I wish Dennis Kucinich was a cartoon

Dennis Kucinich
Originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman

I was over on Boing Boing this afternoon and followed this link to a page called "Pick Your Candidate".

They have a list of issues (Iraq War, Stem-Cell Research, Guantanamo, Torture, Immigration, Education etc...) you fill in the questions with your opinion - the page does the math and figures out which candidates take positions most similar to yours, as well as most opposite to yours. It's a great way to find out about candidates who may or may not deserve your vote in the upcoming presidential election.

In my case, Dennis "Long Shot" Kucinich was my best match. My second best was Mike "who?" Gravel, followed not-too-closely in third place by Barack Obama.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the candidate with positions the furthest away from mine was Duncan Hunter (He's anti-abortion / pro-death penalty / anti-stem cell research / pro-torture / pro-bomb Iran / anti-Universal Health Care / anti-minimum wage increase etc etc etc...) He scares me, but I'm not too worried about him actually getting anywhere near the nomination, much less the election.

On the other hand, Kucinich thrills me and I'm worried that he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell. In what's the Kucinich campaign is calling a "blind taste test" of the American public - Kucinich is the first choice of 53% of the people who fill out the questionnaire at "Pick your Candidate". But according to a recent Newseek poll, Kucinich has the support of about 2% of the electorate.

Given the difference between these two sets of numbers, I can't help but feel that if Kucinich was an actor - or a cartoon character - more people would feel comfortable voting for him.