Story of the Week -- Jan. 21-25

A pair of loyal readers have birthdays today, and I think that deserves special mention here in The Full Circle, so Happy Birthday Mom! and Happy Birthday Sam!

Somebody Listened!
Last week I wrote out a laundry list of things that I felt needed to stop. And you know what? Somebody listened!

Yes, it happened, Congressman Dennis Kucinich has stopped running for president. But that's not the best part. The best part is WHY this disillusioned little man stopped running for president.

He has to run for congress. And by run, I don't mean make a few commercials, put up a few signs, win by 80 percent of the vote the way many incumbent congressmen run. No, Dennis Kucinich has to start RUNNING for congress in the Ohio 10th congressional district right now, or he won't have a chance to wipe the floor with the Republican party's feeble excuse for a challenger.

That's because he has not one, not two, not three, not four....oh yes, it is four...FOUR Cleveland-area democrats challenging Mr. Kucinich for the nomination to be the Democratic candidate for the seat he's held in congress for 12 years. And that may be more embarassing than his two presidential campaigns.

Let's meet the challengers, shall we?

Joe Cimperman appears to be the most likely alternative to Kucinich. He's a Cleveland city councilman who campaigned on behalf of Kucinich in 2006 when Kucinich promised him that he wouldn't run for president again. When Kucinich broke that promise, Cimperman broke his, and is portraying himself as a candidate with local interests in mind. He says "my money comes from Cleveland, not from California."

Rosemary Palmer also campainged for Kucinich in 2006, but now says: "I entered this race in June because I did not feel he was focused on the job, nor able to effect the change we so desperately need. On issues of job creation, health care, the environment, and the Iraq war, Mr. Kucinich often talks a good game but seldom delivers," she said in a prepared statement.
Palmer has been a newspaper editor, an ESL specialist, and now an anti-war activist who lost a son in Iraq in 2005.

Thomas O'Grady is the mayor of North Olmstead, OH. He doesn't have a problem with Kucinich, but he too is hoping he'll turn his attention back to the Ohio 10th. He entered the race to ensure the anti-Kucinich vote wouldn't be split among 2 people, causing Kucinich to win. He doesn't seem to have much conviction of his own, though.

Barbara Ferris says about Kucinich "He was unable to achieve anything running for president; he was unable to achieve in 11 years in Congress," Ferris ran against Kucinich in 2006 and was clobbered. She's a former Peace Corps and UN worker.

Here's the fun of this race: this district is blue as can be, so it's likely whomever wins the nomination will win the seat. So there probably wasn't any pressure from the Democratic party for Kucinich to stop with the presidential nonsense and get his butt back to Ohio. Dennis Kucinich is fighting for the one thing he has left in terms of a political career, and yet he still kept up the presidential campaign beyond when he originally said he would. Instead of focusing on his endangered congressional seat, he fought to get into debates with Clinton, Obama and Edwards in Nevada and Michigan, and he kept campaigning. Then he announced he was quitting the day before a primary.

Good timing dummy. If (god forbid) I lived in Cleveland, I'd definitely vote for one of the other guys.