I don't disagree with you at all, pC. but come general election time, our viable options are assuredly going to be limited to one of the major candidates. A baby step in the right direction is better than no step at all, or even worse, a step in the absolute opposite direction.

The voices of those 'minor' candidates matter. They definitely influence the thinking of the general public over time. Planting seeds. Shoving as hard as they can to move our thinking as a society, a quarter of an inch at a time, down a path with more real potential for the the greater good.

I think the voting public is out ahead of all the politicians on national health care. The voice of candidates like Kucinich deserves credit for that. Such candidates serve as 'consciousness raisers.' Change in a big country like ours is always incremental. It would happen at an even slower rate without such voices.