The 2008 presidential primaries are here and FAU students are getting excited about the debates scheduled to take place on the Boca campus later this month. Ohio Congressman/democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich has been making waves in the campaigning scene with a strong grassroots effort. I had the opportunity to spend some time with Congressman Kucinich after he spoke at a peace rally at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach on Sept. 8.

Chloe Dolandis: Is there anything you’d particularly like to start with, focusing on college students?

Dennis Kucinich: …First of all we have to end the war, but we have to reject wars…the kind of money that we’re spending on this war could be used to make it possible for every young person in America to go to college tuition free. We’re wasting money on [wars], wars that are based on lies.

C.D.: What about your stand on education?

D.K.: [Education] is a quest to develop skills to know how to search for and gain the truth. I mean, that’s one of the metaphors behind the lamp of knowledge; it is a search for truth, knowledge is seen as a light, knowledge has a luminous quality. We search for the truth. How can we search for the truth if we’re destroying that lamp of knowledge, by not funding education? Instead we put our money into war, so we’re doing exactly the opposite of what we should be doing as a nation. So, college students have a vested interest in my election because there is no one else who is challenging not just this war, but the entire thinking that took us into war in the first place. That’s why I stress so heavily “strength through peace.” You have to have a philosophical and intellectual basis for your policies – not just some off the cuff political speech, but a well thought out programmatic approach that I have integrated into the way that I intend to lead this nation.

C.D.: How do you plan on shedding light on that search for truth when it comes to moderates and conservatives?

D.K.: I think that liberals, moderates and conservatives all want a government that’s honest. I think they want a government that does not waste their money on wars that are based on lies. I think they all support the Constitution of the United Stated and the underlying civil liberties that our Constitution gave birth to. As president, I am ready to unify the country and to address Americans not as members of any particular political group, but as Americans [while] emphasize our oneness – not those things that may divide us.

C.D.: Will you fill in this blank: You are the only presidential candidate who: _____.

D.K.: Led the effort against the war. Voted against the war. Voted 100% of the time against funding the war. Has had a plan out there for years on how to end the war. Who has called for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. Who has called for the US joining the International Criminal Cord, who has authored a security doctrine of “Strength Through Peace.” Who has met with leaders In the Middle East to talk about how we can achieve peace. The candidate who on domestic policies very clearly laid out a thoughtful approach to healthcare for all – a not-for-profit healthcare system Medicare for all that would cover everyone.

C.D.: So we’re talking universal healthcare?

D.K.: Well, everyone talks about universal healthcare. But what all the other candidates are doing is talking about people continuing to pay premiums, co-pays and deductibles. I’m talking about ending that system [so] people don’t get bills at home anymore. Where we’re all covered in a way that every other industrialized democracy is covered.

C.D.: And that could work in our economy, right?

D.K.: Well, of course we’re already paying for this but we’re not getting it. I mean the money’s already there. The question is do we end the system where the insurance companies are milking the American people?

C.D.: Any more answers to that fill in the blank?

D.K.: …[Also] the only candidate who has said that we ought to have a universal pre-kindergarten program paid for by a 15% cut in the bloated pentagon budget. The only candidate who has called for a universal college program …by the government playing a role as Roosevelt did during the depression and spending money into circulation. The only one who has had, for years, a program to rebuild America’s infrastructure… the distinctions between myself and the other candidates could fill a book because I come from an approach to politics which is based on just telling the truth, which really, when you think about it shouldn’t be such an extraordinary thing to do.

C.D.: In one sentence, why should college students vote for you?

D.K.: I stand for their future.

C.D.: I heard you’re a vegetarian. What’s your favorite vegetarian meal?

D.K.: Vegan chocolate cake. To me, that’s a whole food.

C.D.: How about your favorite book?

D.K.: The Constitution.

C.D.: What’s your favorite song?

[After over a minute of pondering, he came up with this answer.]

D.K.: I have to say, “Imagine” – that’s just tremendous. And, let’s see…gosh let me think…I know this’ll sound corny as hell, but from the time I heard it as a kid the Beatles’ song “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”

For more information about Dennis Kucinich visit Dennis4President or join the FAU Students for Kucinich Facebook group.