John Kerry to stand up to Bush on Iraq. He should call for the troops to come home, but he's afraid. I'll say what needs to be said, which is the only way for us to achieve success in Iraq is to get out."

On a roll, Kucinich lets loose when asked about the war's connection to terrorism.

"We know that the war on Iraq was planned prior to 9/11," he says. "War creates a redistribution of wealth, and that's precisely what the current administration had in mind. They claim to be saving us from terrorism, but who's going to save us from the people who create terrorism by bombing other countries for their oil? Bush is both the fireman and the arsonist at the same time. He creates terrorism in order to save us from terrorism."

It's time to reawaken the Democratic Party and take it back to its liberal roots, says Kucinich, who claims Democrats have knuckled under to pressure from Republicans on domestic issues.

"We need the government to challenge the terror of unemployment, homelessness and substandard education right here at home," says the energetic congressman from Ohio. "We need to challenge the terror of the Patriot Act, not just accept the erosion of our liberties. True patriots don't give up their rights without a fight."

Asked his impressions of Philadelphia, Kucinich gushes about the birthplace of liberty and the cradle of democracy. A former high school quarterback, he also mentions the fierce loyalty of Philly sports fans. Told the story of how those fans once booed Santa Claus, he laughs uproariously.

"See? I told you," he cackles to his driver. "This is my kind of town!"