Good afternoon and welcome to this afternoon's program organized by the Commonwealth Club of California in association with ABC television, KGO news talk radio AM 810 and the Bay Area News group. I am Greg Jarrett KGO radio afternoon news anchor and your chair for Today's program. For information about the Commonwealth Club please visit the website of commonwealthclub.org and if you would take your cell phones and pagers out and turn them off. We don't want any interruptions. During today's program we encourage you to write questions for the discussions on the card you found on your seats and I am sure you have already had ample opportunity to do that. Members of our staffs and volunteers will be handing them out and collecting them throughout the program today. Today's program is being recorded for broadcast on radio and television so I am going to pause for a couple of seconds here and then we will get that portion of the program under way. Good afternoon and welcome to another program in the Commonwealth Club's 2008 Presidential Candidate's Conversation series. Today's program has been organized by the Commonwealth club of California in association with ABC-7 television, KGO news talk radio AM 810 and the Bay Area News group. I am Greg Jarrett, KGO radio news anchor for the after news with Rosie Allen. Today's program features Dennis Kucinich, Ohio Congressman and 2008 democratic presidential candidate. As with all of the presidential candidates appearing before the Commonwealth Club, we have asked congress man Kucinich to engage in a wide ranging conversation rather than giving a tradition speech to you here today. This should allow us to cover the greatest number of issues that are of interest to the American public and all of us who are here today. Let me give you a little bit of brief background on Congressman Kucinich. Dennis Kucinich was born in Cleveland Ohio in October of 1946 and he is the eldest of seven children. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a bachelor of arts and a masters degree in speech and communications. At the age of 31, Mr. Kucinich was elected mayor of his home town of Cleveland Ohio and as such was the youngest person ever elected to be a mayor of a major US city. Congress man Kucinich has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1997 and this is his second run for the Presidency of these United States. Mr. Kucinich voted against funding for the war in Iraq in 2002 and currently advocates and currently advocates the immediate sensation of funding for the war in Iraq. Congress man Kucinich is also in favor of a national health care system, the elimination of the death penalty in this country, the repeal of the Patriot Act and the creation of a Cabinet Level Department of Peace. Today Congressman Kucinich will be in conversation with Joe Epstein President of Sierra steel trading and a member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club of California. Mr. Epstein is also past president of the Commonwealth Club's Board. Now here is the part where you applause Mr. Epstein is a graduate of the University of California at Berkley and serves on the board of advisors of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkley. Ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Joe Epstein. Thank you. Thank you. Well Greg Jarrett, thank you very much for that kind introduction and thank you for being with us today Congressman Kucinich. I can see by reading today's news papers that you are probably enjoying your time in California, may be not the fact that your plane flight was cancelled but you received favorable press from last night's televised forum in Los Angeles which was devoted to gay issues and equal rights. I would imagine that there will be some audience questions today on that topic as well. Also I want to assure you that none of the front runner candidates have had any influence on today's program to try and robe you of your equal time. On the issue of equal time, you are recently quoted to saying that "candidates no matter how important or influential they perceive themselves to be, should not have the power to determine who is allowed to speak to the public and who is not." Today, sir this program is all about you, so why we begin. As the moderator, I will cover a set of topics that the club will discuss with all of the candidates who come before us. And to allow for a coherent conversation, I am going to try a cluster, my questions in three broad groups. Though of course I have a suspect that there will be some overlapping. We are going to try to be forward looking in this discussion, exploring who Dennis Kucinich would be in the white house rather than talking about just the issues in the news papers currently. First who is Dennis Kucinich as a person. What is the stuff of which he has made and what makes him tick, secondly as President how would he contend with the vast array of domestic challenges that we face today and third how would he lead America in our trouble world? And finally the underlying thought in my view of this entire event when our program will be to answer the question what's sets you apart from the other candidates, and why should I vote for you rather than one of the other candidates. So lets start with the conversation between us and then following Commonwealth Club tradition, I will blend in and ask a series of questions that will be gathered from our audience. Lets talk about the man. Tell us a little bit about your youth or the forces that shape you before we knew you on the public stage your family, your up bringing, the influences, that led you to a life of public service. First of all thank you very much for the opportunity to be here and thanks to all of you for your patience and waiting for us we had our flight cancelled but because we know how important it is to be here with you we made other arrangements to get here and I want to thank you for being here and Joe to answer the question. I think it is important that you get some insight into what force is make any of us who would be President of the United States. I grew up in the city of Cleveland the eldest of seven, my parents never owned a home and because we were renters as the family expanded, we kept moving, back then in the 50's, days that have adds in newspapers that would say no children or one or two children, and as the family kept expanding we had trouble finding a place to rent. So we moved and moved and move by the time I was 17, we lived in 21 different places including a couple of cars. And Langston Hughes once wrote a poem where the - where some words that said "life for me haven't been on crystal stair" and there has always a great benefit though and being able to learn the struggles that really every one goes through one way or another. So you can have a way of connecting with a very human experience that a lot of people have. Today in the city of Cleveland I live in a home that I bought in 1971 for $22500 you know in this time of a housing bubble, you can think about that price and and so my values are really grounded and urban experience and a sense of commitment with the family because our family really held together despite all the forces that were trying to tear it part and in a belief in public service which came from not only being the eldest of seven but also from a catholic education where we were taught that our lives did not belong only to our selves but were meant to be shared with others. So my journey has been not just a kind of a physical journey of movement but it has been about a spirit of evolution, about an understanding of how really all one great human family, and I see the responsibility for doing every thing that I can that helps strengthen that family, that helps that the family experience love and that helps elevate that families condition. At the age of 23 you were at the time, the youngest mayor ever in the United States of a major city, but it wasn't all candy and chocolate for you. You had an issue with organized crime and I believe that had to do with that the failure or the desire not to sell Cleveland's municipal utility to a particular business. Could you explain a little bit about that? Sure, first of all when I was elected mayor, I was 31, the youngest person ever elected mayor of a major American city, when I left the office I was about 90, I was elected on a promise, to save Cleveland's municipality on to electric system from a take over by a utility monopoly, the city of Cleveland since the turn of the 20th century, had its own electric system which provided electricity at rates that were some times 25 percent less than the private utility and the private utility had a campaign going for decades where they were trying to put this little utility out of business so they could have a monopoly and charge higher electric rates and no one would know that there is any difference or comparison and so when I ran for mayor, I said I am going to stop this effort to try to privatize utility, I got elected on the promise to do that, my first act in office was to cancel the sale, and that's when the story started. Because the major banks and Cleveland who had investments in the utility and who had business relation ships with the private utility then use their credit and the credit position of the city to try to force me to sell the cities electric system. On December 15th 1978 I was given a an ultimatum by the head of the largest bank in Cleveland which said you are either going to sell that electric system, to this private utility in which that bank and others had a financial interest, or we are not going to renew the city's credits and loans that I haven't even taken out. So that was the moment of decision for me to decide who I was and what I set for, I want to go back to those forces that shaped me growing up in Cleveland because when I was in that board room, with the banker, and he was telling me that this is what you have got to do, my thoughts went back to the time when I was 11 12 years old and one of the many apartments we lived in watching my parents count pennies at the kitchen table, trying to pay the bills, and as I sat in that room with that banker, my thoughts went back to that moment, and I could hear those pennies dropping on that old metal top table, click - click click, and I understood that this office of the mayor that I held, that didn't belong to me, that belong to the people and that I was there to protect their interest, and so I said no to the sale because it matters what people pay for electricity and it matters that people have a government they can call their own and it matters that in those private moments when no one is looking, people know that there is some one that can count on and do the right things and years later the people of Cleveland have saved hundreds of millions of dollars on their energy bills and on city electricity bills because of that the decision I made not to sell so you know it was an important moment So a defining moment in your career, you are not 23 as I said you were 31. And I forgot to mention you know there was an organized prime interest in trying to force me to sell - there were you know few assassination attempts but you know God bless America. Well, we are certainly glad you are here and so with Cleveland behind you, so to speak I would like to know what makes you getup everyday. What inspires you to be doing exactly what you doing to achieve, the job, the most difficult job in the world? You know I can't wait to getup everyday, I mean I just get up with the sense of meeting, the world and not really worrying about what's happening but to spend my time making things happen. Some people dream with their eyes closed, I dream with my eyes open and pour my energy into every moment because I believe that we are here to make a difference, we are here to change the outcome, we are here to use our energies and our talents, our hear and our spirit to engage and to create and so I am always inspired to move forward and also when you are in love, it adds to that and amplifies all of your energies and all of your commitment, so thank you Elizabeth. Well, you are inspired to getup but anyone that is inspired also must have challenges. So what would you say as the toughest challenge that you ever faced and what was that that got you through it? I mean it is you know when I grow up in the city of Cleveland and we kept moving around you know there were times that we didn't know if we have a place to live in sometimes we didn't and I came to experience the daily challenges of life in a way a lot of people do it isn't that there was one moment more significant than others like everyday Our family was concerned you know whether my dad had a job or whether we had place to stay, whether we had food on the table, whether the bills are going to be paid. Is it kind of concerns that people have every day and so it wasn't just that there was one thing, there was a series of things, maybe dozens or 100s of things that were challenges that had to be met and each one, each day gave me an opportunity to be strengthened to not be afraid of not having something because my life developed were things, material things weren't anything that would really rely on those. It became a life about being rather than having and so there was always something more essential job and to my experience then wondering about not having something and the challenges that would come up in a course of a day, any given day were more challenges to the spirit, whether you know whether could really endure and summoned moment and build from it and breathe all that experiences and become a lot stronger. I would have a very hard time answering this next question, and maybe my answer would be Barry Bonds I don't know but from the answer I just gave you can probably summarize the question. Do you have a hero? Some one you really admired living or dead. Well, I can tell you the kind of the people that I admired throughout history. I certainly admired Lincoln in his understanding of the imperative of unity. When he gave a second inaugural, the words "with malice towards none, with charity for all." Really are the hallmarks could be a motto for the international policy that I intend to bring to our country of strength through peace. The courage and equanimity of Gandhi in understanding the economic challenges and social challenges of the people of India and how he understood there was a role for him in helping to bring about that transformation and his knowledge that transformation was not simply about a political evolution but a spiritual one as well. That was a very powerful understanding and you know in more present time, I had a great deal of admiration for Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. He was some one who took that civil rights plank to the 1948 democratic convention and really took a stand on behalf of something that was right, I admire that and then you know there is a person by the name of Dr. Javier Lopez in the city of Cleveland. I want to tell you about him. He is a practicing physician who cares for the poor in the city who still makes house calls, who is dedicated his entire life to caring for people who isn't worried about whether he is going to be paid or not who is there for the people, who understands our health care system needs to be changed but he is someone who is one of my heroes became he is someone who is so in viewed with the sense of love at people and commitment to humanity. So those are the kinds of people that I think about when I think about people that I really admire. When I was reviewing this - that particular question the name Ralph Nader came to mind. In the 2004 campaign later that praise you a genuinely a progressive person said the most greens were very friendly towards you and that they wouldn't run against you if you receive democratic nomination. So my question is if you don't get the democratic nomination, would you ever consider a green party or a third party candidacy? Well, first of all you mentioned Ralph Nader, Ralph Nader and I have known each for more than 30 years and when I was working to save our electric system in Cleveland, Ralph Nader was the only national figure who came to my assistance as a mayor who was really struggling to save a city and I have a great deal of admiration for Ralph Nader and respect for the commitment that he has made with his life for American consumers. I am - I consider myself a green democrat, I consider myself an independent democrat. I consider myself a libertarian democrat when it comes to basic civil liberties and I consider myself a democrat's democrat when it comes to the mainstream issues of jobs for all, health care for all, peace and so I can say that you know I am in this primary and I'm in it to win and I am certainly in it to shift the democratic party in a direction were it actually aligns with the aspirations of people, there was a poll taken within the last week and some of you maybe aware of it because over 70,000 people participated in it. It was a kind of a - you could call a political taste test. You would - the people would take it online would indicate were they stood on issues and then at the end they would hit a button and see which candidate stand up aligning with. 53 percent of the people who took the test found out that they aligned with me and all the other candidates were you know at or near single digits. So you know I am the mainstream candidate in that Democratic Party. I happen to have seen that on the internet as well and it was amazing that although you are not high on the polls to win, you are very very high, higher than any of the other candidates as you said in terms of an alignment with the electric Joe if I may - you know a couple of days ago we had a forum at Soldier's Field the AFL-CIO I don't know if any of you saw it but I had the best response of any of the candidates and yesterday at the form in Los Angeles sponsored by the human rights campaign, I had the best response than any of the candidates at Howard University over a month ago, at the Tavis Smiley forum, best response than any of the candidates, I mean people are responding to the message and they are also responding to someone who answers the question. So - now, ofcourse when that becomes a novelty in politics, it tells you the shape of our politics.
