The Observation Deck

Dennis Menaced?
Is Kucinich in trouble?
9:53 AM, Oct 18, 2010 • By WILLIAM KRISTOLSingle Page

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained the results of a private poll conducted last night in Ohio-10, the Cleveland-area district held for seven terms by Democrat Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich has been widely viewed as safe—even though he fell short of 60 percent of the vote in 2008, and the district has a Cook PVI of only Dem +8.


The poll (based on a small but respectable 319 person sample, with a margin of error of 5.6 percent, weighted to eliminate gender bias) shows Kucinich ahead of his opponent, Peter Corrigan, by only 4 percent. The profile of undecided voters suggests they may break for Corrigan by about 3-2. And Corrigan's 4 percent deficit turns into a 4 percent Corrigan lead when voters are given information on Kucinich's ties to corrupt local Democratic leaders, and on Kucinich's support for illegal immigration. These are signs that undecided voters could be pushed to go Corrigan’s way. Furthermore, Corrigan is running even with Kucinich among those who've already requested their absentee ballot, as early voting has already started in Ohio.

Corrigan is up on radio, but not on TV. He is doing direct mail to 150,000 households with persuadable voters. He has little cash on hand—but so does Kucinich (Kucinich had $88K to Corrigan's $35K at the end of the last filing period, and Kucinich outraised Corrigan in the 3rd quarter by only $30K).

Could be an interesting race for people to consider last minute contributions to—or even IE expenditures, perhaps focused on national security, where Kucinich’s militant hostility to American victory abroad, and to supporting the troops, is probably at odds with his blue-collar constituents.

Jerry Ritcey wrote:Kristol's an idiot. "private" poll, hmm, can't put stock in that.

Bill Call wrote:

Jerry Ritcey wrote:Kristol's an idiot. "private" poll, hmm, can't put stock in that.

I don't know about that. But I do know that Peter Corrigan is a solid candidate.

If our State is to compete, if our city is to prosper, if we are to reverse the decline and renew the region we need a congressmen who understands the world economy. Denis Kucinich is not that candidate.

During his meeting Mr. Corrigan touched on the subject of 99 weeks of unemployment pay.
He wasn't all that concerned about the extension but conceded that some on unemployment may tend to look a little less hard if they know they have an extra year of unemployment checks.

However, he was critical of the means used to fund the extension, a tax on the foreign earnings of American corporations if that income is repatriated to the United States.

$1 trillion in money earned by American corporations will not be invested in the United States. If they did invest it here it would be subject to a 35% tax. Most European countries do not tax that income.
That puts American companies and a big disadvantage.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:
Bill

I think Dennis might be right of Corrigan and you.

WELL at least he was trying to stop this from allowing businesses to drift overseas.

Well at least he understands that just telling people to work does not work if there are no jobs!

During the boom years of this country, millionaires were taxed at 95%. Those were the golden boom
years, that have been eroded since Reagan.

Time to tighten up this country and make things right. Not sure the Rs and Ds are up to it, but Congressman
Kucinich is one of the few that have been on the right side of every issue you and I agree on. Why get rid of
him because he has had to deal with Rs in power that never listened or cared, and now are stopping everything
including his inquiry into the war in mid-east, predatory lending, unfair credit practices, off shores corps,
and every other thing that has gone wrong.

Bill this is not a game, we need to fix things NOW, not play more partisan BS games.

You are too smart to play this game.

.

Dave Mechenbier wrote:So Jim, just when were those golden boom years? I’d suggest they were long gone well before Reagan took office. I think the country has been gliding downward since the early seventies.

So let us know what period you are referring to?

Either Kucinich needs a better PR machine to tout his accomplishments or he is truly ineffective. I don’t give a damn if he’s right or wrong if he CAN’T even get his own party to back his investigations, inquiries or legislative ideas. Yes, I know it is only one vote, but he’s not getting mine

ryan costa wrote:Nobody wants to get too loud about saying Bush bullshitted america into invading Iraq: they know Fox News would simply deflect that criticism against "the troops".

Nobody wants to get too loud about saying Bush bullshitted america into invading Iraq: they know Fox News would simply deflect that criticism against "the troops".

Microsoft agrees to sell software to China for Pennies on the dollar: that is microsofts right.

Paul Schrimpf wrote:I love ya, Jim, but this is unadorned bullcrap. I've spent the last dozen years working in agriculture media, and I have no idea what any of what you just said means. Corn Boles? What the hell is a corn bole? A cotton plant makes a "boll", thus the pest "Boll Weevil." There are corn earworms and rootworms, which biotech Bt crops help control ... is that what you mean? I try to explain to my contacts in agriculture what I am up against here in the city, but this surpasses anything I've relayed to them thus far.

In early research there was exploration of many genes, including one from a fish. That reasearch came and went years ago. The sterile seed producing terminator gene was discovered and dismissed years ago because of outcry from farmers, the public, and regulators.

FDA and EPA do monitor this stuff. We need strength in both. Farmers desire the credibility that good regulation provide. What idiot would shut these down?

If Dennis really wants to create meaningful change, he should be pushing for funding for traceability technology so that we can track food all the way back from table to field in a matter of hours and days, not weeks when food scares occur.