Kucinich Runs...Again.

“I am ready today to be the President of the United States.”

So says Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio). And who wouldn’t be, after 10 years in Congress and two presidential campaigns?

Speaking last Friday as part of the Harvard College Democrats’ Conversations with the Candidates series, Kucinich answered questions ranging from the predictable—Iraq?—to the personal: What will Kucinich do if he fails again to win the Democratic nomination?

“Kucinich [has] more experience so he seems less afraid of taking strong stances,” says James E. Goldschmidt ’09, who attended the event. “Every Democrat running for President has to condemn the war, but they’re all going to do it differently.”

Erika C. Helgen ’08 agrees that Kucinich is unique. “I think Kucinich is particularly interesting because he’s not your normal mainstream candidate,” Helgen says. “He can say what he thinks.”

Kucinich, who called for the abolition of war as an instrument of foreign policy, the repealing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the legalization of marijuana, and other radical political reforms, certainly was not afraid to speak his mind.

“David Baum, the theoretical physicist, talks about the ‘implicate order,’ things that are unseen but have some existence,” said Kucinich in his opening remarks. “We need to call it forth, name it, and send it into motion”. Um, okay.

Perhaps it is this highly theoretical enthusiasm which drew students like Joanna I. Naples-Mitchell ’10 to the event to show their support for Kucinich. “I think Kucinich is kind of an American hero,” she says. Well, sure – he’s even vegan!

Whether the rest of America agrees remains to be seen, but when asked what makes his 2008 campaign different, Kucinich’s answer was simple: “I’m gonna win.” All 2,178 of his MySpace.com friends can’t be wrong!