Well said, Carol. Amazing how refreshing the truth is when set alongside rumor and innuendo, isn't it? Kucinich is offering the kind of health care plan that already exists right now in Canada and in a whole bunch of other western democracies, and it's exactly what the USA needs.

Now here's what's going on.

There are a bunch of well-paid bastards in suits, people whose names we will never know, professional character assassins, who are professionals at hunting up dirt, making up false stories, and spreading rumors....for the highest bidder...their purpose being to destroy the name and reputation of any politician whose name and reputation they are paid to destroy. They naturally are sent after the most progressive politicians, and those whose policies might in some way alter the status quo in America in a way that would threaten the wealthiest and most established interests in the land.

They are also paid to knock off anyone who appears to be a threat that might take away a significant number of votes from whichever political machine or candidate has hired them.

This results in the most corrupt and cynical people in the race doing damage to the least corrupt and cynical people in the race! Why? Because the least corrupt and cynical won't buy the services of those bastards in suits that I mentioned above.

These character assassins will use anything....any scrap of information, no matter how misleading...to destroy someone's candidacy. They will make up anything, any ludicrous story they can come up with. They will misquote and quote out of context. They will misrepresent photographs out of context (and have already tried that one on Obama to try and make him look "unpatriotic" as compared to the other Democratic candidates).

Who pays these people to do what they do? Whoever is being most damaged by the people they are sent after, that's who.

Someone in the Clinton campaign is sending out some of these bastards to go after Obama. I bet it's being done very quietly, and we'll never know who did it.

Someone in the Republican machine is sending out some of these bastards to commit character assassination on Ron Paul, because what he is saying about Iraq and US foreign policy is screwing things up for the other Republicans (and even most of the Democrats).

Someone in the Democratic machine pulled strings to keep Kucinich out of the televised Iowa and New Hampshire debates, because his forthrightness and his policies make the other candidates look feeble in comparison.

It's dirty politics of the dirtiest sort, and I bet it's going to get worse. If Obama seems likely to derail the Clinton machine, these attack dogs in suits are going to be turned loose to destroy him, by any means possible. They will invent things to destroy him with if they can't find anything real...and many people will believe whatever they come up with.

Do you really want this to happen to your election process????

Do not listen to these scumbags. Judge a candidate on what he/she says, does, and stands for RIGHT NOW! Judge them by their platform. Because that's the only thing you really have to go on, frankly. "It's the platform, stupid!" It's not whether the man "looks like Herman Munster", it's the platform, goddammit!

Or would you rather let some muckraker like Karl Rove decide FOR you who should be president of the USA?