Candidate's wife speaks at UWC

Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, visited United World College on Thursday night, addressing a small group of roughly 40 people.

Kucinich spoke at length on her husband’s platform, and his electability.

Kucinich’s campaign slogan, “strength through peace,” was a repeated theme. Kucinich said her husband’s slogan turns the current neo-conservative strategy of military domination and imperialism, which she called “peace through strength,” on its head. Kucinich said true peace comes through working with other nations for their mutual good.

Kucinich said her husband is the only candidate advocating a viable plan for ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq, which she said is a war for oil. While other Democratic candidates say they foresee troops in Iraq at least until 2013, Kucinich has authored legislation that would use the existing military budget to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and replace them with an international peacekeeping force, and would also allocate more funds for the rebuilding of Iraq infrastructure.

Kucinich said anti-war activists, rather than carrying signs demanding an end to the war, should carry signs demanding the implementation of her husband’s bill.

She also had a few words about the U.S. healthcare system; comparing the American system with that of her native England, Kucinich described the U.S. system as “barbaric” and as “not a healthcare system, but rather a don’t care system” that kills many Americans each year.

Kucinich said that while some say her husband is unelectable, he has held elected office in various capacities for the last 40 years, showing he can run a campaign and win office.

Kucinich ended her talk with a brief session in which she asked audience members to name the time when they felt proudest of their government, and at what time they had felt proudest of themselves.

At the end, a basket for Kucinich campaign contributions was passed around.