Kucinich: Voters need "a second opinion" on Dean

Let me ask you a question that's not about issues, because certainly part of what makes Americans vote for president is their sense of the person running. Those of you who run for president, it's an exhausting, exhausting process, and I salute you for it. My question is, When is the last time that you had a genuine day off? And how did you spend it?

Thanksgiving.

And how did you spend it?

I spent it with friends at Thanksgiving dinner just, you know, spent some time walking on a beach and had a great Thanksgiving dinner and it was just fantastic. I enjoyed it immensely.

And I have to ask you, how's the search for the future first lady coming?

[Chuckles] Well, you have to remember the context of this, Mark. I was asked a question, as were all the candidates: What would be the role of a first lady, or first mate, in your administration? And I said, "Look, I'm not married, I can only fantasize about this, but I'd want a woman who is passionate about healthcare and working for peace and a full-employment economy." And then I said, "So if you're out there, call me." And I heard from a lot of women.

How would the first lady function in a Kucinich administration?

[She] would be a partner, someone who is an advisor.

In a way that, for example, Hillary Clinton was during the Clinton years, that kind of a partner?

I think that Hillary Clinton and, you know, there have been other first ladies that have been very close to their husbands. The young lady who actually won the contest, we got together for breakfast the other day. And she really is emblematic of women all over this country who are serious about public policy and want a president to take their interest in these issues in a serious way, and I do.

A number of women I talked to, preparing this broadcast, were concerned about you because of your position on abortion. In the past you were pro-life. Since then you've come around to being pro-choice. Can you explain a little bit about that?

I've had a journey on this issue, and it's not the kind of issue that you can just [snaps his fingers] flip like that. This has been a product of many years of discussion with women in my life and with women in Congress. The [U.S.] Supreme Court made a ruling in a Nebraska case [involving late term abortion], Sternberg vs. Carhardt, which said that the legislative body in Nebraska had failed to take into account a women's health, and that it did not meet their test of Roe vs. Wade [because] it imposed an undue burden on a woman. The Congress of the United States [then] brought that identical bill back, and that was a moment for me.

I looked at it and I said, "They're not even concerned about a woman's health?" I mean, after the Supreme Court has stated this is something that you must consider, it was just like swept aside. So then for the first time in my career, I voted present on an issue that I had consistently voted in favor of. And that signaled a shift. Then women in the Congress and in my life started to talk to me some more and say this is not simply a matter of privacy, which it is, it's not simply a matter of choice, which it is, it's a matter of whether a woman is going to have true equality in society. So I can sit here and say that since that moment I have consistently supported a woman's right to choose.

This is before I became a candidate for president. And because of my journey on this, I may be the only presidential candidate who's in a position to balance what is a very difficult issue for our American community. And to try to get away from the judgment and the condemnation that has so afflicted consideration of this issue. And to create circumstances where abortions are less necessary but by affirming a woman's essential equality by protecting Roe vs. Wade. As president, I will ask anyone who wants to be appointed to the Supreme Court to commit to protecting Roe vs. Wade, so we don't go back into this very difficult national debate which could serve to undermine not only a woman's right to choose but her equality.

Education is another big issue. You've talked about giving -- and I'm sure many parents around the country will love to hear this -- free college tuition. How?

Right now, there are about 12 million people going to public colleges and universities in this country. The average cost is between $5,000 and $6,000 a year. You extrapolate that and you have between $60 and $72 billion a year that would have to be set aside [to provide] tuition-free education at public colleges and universities. So the question would be, where could that money come from? I want to see the tax breaks that went to people in the top bracket canceled, and put that money right into a fund for universal college education, tuition-free.

There's another area here, too. The Pentagon budget has been expanding very rapidly. One doesn't look too much at the spending policies inside the Pentagon, but actually that's my job. I'm the ranking member on a [congressional] sub-committee that has jurisdiction over national security, and we've held hearings on spending practices in the Pentagon. We know, for example, that the Pentagon has over a trillion dollars in accounts it cannot reconcile.

They've lost a trillion dollars through bookkeeping errors?

They can't track it down. They have over a thousand accounting systems. They can't track it down, and so we don't know. What we do know, though, is that this missile system they want to put up has been fraught with fraud. We shouldn't be spending money on it. So I'll set that system aside. I'll set aside the building of new nuclear weapons. We have so many weapon systems right now that are being developed when we haven't even used the previous generation. There's a tremendous amount of waste. I believe a 15 percent reduction in the Pentagon budget can be achieved without any adverse impact on our national security whatsoever.

Will they find the trillion dollars then?

Well, you know what, we'll find a way to straighten out the books. I mean, this is a nightmare for the taxpayers as well as for fiscal management.

Caller question [from Betty Overhoff, World Affairs Council, Danville, Calif.]: My question is about North Korea. Do you view it as a possible threat to the United States, and if you do, how will you handle this problem?

When President Bush declared North Korea part of the "axis of evil," and then he proceeded to attack Iraq without any justification, he created a North Korea [that is] a problem for the United States. As president of the United States, I would meet with the North Korean leaders and assure them that we have no intention of attacking their county. I would ask them to give up any of their ambitions for any kind of nuclear power. I would ask them to understand that as president I intend to lead the way, to live by the tenets of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls for all the nuclear nations to get rid of their weapons and for the non-nuclear nations not to develop weapons.

One last question. As a reporter overseas, foreigners often tell me, "You Americans, when you elect your president, you're not just electing the president of the United States. You're in effect electing the president of the world." How would you live up to that responsibility?

I will bring to the presidency a holistic worldview, a view of a world as one. My presidency will be one which will reach out to embrace the fullness and the diversity of the world, to let people know that America is ready to participate as a nation among nations, not a nation above nations. I think we can be about the beginning of a new era of peace in the world. And I'm ready and I'm up to that challenge.

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