Rep. Dennis Kucinich Thows His Support Behind Sen. John Edwards for Iowa Caucus

MSNBC Live ^ | January 19, 2004 | Lester Holt

[smoke filled room]

Rep. Kucinich of Ohio just said on MSNBC that if he hears from the early estimates this afternoon that he is not getting 15% that he will throw his Iowa support to US Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.

He did not comment about if he was dropping out of the race or not.

[Shermy]

Could be factional.

McAuliffe/Clinton/DNC is for Clark. (McGovern I can't figure out.)

Anti-McAuliffe/Clinton are for Dean (Gore, Bradley)

Kerry seems to have some senior senators and the State Department.

Edwards seems to be an outsider to these factional alliances, as is Kucinich.

[dead]

Who else would the squirrels vote for? Dennis was the only candidate that a squirrel could beat up.

[Bikers4Bush]

No clue, anyone who would have supported Dennis is certainly more politically aligned with DementedDean than with Edwards.

[NeoCaveman]

Albert is hanging in there, as the others start to fall by the wayside. Atta boy Al, make 'em come across with a beeeg check.

We are going to slap the donkey in South Carolina.

[Bikers4Bush]

The squirrel takes offense, he prefers to be called rabid.

[twigs]

I can only think that Dean has done something that has really ticked Kucinich off, so he gives the last in the four-way pack a chance to pass Dean. I've been hearing that the press plane gives reporters a chance to see the candidate they are following up close. The ones with Dean are realizing that they do not really like him. I could imagine that his fellow Dems probably dislike him more than their other competitors as well.

[Pappy Smear]

This doesn't say it all. They actually worked a trade of caucus attenders. If in a precinct, your guy doesn't get 15% of the people there, you need to align yourself with someone else.

So Edwards encouraged his supporters to go to Kucinich if he doesn't have 15%, and verse visa. This is a win for Edwards. Rarely will he be short of the 15%, but if he is, he won't be giving bodies to his top competitors. And he gets the onesy twosies from Kucinich. So they won't be going to his big time competitors. It might make the difference if it is tight, as it appears it will be.

[Paul8148]

He does have some strongholds that can come in about 10% of the vote for him.

[weegee]

[finnman69]

It looks like Kucinich is trying to play a kingmaker here by way of a last minute endorsement

King of the turd brains that is.

[AuH2ORepublican]

If Kucinich supporters follow instructions and throw their support to Edwards, it could really help him (and hurt Dean). If Kucinich is at 2% in the polls, it means that like 5% of caucusgoers will be Kucinich supporters (those freaks will walk through 10 feet of snow barefoot just to spout off about the evils of eating meat and how Saddam was misunderstood), and it could be the difference between 4th and 1st in Iowa for Edwards. More to the point, since Kucinich supporters would be below 15% in just about every precinct, most would have been expected to vote for Dean or go home when they cannot reach "viability" (15%). So assuming Kucinich supporters are loyal to the man and not to nuttiness in general, Howard Dean is not a happy camper about now. Still, I think most Kucinich supporters care more about radical liberalism than what the candidate instructs them to do (besides, if they were good at following directions they probably wouldn't be Kucinich supporters in the first place), so I would guess that way less than half of Kucinich voters will vote for Edwards.

[smoke filled room]

So Edwards could win outright with as little as 3-4%?

[hershey]

Is our boy, Dennis, looking for a job in an Edwards' administration?

[WOSG]

That's a cute idea, but we couldnt invent let alone find a nation kooky enough to take Kucinich and his supporters. I think even Cuba would cramp their 'far out' style.

Maybe we could let Berkeley CA secede from the union and go from there.

[nuffsenuff]

He must have been looking at the photo op proofs of him and his wife in Iowa.

He's thinking: "If that's my First Lady, we're doomed."

[smoke filled room]

I think Dennis is looking to be the guy responsible for lauching Edwards in a Jimmy Carter replay to New Hapshire with momentum VIA Iowa.

[Quilla]

I don't care what Time Magazine says, I'm predicting a Dean meltdown - mentally.

;-)

[Bikers4Bush]

Have you ever seen the movie The Dead Zone?

I predict Deans meltdown to go something like that.