Posted on Mon, Sep. 10, 2007

The ''next president'' of the United States was late: a mix-up with the guy who was supposed to give him a ride, someone said.

So the faithful drank rum and Cokes from the wet bar at the Hialeah Gardens Howard Johnson's.

They were security guards, retired legal secretaries, union men, veterans of WTO protests and signers of petitions for single-payer healthcare. Most of them belonged to the Miami-Dade chapter of Democracy for America, a political action committee started by Howard Dean after the 2004 election, and they were waiting to hear Dennis Kucinich, Democratic congressman from Ohio and repeat presidential candidate.

The cocktail chit-chat was not light. ''I grew up in a dictatorship,'' said the security guard, Eric Oriol, whose father was murdered by Papa Doc's forces in Haiti. ``Now I'm watching this country turn into [one]. It's almost like living in a nightmare.''

The leading Democratic hopefuls left Oriol cold. ''Obama? He should have been a rock star,'' he said.

Kucinich -- who has introduced bills to end the occupation of Iraq, impeach Vice President Dick Cheney and establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Non-Violence, none as yet made law -- is not rock star material.

He is a short, elfish man who favors bad suits, a competent but not electrifying public speaker who spoke this Saturday night of restoring trust in American politics and ending the occupation of Iraq -- raucous applause lines in any roomful of Democrats -- but seemed more concerned with universal healthcare and NAFTA's impact on American workers, which drew quieter clapping.

Then he fielded questions -- what to do about the epidemic of foreclosures, the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup, will you pose for a picture with my husband?

It was suggested to him that he was a very unusual candidate. There is nothing necessarily wrong with a vegan who wants to establish a Department of Peace, but such a man is easily caricatured.

''Imagine,'' said Kucinich, ``a president who is truly healthy, who always has clarity of vision... My blood pressure is consistently 90 over 60, my blood tests are right on the money. My cholesterol level is better than perfect. My weight is consistently 139, 140. I'm in better shape than people half my age. I have the ability to work 18 hours a day, if I have to... I have a grain-based diet. I have enormous amounts of energy. Enormous!''

As for the Department of Peace: ''Domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse -- it's ruining families,'' he said. ``There's violence in schools, racial violence, violence against gays. It's a national emergency. We have a Virginia Tech every day with gun violence. We need to address it.''

The most recent polls suggest Kucinich has the support of 1 to 3 percent of Democratic voters; there is a good chance he may not, in fact, be the next president of the United States, or even the Democratic candidate for that job. But nobody ever got this far without confidence.

''I wouldn't be in this race if I didn't intend to win,'' he said.

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