On the Democratic Presidential Candidates: From this Frustrated and Irrational Newcomer

With the always innovative and unpredictable Moveon.org conducting its own online Democratic primary, I stayed up late one night and visited all the sites(Dean, Edwards, Kerry, Graham, Lieberman, Gephardt, Kucinich, Moseley Braun, Sharpton). I’m convinced the candidates are all very nice people from their websites. But what does nice tell me? Not enough. On top of that, after midnight, the platforms began to sound awfully similar, except for Kucinich’s. (Note: questions asked by Moveon to the candidates here).

Being somewhat frustrated and irrational, I found myself searching for articles which may reveal a deeper glimpse of how these individuals work, the processes that they are invoke, and how they understand echo. Why are they doing this work? What gives them their great passion? What was the formative event in their development? As it stands, two articles stood out, with the understanding that the purpose of the articles is to persuade irrational people like me…
Kucinich: In this old Nation article by Studs Terkel, examples of how Mr. Kucinich works are described as well as how he stood up to the political processes in power while a political neophyte. He understood the consequences of his actions (understood his echo). But he also followed his inner sense of guidance, even though it was political suicide. Points for Kucinich.

Dean: On his website, a very informal New York article by Meryl Gordon with a bit of personal information scored points. Likes hiking, camping, skiing. Points. Likes less TV. More points. His house is a mess before the housecleaner gets there. Lots of points. Approved same sex civil unions in Vermont. Points because politically it wasn’t popular yet he followed his inner values. Okay. Sounds good. Biggest unanswered question: I wonder how he will fare when he is under even closer scrutiny in the media.

Edwards: His bio is on a PDF file, causing my computer to crash. I didn’t get to read it. The rest…

I’m still looking for similar articles on the other candidates. I haven’t yet decided, and I haven’t voted yet.