On April 29th, Dennis Kucinich brought his '08 presidential campaign to the Justice gym on the University of NC Asheville campus where over 700 people gathered to learn exactly what makes this candidate different from all the rest who are seeking the Democratic nomination.

Universal Health Care - Other candidates advocate a universal health care plan that would help Americans obtain insurance that will give them the same access to health care that is enjoyed by those fortunate few who can afford to pay the premiums. That's not good enough for Dennis. He says that such plans are tantamount to offering to subsidize the health insurance industry and the skyrocketing cost of medical care. He advocates a "universal, single-payer" plan that would eliminate the brokerage of the insurance companies and raise the percentage of the money spent on healthcare that actually pays for health care rather than corporate salaries. More important to me is that his plan would restore the power to choose to the person seeking care rather than allowing the insurance companies to dictate what kinds of care are covered and who is "entitled" to care.

War in Iraq - Other candidates advocate withdrawal from Iraq; they differ slightly in their timetable for the withdrawal and the "terms" they are willing to grant to the people of Iraq for restitution and revitalization, and they are still willing to use funding for the occupation as leverage to impose their timetable and their peacemaking process. Dennis makes it very clear that ALL funding for the occupation should be discontinued since the money for an orderly withdrawal is already earmarked. And he is the only candidate who would fully empower the world community and world courts, not the US Congress, to set the terms. He is the only one who will acknowledge how badly we've blown it and how badly we need to take our place as "a nation among nations" rather than as the "world's only superpower" - which we're not, any more than we enjoy the best quality of life, the highest technological level, or any of the other superlatives that the establishment uses to feed our complacency.

Election Reform - Other candidates admit that our election system is flawed, but they tend to stop at "paper ballots" and insuring transparency about campaign financing. Dennis has proposed a constitutional amendment to insure that elections are 100% publically financed. That means only people and not corporations can donate to campaigns. And he walks his talk - he will not accept funding from corporations and puts a ceiling on even the amount of contribution he will accept from an individual.

Of course, there's more, but those are the three "hot" issues for election '08. For more details, please see www.kucinich.us.