Gore Vidal *loves* Kucinich, is grateful to Dean for anti-Iraq war focus

[Loren645]

I just got back from seeing Gore Vidal speak and answer
questions in Seattle (thrill of a lifetime!), and thought
Kucinich and Dean supporters would be interested in what he
had to say. (He didn't mention any other candidate...Dem anyway.
He talked at length about Bush. :) Among his lines, comparing
the founding father George Washington to George W. disproves evolution; Vidal is now a creationist.)

He mentioned Kucinich almost first thing; called him "my candidate."
And he mentioned him often and at length, clearly thinks he's a
truly great man. A genuine leader of the working people.
(For those who have jobs...) I can't remember all he said on DK,
but I rarely hear Vidal praise anyone like that; GV is pretty
acerbic.

And in that vien...
(Stay with me Dean supporters; it gets better.)
One of his tart one liners, that he used multiple times,
was to refer to Dr. Dean and Mr. Hyde. He was clearly pretty
amused with this line.

Then he said that we should all be very grateful to Dean for
relentlessly focusing on the utter disgrace of attacking Iraq
for no reason. He said that if Dean hadn't been hammering on
this for so long, it wouldn't be as big an issue as it is in
the campaign.

Again, Vidal doesn't toss around praise very liberally (pun intended).

[eridani]

1. Wanted to go, but had to work late

Was their question and answer? Will he come right out and endorse?

[Loren645]

2. Sorry you missed it. He was awesome.

It was about 2/3 Q&A. 1/3 semi prepared material in
sort of interview format with another man as interviewer.
He wasn't asked specifically if he'd endorse, but he referred
to Kucinich as "my candidate," and gushed about him at length.

There's a good column of his (is there any other kind?) from Jan 18 at
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=482276
where he talks about the "election" and Clark, Dean, Kucinich:

"Since the US media are controlled by that corporate America which provides us with political candidates, an informed electorate is not possible. What the media do well is not analyse, or even inform, but personalise a series of evil enemies, who accumulate weapons of mass destruction (as we constantly do) to annihilate us in the night out of sheer meanness.
...
First, a vast, spontaneous anti-war movement has been holding huge rallies (mostly unreported by the media)...I am writing a few days before the first Democratic primary. Although Governor Howard Dean had a strong lead for many weeks (if Murdoch TV is to be trusted), he is currently tied with the Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Representative Dick Gephardt, each running as anti-war candidates (despite the fact that they both voted to give Bush wartime powers, leaving Dean the most immaculate of the anti-imperial candidates).
...
General Wesley Clark is viewed by some as a potential General Boulanger. But whatever he is or will be, he too is on record as saying that the war in Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place. He is rising in the polls, despite having no discernible gift for American-style politics, as well as attracting numerous hate pieces about him in the press - the work often of jealous, lazy generals.

Perhaps the election after next - should we survive this one - will have as its subject the necessity of a new constitution, obviously a dangerous but inevitable notion. That is when the most eloquent of the presidential candidates this year, Dennis Kucinich, will come into his own. He is already shaping up as a leader of an as-yet-unborn progressive alliance. Naturally, he is branded a leftist, the word used for any thoughtful conservative. Actually, we have never had a left or even a conscious right. We divide between up and down. The downs may now be on the rise."


Of course Vidal is pretty damn disgusted with our one party system,
as are many of us. Is pretty disgusted with Dems in general.
Thinks we need to return to a two party system:
The Imperial Party and the Anti-Imperial Party.

Also thinks we need to reclaim terms like "liberal," but he
uses "progressive." He also used "retro-regressive." :)
He's funnier than any comedian I've ever seen.
And no one has more truthful insights than The Great Man.

[Bhaisahab]

3. any sensitive person

would back kucinich. realists will never do so, and that's why kucinich may not win the nomination. sucks.