My soft spot for My soft spot for Dennis Kucinich has significantly hardened since he said he'd name Ron Paul his vice president, but this is unnecessarily harsh: The Des Moines Register has barred the lefty candidate from participating in tomorrow afternoon's final debate before the Iowa caucus. Why? Kucinich's Iowa campaign manager works out of his own home in Dubuque, instead of a rented office. Kucinich is wacky. But he's also the only candidate in the race to have voted against the Iraq war authorization in 2002 -- when it counted. He represents (though not as credibly as he could) a real and significant portion of the Democratic electorate: those who were against the war from the beginning, who support single payer health care, who steadfastly oppose the death penalty, and who believe our criminal justice system is discriminatory and broken. Most Democrats who hold those views won't be voting for Kucinich, but that doesn't meant they don't appreciate his voice being part of the debates. You know, especially if he can clamp down on the UFO chatter. The Register's own poll shows Kucinich tied with Chris Dodd, who will be debating, at 1 percent support from likely caucus-goers. Dodd moved his family to Iowa to campaign, enrolling his daughter in a local school. That's a pander. But Kucinich, who has a native Iowan running his state campaign, can't debate? That's a foul. --Dana Goldstein
