Kucinich is Tele-Fundraising

The Kucinich campaign has been calling me all week. I’ve come home to find Kucinich for President on my caller ID. I find this odd. I can’t think of anyone or anything I have given to that would make Team Koosh think I’m a good ask.

Today we connected. OK, earlier I answered a call from them but the boiler room switch didn’t work and they dropped to call. Today I got to talk to someone. A nice young man gave me a rap along the lines of:

• Kucinich is the only candidate who voted against the war resolution and has voted against funding the war.

• He also wants to do other thinks like fix health care.

There were other specifics that I don’t remember, but none of the really goofy stuff like ending war in our time or creating a Department of Peace to oversea domestic violence prosecutions. Not even impeaching Dick Cheney made the final script.

I told the kid up front that I wasn’t contributing, but asked a couple questions. Primarily, I wanted to know what call list I showed up on. This hasn’t come up before, but I’ve given money to all of the top 5 candidates – Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson and Biden. Mostly it was nominal amounts to get contributor emails. So its more than a little ironic that one of the few guys I haven’t given money to actually calls.

It’s also interesting that he’s doing this. I don’t know the economics, but it would be pretty amazing to find out that boiler room fundraising for a campaign like this would be cost effective, especially since none of the candidates that I have given money to have done it yet. What’s more, this was a call from number registered a Kucinich for President. It could be a duck blind, but it suggests an in-house operation rather than a contract with a telemarketing firm. If anyone out there with actual knowledge can shed light on mechanics of all this, please share.

As I was talking to this guy he said the main thing they are doing is using the calls to get Kucinich’s message out there since he doesn’t get covered by the mainstream media. Really? Does team Kucinich honestly think the reason no one is buying is that we don’t know what he’s selling? Because everyone I know in his hard left, peace at a all costs base knows Kucinich. When I saw Cindy Sheehan a year ago she said she always gets a standing O when she mentions his name. And the right has spared no expense letting the world know who he is and trying to affix him as a millstone around the neck of the party.

To be sure, there are candidates who are having trouble getting their message out. I know what Richardson stands for only because I’m on his blogger list, but few others do. Chris Dodd is having trouble getting his message out – this I know because his message is a mystery to me. Mike Gravel is having trouble getting his message out – it’s only been recently we learned that his name is pronounced differently that the stuff in the driveway.

But Kucinich having trouble getting the message out? Is that what his team is telling themselves? Or just the underlings?