THE FIGHT KUCINICH CAN PICK. Over at The Nation, John Nichols drops a dime for Dennis Kucinich, who is attempting to build on the 70 delegates he managed to pick off in 2004 and take another shot at the White House. The Cleveland congressman's announcement would have invited potshots regardless, but his timing is especially awkward, stuck as it is on the high-rising heels of Barack Obama's weekend blitz on New Hampshire. Indeed, Kucinich's anti-war appeal in 2004, though sincere, was in large part overshadowed by the extra-Beltway rhetoric and populist fire of Howard Dean. This time around the challenge is much the same: Obama, like both Kucinich and Dean, opposed the Iraq war from the get-go, and his star is burning bright enough at the moment to have kept Russ Feingold bolted to his committee seats. To the extent Kucinich is going to distinguish himself and his candidacy on this issue, it will be, as Nichols points out, by forcing a debate on the question of funding for the war.
--Jim Cavan
